Lexington (CV 16) - Naval Cruise Book

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The Lexington tops-off the Ault, one of her screen ot destroyers. This was a matter of routine every two or three days: by the end of the war, task groups were topping oft destroyers within sixty miles of Iapcm.

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vo one again on Formosa on Ianuary 21, the other the next day on Okinawa, after which the force finally retired. After steaming 9758 miles, the Lexington dropped anchor again at Ulithi on lanuary 27, On Ianuary 30 Captain Litch, who had com- manded the ship since April 1944, was relieved by Captain Thomas H. Robbins, and on the following day Ftear Admiral R. E. Davison relieved Rear Admiral Bogan of command of the group, now once more Task Group 53.2. This series of replacements was completed when Air Group 20 was relieved two days later by Air Group 9. When the force steamed out again on February 10, Air Group 9, new to the ship and to combat, was electrified to learn that their first operation was to be the first strike by the fleet against Tokyo itself, undertaken in support of the landings on lwo lima slated to begin on February 19. The airfields assigned to the Task Group were to the east and southeast of the city. The first fighter sweep, on the morning of February 16, quickly discovered, from the absence of airborne opposition or AA fire, that the enemy had not been forewarned, Clouds, rain squalls and low visibility over the launching area helped the force achieve surprise. Opposition soon increased, however, until by the end of the day Air Group 9 had shot down 25 enemy planes in the air, as well as eighteen on the ground. The success of the day was marred for air group and ship by loss of the Air Group Commander, P. H. Torrey, lr. On the following day, after two fighter sweeps had been launched, further operations were can- celled because of unfavorable weather reports, and the force retired to the vicinity of lwo lima. There during the next few days they sent planes on direct support missions over the Acre of Hell, rearming at sea on the 20th. BACK IN THE STATES The force moved back to Tokyo on February 23, but nearly all future operations were nullified by continuously bad weather. Three strikes were launched on February 25, but the targets were found closed in. Finally on March l the force attacked the Nansei Shoto fthe chain of islands that includes Okinawal. The Lexington was assigned three small islands in the Amami Gunto tnorth of Okinawal, where only a few planes were discov- ered, and the day was chiefly spent in attacks on shipping. The following day the force retired once more, arriving at Ulithi on March 5. On the same day Rear Admiral Davison dis- embarked, and preparations were made for a return to the United States, the first since February 1944, for routine overhaul. Air Group 9 was transferred and replaced by Air Group 3, aboard for trans- portation home. On March 7 the ship left Ulithi and Rearming at Sea, 1945. Bombs are swung from an ammunition ship to the Lexington. within range of Iapanese aircraft. By 1945. the Navy was practically independent ot ports except for rest and maior overhaul. Reiueling at Sea, 1943. This was the secret weapon that made the Navy's far-flung Pacific operations possible. Vlith an occasional rendezvous with tankers. a task force could keep at sea for months at a time.

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proceeded via Eniwetok and Pearl I-Iarbor back to Bremerton, Washington, entering the Puget Sound Navy Yard on March 31, The first leave party dis- embarked the next morning. THE THIRD ROUND During April and the first half of May, 1945, the Lexington underwent extensive overhaul at the Navy Yard. On May 18 the ship left Seattle for Alameda, California. There she took aboard planes and passengers for Pearl Harbor, including Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd, and on May 29 departed for the third time from the United States for combat duty. At Pearl I-Iarbor her new air group, Air Group 94. reported aboard, bringing with them the first squad-e ron of Corsairs to operate from the Lexington. After a week of training exercises off Oahu, the Lexington, as a unit of Task Group 12.4, departed on Iune 13 for Leyte. Intensive training exercises enroute cul- minated in a one-day strike on Wake Island on Iune 20, designed to provide combat experience for the pilots, and to weaken the morale of the isloated Iapanese garrison. The Lexington alone dropped 63 tons of bombs and fired 470 rockets on the feebly resisting sandspit. Shortly after, a Iapanese hospital ship evacuated some 1000 sick and wounded and very defeated Nips. Continuing westward from Wake Island, the ship anchored on Iune 26 in San Pedro Bay, Leyte, Philippine Islands. Tl-IE KNOCKOUT On Iuly l the Lexington departed from Leyte as a unit of Task Group 38.1, one of the three task groups comprising Task Force 38. At that time she could not know that when next she dropped anchor it would be in Tokyo Bay, three days after the sur- render of Iapan. The Task Force moved directly northward for operations against the main Iapanese islands. The first nine days were used in intensive training enroute to the target. On the 10th of Iuly the Task Force struck the Tokyo area. I In certain respects this day set the pattern for the weeks to come. The primary mission was and continued to be the destruction of Iapanese planes in the air and on the ground. On this day, as on all succeeding days, the Iapanese refused to take to the air to protect the I-lomeland. Although on ensuing days half-hearted attacks against units of the Task Force were made by enemy planes, individually and in small groups, no airborne opposition was at any time encountered by our planes, and the ship's guns never opened fire. 4 , - - ' I . . N, X ' . -AX 4 Father E. T. Cope reads the burial service for those who died on November 5, 1944.