Bunker Hill (CV 17) - Naval Cruise Book

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.,.1..--- ... --... ,,-,.,,. ,,,,,. AMW-.. . ..,., -, .... .. ,.,.....-- . were soaring again before dusk settled over our force. The torpedo luggers slammed sev- enteen hits home out of thirty-nine drops, a record that still holds in Pacific warfare. The bombers scored nineteen direct hits out of seventy-three drops for an average of twenty- six percent--fifteen percent hitting is good bombing. Said Admiral Sherman from his flagship, the Bunker Hill, that night: First strike took Truk by surprise. Destroyed many planes on field, air opposition light. About three cruisers, six destroyers, and one CVE present and attempted escape via North Pass- Q -,,,...------ --. ,,,.....-..---- -i-....1--1-- - -- ---- --M --- ,.,...1----- -,,,....----1-. ,-.....-1-- ,,,.,.1.-l ........--- Vw- Yuggnvig ,-,, -------A ..,...- W., ..-. ,-.. H.-- W.-. .... ..-. ... .....----:--- , W.- ,,.,,,,,L,,,, L., M, .,,., W.. W- W.. - - .V .---....- ----v -.-. - -Y --- --- - - ----f-'f-f- 'f:'-If --Mi .fQffQQffffQIfQIiL V W ? H V..-i..N W-W A .L,,...-..--, ' . , 3-11, if-.,.'.w3+ r-'ri - Q... ,g i,--kxjgiy, ifife . -is- gm , 793, Y . . -E , 1 Vx.-45 -r.53E:.2f,ig,',,5:::Tgfgllqw - .... r A J. 4.,,i-Q ' 'Q-. .--- - 'j,,-I -- 7 -- ' - if --K1 M 'f if 'J GST' --E., f-in-5 h 't'1f' r 'M rn???FafiL,42:,,IQLgfgl.gf1 .. - --.W I Ii - ' ',221.s.-A-'l1'miTELtTiL4.-,Q aft, -23123: .- . .1..r..v:--PQ '- .L rv--fx' I N5L,J,,::s-.gg .L -' 2 v,..,.,. -' Mm.. 1 gn' ---dr fu---..-A:--GH' ,.f-'-':5t'f'rei..-- mi.- ?Fh:.- at-,J 'td' ' 't' -1, , 1:-rxQ -'H 'fm qc--. ,... I-flwfszff -1 , . , ,,.g-y, .-- ,hx-'QQ sgQ,.3,', . mq N-f ---:ATM - ' 1 N,.3.ij,- ' -.Shi - ' g -- . - -.-..- ia-an Q.. , -mg F -- .. ' .. ,, - ,- -' ' . '5-.i.:-. ,ff-f , , , ' , g . fl' V I V . 41. - ' .....--' -- fp ' . ,uit-ss-'W fra-- ,iv-ni' :Tyr F .prrr Mage?-frkrlf'-4 This group hit one CVE, one CL with bombs and sangk one CL with torpedoes. About thirty AKs in lagoon, many sunk and burn- ing. Attack continuing. Stand by for Betty attack at dusk. Betty failed to call that night-even after we sat up and waited for her.' The second day at Truk was a polishing off' routine. The targets were there one min- ute, gone the next. Lieutenant Qjgb N. B. Birkes, with his crewmen, F. S. McKenzie and S. S. Stump, failed to return from their hopg it was believed that they landed in the water just outside the lagoon. A rescue mission was unsuccessful, and quite probably they became prisoners of war that day. The Task Force turned eastward. Sailors began playfully to sing, Let's Meet on the Road to Majuro, and other parodies, Such as The Sleepy Saloon, the Tropical Moon. There were some great stories to come out of the Truk affair. One pilot was picked up out of the lagoon by a cruiser's OSZU, being protected by a formation of friendly fighters that strafed the pants off Jap escort vessels attempting to capture the American. Other stories were almost as fantastic, each of them corroborating the N avy's policy to make res- cues wherever at all possible. Pilots and the bluejackets talked about Truk for twenty- four hours running, and it would have gone on into another day and night if someone hadn't noticed a series of fleet tankers ease into our formation . . . and commence pour- ing into hungry carrier tanks the precious fiuid that makes Tojo run. At precisely that point, just when people were wondering how the soldiers were doing in Italy, it was an- nounced that something new had been added to our prospective list of imminent targets. After Truk, our first guess was a field day in Tokyo, but, as usual, we weren't exactly right. p FIRST TINIAN est of Truk, and its neighboring Caro- line Islands, and east of the Philip- pines-more precisely, Southern Luzon-there are a group of islands known in geographic circles as the Marianas . . . The Intelli- gence OHicer's voice droned on for ten min- utes before we stopped having visions of how American'forces had been brutally destroyed on Guam. We also thought of Saipan, of Rota, Tinian, mystic Japanese words. These mental fiashes fitted into a pretty logical picture. Our audacity in attacking Truk could not be repeated again soon, the Japs probably figured. But they didn't see eye to eye withfAdmiralRaymond Spruance's Fifth Fleet and Marc Mitscher's carriers. If we could fiatten Saipan, it would mean that Betty's coming-out parties would be fewer and farther between, for this allegedly was her favorite staging promenade. If we could

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never held their heads more proudly, and the wagons and cruisers rolled west. Prancing destroyers did improvised Congas on the sparkling whitecaps that are noted in the outlying regions off this Caroline hornet's nest. We were off to a big show, a big dance, and we had ample cash to pay the Hddlers. At noon on February 15, we felt that the striking might of the U. S. Pacific Fleet had been undetected on its trip to Truk. About 1400 we learned that Hghters had found and destroyed a twin-engined Jap patrol plane, Betty by name. This little feat set everybody to wondering. But by nightfall we again felt pretty confident about the whole thing. No bogeys came out to hamper our march. That truckdriver eating a late lunch of beef sandwiches and beer at the Bravo Lunch counter on Cermak Road in Chicago the next day probably didn't have any idea how we-some six thousand miles away-felt about the lunching business. It was all we could do to force down a half an egg and three swallows of coffee before dashing off to Gen- eral Quarters and Watching hordes of Amer- ican fighter planes take to the pre-dawn sky. Our stomach was in pretty much of a knot, for imaginations had been fed plenty of Pacific potion, some labelled Rabaul, some Kavieng and some Tarawa. But they took 0E-dozens of them. Flying in that one-two- one backheld formation, they turned snarling noses toward the haughty pride of the Em- peror's island possessions. Three hours later we were watching them return aboard, and a few minutes later they were telling of blasting Zekes, Hamps, Tonys and Tojos from the springy air over Eten, Paran and Moen airfields. Already the bombers and torpedo planes were visiting destruction to a lagoon full of shipping, and other strikes were rolling from the Task F orce's numerous Bight decks. The element of audacity and surprise was our ace card in handing Truk a shellacking that, in comparison, would have made B1-et Harte's Chinese poker-players look like jay- birds There was a drama at North Pass .,3 u raconteur's convention. Commander Dal Air Group Seventeen's dimunitive chieftai covered the target area for an evaluation r port, radioing to the ship that cruisers, d stroyers, a carrier, several oilers, and nun erous merchantmen were on hand for tl airmen's pop visit. He also reported tha several ships, including cruisers, were tryingi escape through the North Pass. Forthwit the Air Group Commander proceeded to clim directly over the escapists Cand this is world for escapistsj and invite comers on' c that will rank with the best of them in n - f stop them dead. Already battleships and several cruisers an destroyers had been detached from our for to proceed to this pass and cut off the exi of Jap escapists. While the wagons plowei nearer their goal, planes came to cripple th Nips. What the planes left was polished ol subsequently by the big guns. One fore thoughted Jap skipper was wheeling well ou of the danger zone, his cruiser blistering thi sea for home, when Torpedo Skipper Grady Owen moved in with his boys. Circling the doomed gray hull, Skipper Owen spread hi: flight out around the ship. He steadied their for their run, and running through the ina words of attack readiness, he mentioned thai they owed at least one to the Grey Eaglefi Frank Whitaker, who had left them so sud- denly at Eniwetok. Chow down, the attack command. Spen- cer Davis, AP correspondent, was in on the feast that day. He later Wrote of the IaP'S death, saying that the torpedoes sped toward a pinpoint center, their wakes reminding him Of lingers. They hitg the cruiser, there 2 moment before, rolled over and disappeared. Bomber Pilot Lieutenant Cjgj George GlasS, with C. W. Aunspaugh, his radioman, failed to return from the first strike that day. TWO more gallant crewmen went to their deaths: J- A- Applefeld, radioman for Bill Sheaiifmi and W. B. Gerrity, TBF radioman for Pllot G. A. Turnbull, died from injuries reCCiVed On their flights that day e records that day soared shattered 2 . ' cl Th , n J 130 ggi Q . k., annstiualafz. , ., f, ., , -kin .. , A, , Q 1 . . - 33v3-Qyzf'ggf'f'j-e'-f17f:e'r'A :r':+:-tff'rX'f'?'i-es--W .'.. .,,,,,.,,....a... ..., M . ,. ,, ,, .V . ,. ,, V V1 Ak , ,,,.K . -mn..-'gf......4 ,......... . .-.--1 ....:1-ff-f.,-.,.,.-,,.,.s.-.m1- -spin. -- - ..,, . ,ni , .,.,.,--sv -.T-,-Tm...- is -f-as-'W f- si

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destroy military installations on Guam-well, we promised to come back didn't we? It all made very good sense, and ,Sailor M210 felt that nothing could stop him now. Since .WC felt an attack coming on, we began looking around for a holiday . . . ' George Washington was born on February 22. That's good enough for anyone, and. Father George himself probably couldn't have picked a more likely Delaware to cross. 'The afternoon of the twenty-first Was typically Pacific. Thin wisps of white clouds, sky and water so blue that one found it dif- ficult to discern where the sky ended and the ocean began. Patrol planes of our own re- ported sighting a patrolling Jap Betty some thirty miles away. We couldn't quitedecide whether we had been seen, and, frankly, we didnjt care too much. It was going to be a hot time in Garapan tomorrow, Garapan being the proverbial old town in this case. Some time after sunset the snoopers filtered out and felt out our size and shape, so ap- parently the Betty had ,seen us during the afternoon. That size and shape must have been of rather unbelievable qualities, for one cpntingent of the attackers came too close for their own good and a battlewagon sent a veritable Fourth of July up to meet them. Two Bettys exploded, illuminating the ec- static faces of our gunners who waited for their turn. Five-inchers laid temporary dia- mond stickpins over the opaque horizon, the forty millimeter's lazy tracers arched in every direction from the formation's heart, while occasional bursts from the fire-throated twenty millimeters tore' a thousand gay streaks into nature's purple canopy. The attack lasted all night long, with the ,laps taking a hell of a lacing from our guns. The bugle screamed every attack for-mation's approach, curdling good American blood with the un- forgettable notes of Torpedo Defense. Before the dawn came fiooding westward out of God- send, more than a dozen Nippon, low-flying torpedo planes had been seen to explode from this ship. Admiral Mitscher's They can't stopyou now! carried with it a punch of 'ultaneous with the climb of a horde of' , . e SQ' if .f 'F ,-i. if confidence that American sea power since feltg that punch was rapidly he a genius-guided uppercut. Even as the enemy planes stillhoverq the outskirts of our formation the next: ing, our strikes rolled from our decks ir point precision. For an hour past sunris tell-tale trails of smoke from burning planes were visible from our superstru stations, but the American airman wa swering reveille with a terrible awak means of his own. Before dawn Sk Pete Aurand, Doc Davisson, Jackl and Bitsy Bice, of the night fighters, sl: from our Hattop and raced westward to the N ip fighters on the rise from their ianas fields. Their orders, Proceed to 'I and destroy all aircraft in the air and o ground, was a pretty big assignment manner in which they carried it out is a Bunker Hill odyssey. Sticking togetl a tight formation, as all good lighter3 do, these four horsemen reached Tinian Zeros The general melee that follow the laps hard, and it meant the loss of Q Bice, who was separated from his shipnr The Skipper polished off a Zeke and cha twin-engine fighter out of the fracasg Davisson got a Zeke, and Jack Bertie p a genuine coup de grace. Attacked by a formation of Zekes, with lead pouring int plane and belly tank, Jack shot one 4 before he himself was hit in the arm anf His injuries pained him so that he C011 muster strength to pull the release ti bellY tank, but he was strong enoug PFCSS his gun switches. Two Zekes cr! his sights, and two Zekes met the ki! death. Lost in a chasm lined with R ' B turned his plane for home, hardly dafin believe that he would make it. He did lt, miraculously enough, and ordnanc Checking his badly shot-up plane darned fainted to find that he had expended af total of 200 rounds of ammunition. FOI' he was later awarded the Navy CroSS, Suns and separated from his mates, n e 1 1 M, .,.1:eT,,.,A rin. 4 . .... ., , ,. , V . 1, mfr..-.Q 1:55 ugmn-521.18-Juffmn--magma.:-..1:.. u.u ' -- V- -Y 4- -7' - ...Li -i, 4 PJ ji. ,pri ,wa V'