Block Island (CVE 106) - Naval Cruise Book

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A Mix r .. Y -Ns. an ,AA X Qi THE 'TOR' I THE M5 INCH GREAT GU The gunnery divisions on our ships have made splendid rec. ords although they have seldom had to fire in defense of their vessel. CVE 2l. had two live-inch thirty-eights manned on the fantailg ten twin forty-millimeter guns arranged about the flight deck catwalks and on the fantail. Twenty-seven twenty. millimeter guns were located on the flight deck and lower sponsons. These guns showed accuracy in drill. In actual combat in the Atlantic the guns were trained on submarine attacks. Star shells from their barrels guided planes on patrol, CVE 106 had more firing power. In addition to the usual two five-inch guns on the fantail, there were 3 quadruple forty- millimeter mounts, two on the stern and one on the forecastle. Twelve twin 40 millimeter guns were located in gun sponsons at the sides of the ship. Twenty twenty-millimeter guns pro- vided close range protection from the catwalks along the flight deck. As in the first USS BLOCK ISLAND, the gunnery depart- ment made a fine showing. Since planes did not break through our air screen at Okinawa it was never necessary to fire other than practice rounds. Firing at bogies in Ulithi proved the efficiency of our gun crews. On the way back to San Diego, after leaving Pearl Harbor that last time, the record of the guns was unusually high for ships of this class. When the gunnery department was not actually on watch at their stations, they were busy about the ship. It is a job to maintain guns but the men found time also toskeep many spaces of the ship in first class condition. ffm THE CUNNICRS ANU TIIICIR S'I'RlKlqRg

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THE H-2 CATAPULT RADAR, which made this war as safe and as dangerous fdepend- ing upon how you look at itj as it was, is of first importance on a carrier. To understand the radar We need only know that certain radio waves or pulses traveling with the speed of light f186,000 miles per secondj bounce when they hit an object in their paths. Twenty years ago, two men, experimenting with radio waves in Washington, D. C., discovered a distortion in receiving radio signals and that that distortion was due to a small steamship in the Potomac. From this it became obvious that if an object is squarely facing the source from which radio beams are sent, they will bounce back to the source. The most familiar use of radar was the PPI fPlan Position Indicatorj, a round fluorescent glass disc the face of a cathode ray tube, D Arresting Gear - Catapult The BLOCK ISLAND drew a GGWELL DONE from the Commander, Task Unit on 20 May 1945 when it launched 8 planes in four minutes, starting only 14 minutes after the order was received. During the war this ship launched 3,447 planes. Only 493 of these were fly aways. The others were launched by the H-2 and giant H-4 catapults, gigan. tic hydraulic guns capable of firing a 19,600 pound air- plane into the air at 75 miles an hour. Lt. jg H. L. Lin. quist received a commendation from Admiral Chester Nimitz, ComCinPac. for his maintenance and operation of the catapults aboard. The FBI catapults showed higher efficiency than similar installations on other ships. AR on which a constantly changing topographical chart appeared. This showed approaching ships and improved navigation as it would reveal the location and types of land nearby. IFF flden- tification, Friend or Foej came second. The ship's radar picks up approaching planes on its screen. Unable to tell through the overcast darkness whether it is an enemy plane or one of its own, the station sends out an interrogating pulse. If the plane is friendly, its IFF transmitter is triggered off by the plane and proceeds, without human operation, to send out a coded signal. The BTO Q Bombing Through Overcastj, jokingly called tl1e HBig Time Operator guides the planes and tells the pilot exactly when to begin his bomb run. The radar man's job is a big one and highly technical but the results pay off. COMBAT INFORMATION CONTROL THF M.A.A. FORCE