Bunker Hill (CV 17) - Naval Cruise Book

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the entire unit was lauded by the Air Group Commander for 'their aggressive action in carrying out a mission thrust upon them through a sudden 'change in tactical situa- tion. Strikes that day visited Tinian, and the serene-looking sugar cane fields of that island fogged over with smoke and fire as the day Wore on. A fighter sweep dropped in on Guam, and Skipper Sam Silber reported meager AA fire over the former American base. Other attack missions sent several ships to the bottom in the anchorage between Saipan and Tinian, and combination bombing and strafing reduced fifty to sixty parked air- ,g-bp . V: lf,-kk' -112, A fill- i ?2ifiQQ1'E2I. qg,1:.,. 'Q me wif -1 sign - 'iw if U u fill TW-4 V Q ' . r. 1 p . iv 1 ,ll X-.gllizliil w ,. rl . , fi ', iitflfii i il 2' ,.. ,J ,M 1 1 plf E 5 2,1 Ewa' 1 iiiggc-1,39-fr hr, lllikl- l I li ','. llllli 'r- li F35 l 55521 nl +23 wx V15 T -P i lt! l ag In ,.liifw,ifi li ll. at H-i,.,f x1. -' , ,. . A , ,S ,.,, .. ' ,lg'uplv,' - 7477 'lr' . fs' W M PM if ,wg 'E' 1 Ei .15 l 1 QQ' ,Tx .4 5, 2-' wil' ,fifcg--1' T1 ill min I ful: i'i'i2fi W, 1 1 .lg fl 'til Q. 3 tk L 'iifilflflj f f .1 cf? ,Ef!29,T'2pT1,-.J?5pji3F'5 2471342 f' q .1357 lui .illililili 5' illihli- TH ,,5?f.agg5Zi'1. E,,.e,,-gf5,,,rL5,.,.,J,.,',,j5,.ggg xzwllill pqwlgi, 2 NLM.-1:5i,ggirig14iE.HA , r-:.:r-qymf-.+ff:wee,1.,f:ff-fjjfmri 1 L im 'f'- ,' cgi - - l-1 if'3.i-Tiif' ai 1 - 1 .- 1- xgl gfizllfglgii 1 , g - --f,1. :.: '.1f.-...fa , 1' ,ri 1 Q 'if was 1 -- y, L, 1 ,l 'pl l if 1 2 , 35,lgzlf-:.Q13m,f,!- - N,Q. ,,.,,,, 5' Q QS 1 fe., , Ii I , !,l in 1ylf,g.i,, , ,.4,,..wf. is, ,V . .M 3' y l i , ' l 1 l Mil 1Qf,f:YfJ' .-,,,.,5!. 'M' iff A Z 4, W -1'xw..i4lf'-- T l xl if li i iff' rififf-4375 . -L ' 'fini-i5'3'e-V -A i'1fff T' , F l ,'i,Qf,?,' 'li u V g1 5f9 j F- iUi'f7:i'fQ 1' i .Y lf il 'T .--Q. . -.N 2- T155 Witt -ww .. .. -vi i ... i , fam -, mul . -a-af:-P A -.,,,,,,f,,f-- ,,- ,wiv . ,isa.,.L,,h.,,,4qq-r 'H L, bd K, f .,,,,..- .. -- -- -- - ' , Qan-+ve, ff ! Y'j:'lf '-2.22, craft to smouldering Mitsubishi ruins. In ad- dition to Bice, Lieutenant Cjgj Forman was lost in the otherwise successful day of opera- tions. The formation steamed back and forth over launching locales, being disturbed only by several weak bogey attempts to probe our well-controlled skies. At nightfall we steamed quietly away. The Heeting days of February found the Bunker Hill lying at anchor in her favorite lagoon, Marshalls area. Her sailors swam peacefully from the deckedge elevator, while Mari'ne guards stood by to take care of Jap- Sympathizing sharks. Several days later re- creation parties were climbing cocoanut trees on the beach, exploring former Japanese hide- outs, and raising general hell up and down a sandy, Atlantic-City-ordered beach. i BACK TO HAWAII hat loud noise you heard in late February wasn't a coal mine caving in on John L. Lewis, it was a cheer rising from the quar- tered ranks of the Bunker Hill's crew, follow- ing the announcement that we were departing north and eastward for a few days, during which we could expect to hear a few idle strains of Aloha and Moonlight on Wai- kiki. Just a few days later you heard another dull thud, which was nothing more than a gang faint pulled by Air Group Seventeen upon learning that they were to disembark at the next port, return to a mythical USA. VVe, in turn, were to pick up Air Group Eight and return to the wars at a specified date. Hawaii never was too bad. In March of 1944 it was a Paris in the Spring. To lie on the grass under the palm-bespangled Royal Hawaiian grounds, to sit under the banyan trees at the Moana, to ask for a steak dinner at P. Y. Chung's and to walk down Bishop Street during a noon shower are pretty won- derful pastimes. Our more unpleasant en- counters included bidding Air Group Seven- teen farewell. But all in all the ten days' visit to T. H. was an oasis. Like all good U., things . . . A E if iw' PALAU nd in late March we were steaming west- ward again. The boys in Primary Fly were collecting dues for membership into a new club, the West of Tokyo Club. Yes in- deed, we were going to Palau, a Jap base east of the Philippines, southwest of the Marianas and north of New Guinea. The largest Naval force of all history shouldered its way to the target, undetected until late afternoon of the day before our attack was 133

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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'

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to be launched. Commander Andrew Jack' son, Air Group Eight battle-boss, and Com- manders Ken Musick, Bill Collins and Ralph Shifley, skippers of the torpedo, fighting anfl bombing squadrons, respectively, briefed thell' boys on this target area. Rear Admiral Al- fred Montgomery, with flag aboard the Bun- ker Hill, commanded our particular task group. On hand for close-ups of the latest Navy daredevil scheme were newsmcn Dan McGuire, of United Press, and Elmont Waite of Associated Press. Increasing operations varied in method of attack and disposal of forces, but for the Bunker Hill it seemed that each succeeding strike was characterized by this news line: This ship made its deepest penetration into Japanese-held territory to- day, striking-- The eve of attack day, March 29, Japanese air units came out to heckle our might. Three or four enemy planes went down in flames on attempted torpedo runs, and the others de- cided that flying against the American Navy wasn't a sure way to grow old. High flying shadow planes Christmased the ocean with flare patterns, but the gray steeQ giantesses rolled on toward their objective. Long before midnight the attackers-those of them still claiming pay allowances-folded up their wings and stole ofl: into the night. A Jap defender on the Palau Islands, if he had been writing a letter home at dawn the next day, might have begun thus: Dear Mom: These Americans don't know when to quit. We keeled them at Rabaul, at Kavieng, at Tarawa, at Arawe, at Eniwetok, at Kwaj- elein, at-what else did we use to have, Mom? Every time we look up, the eyes of Texas, New Mexico, Idaho or Pennsylvania are upon us. Why can't these unhonorable enemies Cis that spelled right, Mom?D go back to wearing zoot zoots and eating goldfish? fLater he continuedzj Today they send in six strikes from carriers that we sunk long, long ago, long ago. fThat reminds me of a song, Mawj They sinked our ships in our h. harbor. They rifle our gun posts with god-awful rifling. Mom, I don't aim to take much more of this. I aim to . . . A dull thud probably stopped his letter. Only loss of the day for Air Group Eight was Ensign R. J. Hanzal, who was shot down over the target and listed as missing in action. It was a big day, with 209 sorties leaving our flight deck, to establish a new record in launchings and landings. The night riders came back at sunset. But they had little heart for a Hght. Red tennis balls from a neighboring task unit sent the bravest of them down for an eternal count, while others met similar fates at the hands f X4 of our fighters, earlier in the evening. Bogeys faded in and out of our area for several hours, while gun crews waited and flight deck per- sonnel readied their charges for the next day. It wasn't long before the formation was at peace again, lying fathoms deep in solitude and hundreds of miles inside the Nip's cele- brated impenetrable perimeter. Second day flights followed much the pat- tern of the first. Profitable targets diminished with each succeeding strike, and in the end it was revealed that nine Zekes, two BettYS were destroyed in the air, many more planes wrecked on the ground, six AKs, totalling 14,000 tons were definitely sunk, with 311- other one probably sunk, eight other shiPS bad1Y damaged, and other vessels defaced be' yond recognition-all accomplished by Air Group Eight.