Lexington (CV 16) - Naval Cruise Book

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THEN AND NOW 7!1-6 dzvwei as an instrument for waging war and as an historian in recording the war. Carried in planes flying over enemy territory it becomes the eyes of the military planning staff and is considered a reliable-and is sometimes the only accurate-means of obtaining informa- tion. An army deprived of aerial photography would be like a blindfolded prize fighter in the ring. When military plans go into operation, combat photographs made on the ground and from the air record without emotion or prejudice what the lens saw. This accurate and speedily recorded instant is of immediate and permanent historical value. Following an unsuccessful attack on our carrier, the U .S.S. Lexington, by three enemy torpedo planes, there was considerable variation in the descriptions of just what happened and how by competent officers who had observed the attack. Later, when the photographs that were made on our ship and other ships in the task group were assembled and studied, it was found that most of these eye-witness reports were inaccurate. When a report from the Pacific reached the Navy Depart- ment that carrier planes had sunk the japanese super-battleship Yamato, some kept on saying Yes. maybe, until the photographs of the action arrived. ln addition to serving the military forces the combat photographs vividly supplement written reports that serve the press and through them the people of the nation. No event in human history has had as many cameras looking it over as VVorld VV ar ll. lt was not a centrally planned or organized project but by the sheer force of their numbers and their eager. reckless enthusiasm combat cameramen piled up the vast and ponderous mass of photographic documents now stacked away in boxes and filed in cabinets. lt will take decades to find and unravel the tactical and the human stories they contain. ln the great overall image of the war this book represents only a tiny, tiny fragment. ln a sense Y , M 1,1 -, .

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-'f- ,, COPYRIGHT, 1947, BY EDWARD J. STEICHEN All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form. first edition v 'PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 'A' 'lr DESIGNED BY LT. RICHARD GARRISON USNR 1 .fr

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each fragment is the image of the whole and in the combat gamble of life and death a tiny fragment of shrapnel can snuff out the aspirations, the ideals, and the life of the boy who had just become a man, with the same finality as an atomic bomb. The terror of the atomic bomb is the terror of war . . . the monstrous multiplying factor of death. One of the several fine photographers in my photographic unit, Lt. Victor Iorgensen, was with me on the carrier U .S .S . Lexington for this operation. We usually photographed independently and in different parts of the ship but on occasion we worked together, alternating as cameraman and helper. On some of the interiors he worked the camera and I held the lights, then I would shoot the pictures and he would handle the Hash bulbs. My own photographs in the book are supplemented by some of Vic's, some we made together, and a few by air-crewmen and photographer's mates with the task force. On some shots I used a Kao aerial camera, I also used a Speed Graphic and an Ikonta, but most of my photographs were made with a Medalist camera. Vic's favorite camera was a Rolli- flex. The occasional cropping on some of the pictures as they appear here was to conform with Lt. Garrison's overall plan in the design of the book. The footage for the Naval Aviation film project referred to in the text was later made into a great feature motion picture by Louis De Rochemont under the aegis of Twentieth Century-Fox and went out to the world as The Fighting Lady. Some of the finest footage in the film was shot during this operation by another of my young officers, Lt. Comdr. Dwight Long, working on the U.S.S. Yorktown, and our film cameramen on other ships of the task force. To Rear Admiral I. G. Clark, who was then Captain of the Yorktown, goes a special salute for the great way he backed up our photographic projects. The skipper of the Yorktown made The Fighting Lady possible. For my days on the Lexington, I am grateful for the warm cordiality extended to me by Rear Admiral Felix Stump, then skipper, who later furthered a distinguished career as flag oflicer in command of a victorious carrier division at Leyte Gulf. To the Exec, who later as Captain Bennet l V1