Franklin (CV 13) - Naval Cruise Book

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with American youth, headed in waves toward the shore. Three hundred dive-bombers and torpedo planes were ex- ploding destruction on Japanese lines, a thousand yards from the beaches. As the first landing barges grounded and the troops began to pour ashore, the Japs opened up. Bui a special strike squadron from every carrier in the force had been waiting for just this. Now those Hellcats and Hell- divers stormed down on enemy trenches, on mortars, on mobile artillery and on tanks, enshrouding them with lead and explosives. By 10 a. m. the first wave of troops was a mile inland and the tanks were coming ashore. Throughout the day the ca])tain kept Franklins men in- formed of the invasions progress. Army officers, who had expressed themselves as uneasy, a few hours before, were now filling the radio with such fervent remarks as Your support of landing well timed and effective . . . Heavy air strikes during the last four days and especially today iiave left nothing to be desired. There were few spoken words among the men of Big Ben about what had gone on ; Mech ' looked at plane captain, engineer looked at gunner, and grinned. But here the feeling was born that Big Ben was earning her jdace as a fighting unit to be classed with the best. The day after the invasion of Guam. Big Ben distributed her last bombs in two final strikes by Air Group Thirteen and set her course for Saipan, where Japanese and Marines were still locked in a struggle to the death. At sunset, Franklin anchored in the open roadstead off Saipan. dis- dainful of the nearby enemy, to go through the ordeal of loading bombs and rockets from a supply ship in a tossing sea. Throughout the night artillery flashed on Tinian, six miles away, and flares lit the mountains of Saipan. By 6:30 a. m. more than a hundred tons of bombs and rockets were aboard. Three minutes after the last bomb touched the deck. Big Ben weighed anchor and was bound south with the task group to meet the tanker fleet and refuel at sea. Task Grouj) 58.2 was now joined by the two other task groups which had assisted in the leveling of Guam. As Task Force 58, without any decimal points, the merged groups became a fleet which could sink any navy in the world. Westward and south it steamed, for the islands of the Palau Group. The words in the air for weeks had been : Next the Philippines, but the key islands in the Palau chain must be conquered as bases before that invasion could be attempted. This cruise, the mission of Task Force Fifty- eight was primarily reconnaissance, secondarily the de- struction of enemy aircraft, shipping and installations. Big Ben had been assigned a full share of all objectives. On July 25th, Franklin s flying fighters were swarming all over the islands of Babelthaup, Koror, Arakabesan and Malakal. Three enemy planes were knocked down; the air- strip at Babelthaup was demolished; a small oiler, a lugger, and a cargo ship were sunk. Ens. J. J. Jimmy ' ' Langford. Jr.. in his Hellcat, made a photographic run over Babelthaup which won him the Distinguished Flying Cross. Five times, on a straight course, at one thousand feet and through in- tense flak, he roared across that island to accomplish his mission. During tli iiext two days nearly two hundred and fifty combat and |)hotogra])hic sorties were flown from Big Ben. Two bombers were lost in combat but their crews were saved. Two fighters were lost, and Ens. Robert H. Martin, of Rutherford, N. J., died in one of them as he crashed into the sea while landing. The other pilot was saved. The mission accomplished, the task force swung eastward on July 28th, then north on a course to Saipan. Captain Shoemaker had a message of appreciation for the crew. In the Franklin Foriim, he reminded his men that he had told them in Newport they would be in the Pacific war with Big Ben in six months. He was proud that Big Ben was here, proven ready for battle, carrying out the same assignments as veteran carriers, and equally well. Proud too, he was, of Big Bens offensive weapon, its super-long- range battery, Air Group Thirteen. But. to quote him ver- batim, without a smart, efficient ship, the air group would be impotent — unable to show its high quality; and without a highly competent air group the most experienced carrier would be ineffective. That is why I have repeatedly stated that none of us in the Franklin has a non-essential job, be- cause the bombs and the bullets that the airplanes carry won ' t hit the Japs with scheduled regularity unless all hands carry out our duties with courage and determination. As your command ing officer, I want you to know you have all lived up to my greatest expectations and that, come what may. I have complete confidence in you . . . The Franklin already had another assigned mission when Task Group 58.2 arrived off Saipan and dropped anchor in Garapan Roadstead August 1st to take aboard bombs, rockets and fuel. She would join Rear Admiral J. J. Jocko Clark ' s Task Group 58.1 and jiroceed to Iwo Jima to destroy enemy aircraft and shipping in the vicinity of the Bonin Islands, which must be kept ineffective if the invasion of the Mari- ainias was to proceed successfully.

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■ ' H ti ' William Day! The invasion beach as it looked to Biii Ben ' s pilots on July Hist . . . Troops and tanks are ashore

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This damaged Hellcat came ba-ck jrom Chichi Jinui August Sth. a tribute to the American uorkmen who built it and to the American boy who flew it . . . Lt. (jg) Joseph W iednuin ' eathei- at the aiicliorage was foul, but forty sacks ol mail from home did manage to come aboard. Now, after weeks of waiting, Ed Pyktel, S2c, would find out whether or not he was father of twins; and Durrance, CSF; Hasiuk. Sic; Messick, S2c; Lange, ACMM; Ellis, MM2; Meade. CMM; Harvey, EM3c; Russell, SK2c; Rose, EM3c; Pay Clerk Fowler and Lt. D. S. Smith all awaited mail call for a favorable report on the boys they were expecting. Meade and Messick alone drew girls, hut their relief was just as apparent, their smiles were just as high, wide and handsome, and their delivery of cigars just as graceful and earnest as the other chest-expanding papas. Now came the mission, after the weather had cleared and loading was completed. Big Ben joined her comrades: the carrier Hornet, flagship; the light carrier afco ,- the crusiers Santa Fe, Mobile, Biloxi and Oakland. In the screen steamed twelve destroyers; valiant workhorses of the fleet, deserving more than honorable mention. Tlie Maury, Craven, Gridley, Helm, McCall. hard. Cahrette, Bell, Burns, Boyd, Bradford and Brown filled the dangerous stations on the outer circle. The force sped for the Bonins. and for the second time within a month, enemy search planes failed to detect a pow- erful carrier force approaching the islands. At 9:30 the morning of August 4th, a powerful fighter sweep again sur- prised the Japs. ])rowled about on reconnaissance, strafed shipping and airfields, played havoc in general, mostly without effective opposition. A Japanese convoy of five large cargo vessels, eight to ten barges and luggers, with an escort of four or five destroyers, was discovered steaming northward for the mainland of Japan, near the island of Ototo Jima. There were also seven or eight large cargo ships in the harbor of Futami Ko. at Chichi Jima. A light cruiser was underway, leaving the harbor. Thirty-five of Big Ben ' s pbuies took immediate flight and tore into the cruiser and the shi|xs in the harbor. Ens. Jack Kehoe registered a damaging hit on the cruiser ' s bridge, despite the vessel ' s frantic defensive maneuvers. Other ves- sels were left burning. Hurriedly twenty more j)lancs, half of them dive-bomber.s. thundered from Big Ben ' s flight deck in swift pursuit of the