Franklin (CV 13) - Naval Cruise Book

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faded as the bombers went into their dive. Tense minutes passed. Then pride leaped in every heart as a voice from the radio said: Check off one big fiat-top that just spun in. ' Later, back on the ship, Comdr. Kibbe, in one of his reports to Franklins crew, told how Lt. Skinner, Lt. Swede Hal- strom, Lt. Broach, Lt. Hoyt and half a dozen other dive- bomber pilots had scored direct hits on the big carrier. For a few minutes it had seemed indestructible. Then, almost too suddenly, the Zuiho sank. Over the radio came reports from the south. The old bat tieships and destroyers of the Seventh Fleet, aided by PT boats, had nearly annihilated the Japanese First Fleet, of two battleships, some cruisers and destroyers that had been engaged while trying to force the Suragaio Straits during The Japanese carrier Chitose, ju st before she went down. . . 4 Big Bens Bombers helped sink her The Chitose was sunk by planes from Big Ben and other air groups from the task force . . . This picture was taken by plane from Enterprise, shortly before she ivas struck on starboard side, aft, by another torpedo . . . Two bomb hits may be observed in deck and another hit aft, with fire hose in use

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38.3, both of wliich were now under heavy air attack from the Japanese Third Fleet ' s ])lanes — in this action tlie light carrier Princeton was lost. Admiral Halsey had decided quickly. He was hurrying the ta.sk groups of his Third Fleet northward to engage this new threat, leaving the seven old battleships with their escorting cruisers and deslrovers. along with Admiral Kinkaids baby flat-tops, to protect the shipping in Leyte (jull. So in the evening of October 24th, Fmnklin and her com- rades were speeding northward. {)ast the escort carriers cruis- ing 50 miles of! the entrance to Leyte Gulf, for a rendezvous with the other groups. During the night two more new battle- ships joined her screen — now boasting the super-battle- wagons South Dakota, Alabama, and Washington. That night the search planes kept contact with the Jajj carrier task force until 3:30 a.m. An hour before dawn the bugles called battle stations; the Japs were somewhere to the north, about 100 miles away. Half an hour later a sixteen plane combat air patrol was iaunclied; at 6:3(1 twelve bomb- ers and eight tor|)edo planes took the sky to lly northward. They had orders to circle at a distance of ,50 miles from liig Ben while awaiting word from the search ])laiics which were now combing the ocean. Meanwhile, a second deckload ol bondiers and fighters was armed. At 7:30 the Japanese I ' leet was sighted, M) miles east ol Franklin s circling l)ombers. There were four carriers, the y.uikiiku, C.hitosv, Zuiho, and Chiyoda. Two battleships with Might decks, the Hyugu aiid Ise, steamed with them, sur rounded by a dozen cruisers and destroyers. The orders were Hashed out for attack. Hellcats from another air group hur- ried to the scene to cover Big Ben ' s airmen as they hurtled in. Seventeen enemy fighters were in the air over their car- riers and they fought desperately to save them. An Avengei piloted by Ens. Thomas P. Brooks, Jr., of Concord, Mass., w ith aircrewman Harold J. Shane, of York, Pa., and Francis J. Ploger, of (Jrand Rapids. Mich., spun down to the sea in a fatal water landing. But the bombers bored in. A few min- utes before u:00, Comdr. Kibbe ' s voice on the radio said: We are going down on a big carrier. Looks like it ' s trying to turn into the wind to launch. The voices on the radio w I he Jupuiifse I ' hird Fleet, under heavy air iittaek. throws Uj) flak . . . The currier to the lejl is hard hit

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tlie niglit. Few Japanese warships siirvivt ' d this action, lint the Japanese Second Fleet, that had lu ' cri pounded hy air- craft from Big Ben and other llat-tops the preeedinji after- noon, came on through the Straits of San Hernanlino — miiiiis a battleship and several cruisers — and was now drawing within gun range of tiie lightly protected escort carriers. The hahy llat-tops. with only destroyers in the screen, few planes aboard, and low on honihs. were in a desperate position. The heavy guns of the l)altleshii)s coulil sink a dozen small carriers in as many niitnites. Admiral Halsey dispatched Task Group 38.1, which was nearing the Philip])ines, to their aid. Word was soon received that an attack had been launched against the Jap battlewagons which would hit the Nips at about 1 :00 p.m. In the meantime, the Near miss on Jap destroyer, uhile i lifilit cruiser suerves jrantically. all guns blazing . . . Fifteen minutes later the destroyer was sunk by one of Franklin ' s bombs, delivered by Lt. ijg) Harding, of Bombing Thirteen ► : , ' Ihese three liids. shot down near the Jap Third Fleet, were not found when rescue planes reached the scene