Bunker Hill (CV 17) - Naval Cruise Book

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... -,,,.'.,-:i:1m1m.,.n...-.w--,,,f:u- . .,. .,... -aw, 0.3-9a.L,s.m..2..:a-1.-,e.'z. - a-visiting: Cairo and Teheran. We also saw that the Russian Army had moved n1netCCI1 miles on a fifty-mile front in five days, that General MacArthur staged ea surprise party at Araweg that the Apennines were blazing with artillery fire. Nostalgic reminders of Christmas came in letters that caused senti- mental hangovers. But most of all we could be proud that the New Year saw us on a wide winning leg of the war. It was mid-January and the Bunker Hill once more put to sea. Our force ranged north and east to join what sail locker strategians were predicting to be the greatest battle armada in the history of sea power. The Hrst plan we got a glimpse of was so vast that, in comparison, the Gilberts cam- paign was dwarfed. We rendezvoused with battlewagons and cruisers, more carriers and more destroyers. From horizon to horizon the sea gleamed with bright new men-of-war, manned by proud sailors. The'Bunker Hill's crew viewed these feats in shipbuilding with experienced, appraising eyes: they were now battle veterans who knew what it felt like to face the enemy-time and again. Some of the more composed were inclined to stifle a yawn, while looking at the ship's chrono- meter spin us onward, saying, uninspired, Another operation, another operation. Bolstering our role of importance in the Marshall game lineup were two ace news- papermen who boarded the ship in Santo, APman Spencer Davis, veteran desk man of the San Francisco Bureau, and Scripps-How- ard's and America's Raymond Clapper, whose columns back home were devoured by Presi- dent and partisan alike. You could see them on the flight deck, along the gallery walkways, up and down the island structure-making notes, chatting with the men, andhthen re- tiring to their rooms to write inspired storie of what America's youthful seamen and air men were contributing to a drama whose im- mensity staggered the layman's imagination, D Day in the Marshalls was set for Jan- uary 31, and out strikes began on the twenty- ninth. Captain Ballentine warmed up tg the S 128 .u.4',. , . ,M I .. ,,a,--..........-.,, .t . Q-u... I - ...-.1-1.-m,.g........,e..z,.... f public address mike several days before the gampaign began, expressing his appreciation for the enthusiastic and dogged support his men had given . . . We're going up to enjoy the trade winds around the Marshall Islands, he concluded. The Bluejackets laughed and bent to their tasks. The Old Man'll go anyway, they were saying among themselves, and we'll go right with him. J Just after 0500 on D Minus Two Day the first bomb left its bay from a Bunker Hill HeQldiver over Kwajelein and fF.beye, and once more the war was on. All day long the heavily-laden flying workhorses rose from our deck, and explosions over Nip-held territory reverberated down the main street of Toyko. Then came incendiaries, and then came holi- day colors-it was President Roosevelt's Birthday-and then came those awful head- ache hangovers that Japanese defenders were finding commonplace up and down their outer perimeter. From Kwajelein we moved north to Eniwetok, where it was believed that the wily Jap would be staging plane-attacks out over our sea forces. Cur guess was 100 per- cent on, for strafing Hellcats caught Eniwe- tok's runways shimmering with a combination of brand new Bettys and early morning light. Equal destruction was rained down on neigh- boring targets of Parry, Engebi, and Ulangi, and Tojo's first team never had a chance. The trade Winds felt soft and warm against watchstanders' faces, the hot breath of TNT' blistered the hapless defenders of the Mar- sha1l's hintermost atoll. Just as every successful operation must take its toll, so the Marshall campaign visited tragedy into our ranks. Thirteen memb6fS of Air Group Seventeen made Supreme Saff' 155068, and Raymond Clapper Hew t0 his death with the torpedo squadron's colorful Skipper, Lieutenant Commander Frank Whit' akefs H noted pilot throughout the PacifiC- AIWEWS there to gather first-hand information, Mr. Clapper had flown over the Eniwetck target area with Commander Whitaker to wit- ness a bombing run by TBFS. The Skippfifis plane collided in mid-air with his wingmfma -Q ' . wg . .-.4 134 s it-all 1 . i

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,- ' ' - . L+ ... - M,,,-..- vdzi.-ff - :zz , f1 g-fafff:-ffif - N XX : 1 T--4 1,--f :f F we-1 i7 W 4 l l ff - XX 'Tig ' 1Sn5 X-L'?-sm A X '54, X --.. A fg XXX, 'ff 13+- W5 Ameche invented the airplane. Other fighters took their tolls, and the torpedo planes, bom- bers and lighters from our Air Groups left two cruisers in sinking condition. It was a hit parade day for Bomber Skipper Moe Vose's Helldivers. Only dark spot of the day came when it was reported that our shipmate Lieutenant George Freed and Chief Photog- rapher's Mate H. C. Sharkey were shot down over the target. They were following their duty to the utmost, and it ended in death. That we were leaving Kavieng the next day was not bad news to the Bunker I-Iill's crew. While eager to smack the laps, they were also eager to get a good night's sleep, a New Year's dinner, and some more mail from the S and S twins. We steamed toward our island paradise, a veritable New York, a pos- sible mecca, a damned good place for relax- ing. That steering trouble again. You won't believe it, but the next day found us headed back for what had to be our hometown, Kavieng. One bluejacket remarked that it reminded him of Baltimore: once he got there he could never get out. A January 4 dateline in American news- papers several days later noted tersely that a fast carrier force had struck Kavieng, New Ireland, for the third successive blow. Big headlines screamed about the Government's taking over railroads, while other heads told of American airforces plastering Germany. We guessed we weren't very large frogs in this big pond. Oh well, Admiral Santa Claus had said we were doing marvelously. We believed in him. This time the boys found a pair of destroyers among the list of arrivals since we last saw K-. Torpedo hits, bomb hits and near misses by the Bunker Hil1's and another carrier's airmen left both ships sink- ing at the harbor entrance. Losses of the day included Ensign Bugs Beedle, fighter pilot, who was lost to Jap fighters. His loss was partially revenged by stellar marksmanship on the parts of Don Runyon and H. F. Hol- man, a TBF gunner, who got a Zeke apiece. January 5, 1944. No kidding, this time we were headed for port. MARSHALLS It was good to be home again. The Skipper urged us to go ashore and do a bit of re- creating, and it didn't take but the one in- vitation to send the bluej ackets swarming over the side, into landing barges steered by bronzed, wiry coxswains, off to make a liberty beachhead. Intermingled with the few days of relaxation was the same routine of work-reloading supplies and stores, taking on bigger and better bombs, some of which the sailors were already inscribing with: From Gilbert to Marshall, Tokyo Rose, listen to this, it'll kill you, . A hot kiss for the betrayers,' the pseudo captionists went on into the night . . . which was generally sultry and noiseless. There was that mailman again, too. He sent letters from New York to our base in ten days and lessg he flew magazines and min- iature newspapers into our hands, and we read that our,Comma-ndernin Chiefhadmbeen i 1

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Lieutenant Cjgl Ed Stack, and all were plunged as a mass funeral pyre into the blue lagoon. Whitaker's regular crewmen, Sill and Toothaker, followed their skipper to their deaths, as did Stack's crew, Moins and Well- baugh. It was a hard series for the Bunker Hill, for also lost during the operation was Lieutenant Mark Mowry, devout fighter pilot f - - - ' ' , .gurzggg:::4:::::: ':i':,airi.,-..... - 4,5-gf? j , V, 1 ..::ggiE::.':: '- K X Q is ,, L .-...- , N-K W yd, . -rr--rwft --1-g-.,,,,.J-,Y .ma-.-,,.,,,M.. nie,-,., .-.. lfjfff ,-- F, 5, 533 f,-f'g',f',,, ,, qw. X- 'sf A f f 1 -. f 2? . ?1a?1'Wf I, Q.. IJ' st.:- 1Kg1,.:4-5f.'x uf Ativgglglfyllni T a 'Z Ip. - ' fi ' F S .l.,.a-:j5:1 f ' ,, -.'r'XN-,W l - -. -.-, .. -212.1 or D f ' -- ' .J v - , fi W---fo 'q , 4 -5. -V ,,a--.- p L, 5' C ' ' ,,Qi,Ql:' bgfl'-w,'T , f 1,,. .L , i . --9-1 -ie ' 4' as--.ii A b-.. - ,. ' '- 24.6 ',f ,---A , yi. N- - MT I lv,1,iFfj,. ,Elf 1 fx A -fn 'f' -- 4' f-'X-.-1-ay i -'sf' -ij' :Grier T . ix. H X 'Q 'Lg' tlligi' -ff V,,. ' -,I ia- A j 'iii f .- - ., r -,g f A-ff V, ,.. L. vw. nm, 5 ,, .1 A f -we 1 .f --.-rw .fi ff- V 2' . f f llf' ,ff 4. ff . t y-'KT' '33 . Q.. I ff fzygf Emlfplw -M Y ,, lj'-,i ig, gf:-if-f ,, W' P' Q f-Avy f'T fKri? 4W i'Agg,f?'af'ifi 'N' if ' . M' !,'-Qfry M ,, -A .J,,, 1,1 5 f' ,fa-.1 is ..Qfv?E?'S1'L 5Lg4:,?'i5-55, fidgf' i gg! 'HMS ..,a-Eff :sZ.,.,,.:1.,f y .'- , ,f ' .111 ,,-f' , 5 , 1' ' 'fl V? Q -'ff' 1 X115 - i f fe aaa: .iaa f 1 lk-f ' if .M I if ' ' 51 54Z?4i31:z'51'S-l,.f'pf ,f7fP5' .if-fm ' who became victim of AA fire, Lieutenant Cjgl Pearson and his crew of Emilianowicz and Titsworth and photographer K. H. Shaw, and Lieutenant Cjgj Arthur 0'Sullivan, with his crew of Grimsman and Nicholson. Lieuten- ant Cjgl Guy M. Brown was also a victim of AA fire, but with his crew, lived to enjoy one of the greatest experiences of his life aboard a rescuing destroyer, the U.S.S. Burns, which single-handedly destroyed a four-ship con- voy in a night surface action while enroute from rescuing the airmen. Our Task Force, which had been the spear- head of the Marshalls conquest, found an- chorage in the newly-won coral atolls. The force moved in and immediately set about replenishing its fuel and bomb supplies. Water-bound seamen stared goggled-eyed at the palm-lined rim that protected us from the sea, and they bit their fingers to see if they were dreaming when airmail came tumb- ling aboard in less than forty-eight hours after the battle force came to rest. Clf Sally could only see us now . . . D Uncle Sam's airmail service was turning the globe into a cross- roads cafe, and home didn't' seem as if it were more than a stone's throw from any- place. The American youth's bewildered dream of time and space was vanishing on thin air under the influence of Fast Carrier Task Forces and fairy-tale postmen. It was early in February that we learned that Captain J. J. Ballentine, father of the Bunker Hill, had been promoted to Rear Admiral, his orders calling for his transfer to ComAirPac's staff as Chief of Staff. Ordered to replace him was Captain Thomas P. Jeter, USN, class of 1918, whose work as Navigator and later Executive Officer of the U.S.S. En- terprise had won for him much praise among Naval ofiicers. Captain Jeter came to the Bunker Hill from Washington, where he had served on the staff of Admiral Ernest J. King. He took over command of the ship on,Feb- ruary 5, and Admiral Ballentine headed for Pearl Harbor. ' Before our eyes had stopped drinking in the sky-colored lagoon waters and before our imaginations ceased letting us chase Varga- designed nymphs down palm-frond boule- vards, somebody said a bad word: Truk! 53 FIRST TRUK We had no fears of Trukg only illusions largely fed our imaginations by our own ignorance of its contents. Whoever it was who Hrst mentioned this bad word must have been kidding, we figured, checking our life- belts and wishing we could go for a moon- light cruise in some safe place-Kavieng, for instance. The gall of our own forces as seen in anchoring in a territory conquered two days before was enough for one dose. But now they were talking about playing knock-knock at the gates of Japan's mythical bastion. Sure, they were only kidding . . . And several days later we were headed for Truk. Admiral Marc Mitscher's carriers