Bunker Hill (CV 17) - Naval Cruise Book

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the ship went to General Quarters. The four Black Chickens were launched as inter- ceptors and as the sun set the sky was streaked with intense AA fire from a task group south of us and in the wild melee a half-dozen Nip planes were seen to blaze their way into the sea. Lieutenant Commander Pete Aurand, meanwhile, was stealing a kill on his wing- men, as he buried hot lead into a Jill that had been rounded up by Davisson and Bertie. The night Hghters returned and the ship turned in. Somebody passed on some scuttle- butt to the effect that the Jap fleet is out. On D Plus Gne We refueled, flew some sup- port missions over Saipan, sent a reconnais- sance llight over Guam, heard that ground forces held a three mile beachhead and as evening came, there was still talk of the Jap fleet. The talk became authoritative the next morning as we heard that a Jap task force was believed to be about 750 miles to the northwest of us, and by midday we had rendezvoused with all but one of the other task groups and steamed west. Shortly be- fore midnight the Air Department was aroused and a search was launched. Another search was launched at 0700 of Dog Plus Three day, June 18, and the flight deck was spotted for a strike against the Jap fleet. Tension built up in the ready rooms as, hour by hour, pilots smoked cigarettes chain-fashion, played un- numbered games of gin rummy, and drank countless cups of coffee, and heard that the battleships detached themselves to form a battle line ahead of the task group. Tension rocketed through the ship. Gun- ners were told again that this time if an attack came in, it would be no haphazard blow. These would be carrier pilots, these would be the topilight Jap Naval flyers, and not the land-based Nips whose habits were to attack in steep glides and to pull out high. These were pilots of the calibre that put the old I-Iornet out of action in eight minutes, the boys that played for keeps. They'd been kept under wraps for eighteen months, letting the Nip Army flyers carry the ball. June 19. Dog Plus Four Day on Saipan, where the going still was tough. We launched a search at 0530, and again all pilots went into Condition Eleven, to wait. At 0830 a twelve-plane fighter sweep was launched to join other Hellcats in busting up runways on Guam which were reported to have been made operational again. It was easy to see what the Jap was maneuvering to do-launch car- rier-based planes from the west to attack us and proceed to Guam to refuel, re-arm and continue the attack. At 1015 General Quarters was sounded. On the llight deck, the fighter sweep had been recovered and planes were being re- spotted. A plane handler yelled to a Marine gunner: What's up? The Marine was adjusting his helmet. Three large groups-that's all I know, he answered. Boy, we herded them in over there, Lieu- tenant Commander McCuskey, just back from the fighter sweep, was telling squadron mates. f ,, gm'-I v1,,,.- -fu.:-,., 7.f.,.,.'-' hr t,..,A,,,, i,..ks-B... - - A-......., - GSU , .. .,, .... , 5, V -Lv.: aa.-.. .- ' ' 3, r- wi ms- 3525391 H.. - Y. A r ' , ., 'aYi.5.'. --if ' .... it .Y ' -. -Li. .. - l'1 ' .fax .-..H,-.f .... ., ,mf ,......,5 Y ..f ' Elo' X U ,KV 'jf ,Lam Y , ' A-W-. .-.-fsarsra-V '- 2G'Ms-N fifii' ., wr 'ra' A--',.,a'ggy-1, -fu 14 a-ff . '739'U?1UfS. ,i3f if f ' ., r, f- - ,,3.-,l -:Wi L.-3 5-5-5-7g,,Y l.7i,xivf5i'i5.EJ?,:x ' 1. V q I U-vi-mmf fist' I ,.., V ,. 1 -H' 4 -- ,-'g.,5,r- y pr., -,M1szv'raPL' .- if 1: V -......,, 1 ,gy Q ' ..- VF., Ifiylf N 'Q- -.Q ff4,j,,,,.1fx ,,.1w1--'L-ilfiffgggzw - 1 '- fi -' i..- .m,.-11.2-af' V.--H' Dt -9' Q 'Q ,af-1 sm.:4r.Qifgf.5ff.r ini ' at .f:1,,3ffwaw ry aimikw 9.fT'1f- I 'f '- 'A ,F3lfll21.jl'rf'.'4',l- ' . ..a lys- L ,-X: VZ, -X Ji ?5?':,' 1 Seqvgfii .3f.3.fif3: ,4M,,.6- wt, JfHl:ffb?'i'. i'g17fv5'wQIi' -gil, - ' , . v NA ,'1i.ri-4Lg1f.'Q,p,,,r.- 5Ty:J Ki ffl-F . ' - J f 1 in 1 Wifrfs'f:fw?'5geQ?l:i4mI5..'- 3... . .,,-nfs 'gf 'JJ 4 g .-' ww. Lv' -wg ,',4f,ff a-V' 'V-.,i1..fw,,gf. ii! Ol' Ron Hoel-he got shot up and bailed out. A can picked him up. I was chasing seven Zekes with my division. I was gaining on 'em-waiting 'till I was sure. Then wham! they started to scatter, and darned if they didn't Hy right into Van's guns-Vanderhoof nailed three of them-bing-bing-bing- GREEN FLAG. Planes began pouring off the deck again. 139

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With them went two Helldivers, pil0tCd bY Lieutenant Commander Jimmy Arbes and Lieutenant Red Carmody, armed with.l1fe rafts to be dropped to any downed p11Of- The fighters carried depth charges to buSt up whatever they could find. It must have been a hell of a shock in the Saipan Jap 'O' Club that Sunday afternOOI1 as the Americans Hellcatted around and about the lush, green island. A few saki-drinkers did get to their planes and that was just what Fighting Eight and their playmates wanted. Skipper Collins bore-sighted three and his wingman, Lieutenant Cjgj Red Rosen, totted up two more in a few minutes of scrap- ping. The Skipper, however, took something of a beating from shrapnel whichichewed up his plane badly and peppered his face with superficial wounds, despite which he brought his plane back aboard safely. The sweep destroyed more than 200 Jap planes that afternoon, in the air and on the ground, and the depth charges made the run- ways sufficiently unserviceable as to guarantee a comparatively peaceful evening as we steamed in for the heavy punching. The CAP over the force also tallied as Lieutenant Cjgj Walt Longino splashed a Jill and Lieu- tenant Cjgj 'fRed Imel knocked down a Tony. Elation over the results was dampened by the loss of Lieutenant Don Carney, one of Fighting Eight's most popular members. His plane was seen to flame over the target and he was listed as missing in action. The three-day pre-invasion plastering of Saipan, Tinian and Guam went off with little opposition Snoopers sought us the first night dropping flares approximately ten miles starboard to our course but the effort was futile and D 3 Day saw ug 1-011 off six lethal strikes which beat down anti aircraft fire from heavy to medium to ex tremely llght as the sun set Two Avenger crews flew out their lives Lieutenant George Wildhack, his radioman and gunner Jlmmy Stone and P Witzke and Lieutenant Qgj F R Swede Swenson with Gunner R A Van Riper and Radioman D. G. McLean, failed to return from missions. The next day the battleships and cruisers moved in for more body blows and the Task Force carriers took a rest, excepting one task group that flushed a convoy of seven trans. ports, an oiler, a destroyer and five destroyer escorts. Methodically they were bombed to the bottom, sending an estimated 10,000 Jap replacement troops to death for their Emperor, We had a ringside seat as the big boys rolled up their sleeves and worked over the Saipan-Tinian twins. It was a picture many men hope to see but fail: the battlewagons maneuvering into lines, the flash of flame and smoke from muzzles and then the hit on the island, marked by a heavy, angry column of smoke. Men lined the decks, crowded the island perches to watch the great ships throw more steel in thirty minutes than our Air Group could carry in half as many days. Time and again spotter planes from the cruisers would hover over a spot, drift away from it only long enough to relay target in- formation and stay clear of the pin-point shelling that followed. Mid-morning we sailed through the flotsam of a smaller Jap convoy that had been blown out of the Pacific, wet, bedraggled ,laps cling- ing to planks and pieces of wreckage, huddled together in awe as they drifted through the world's greatest naval armada. Destroyers raced about picking them up and, later, de- livering them to various fiagships for ques- tioning. D-Day came, the transports and landing craft nudged closer and disgorged their loadS of ground forces As closely as possible WC followed their progress we heard that theY were four hours ahead of schedule-six hourS We flew strikes and photo missions over Guam, and wondered how they were doing on the beach It was hard to tell Like rawa, there was no way for us to lCI10 at the fight was bloodier and tougher the anything the Yanks had attempted to date e in the afternoon the Japs brought 0 opposition to the landing operation 8 4 .n . ' . , . ' ' 5 C , . . J .- . l O I' W . . . i th ' 'fl . . J i - J' ' 9 Lat ' ut cz n - . J ' ' J . . 311' i i U i nd 138 igiir '

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On the hangar deck, rearming crews pre- pared to load bombs that had been brought up from the magazine. Every now and then they saw a Hellcat grinding slowly around the traffic circle of the Wasp. It was Eddie Dooner, who'd scored at least one Zeke kill over Guam but had picked up small calibre AA through his engine and was forced to come back. He hit the water on his approach and apparently had been wounded or was stunned in the landing, for he was not seen to get out of the plane. Thirty minutes had gone by since the ship had gone to G.Q. Somewhere over the hori- zon, the Hellcats were mixing it up with the attacking Japs. Fragmentary reports drifted over the gunnery telephone system. It was nearly 1100 when the first enemy planes were reported visually at ten miles, and the task group off our port quarter opened fire. High above were the white etchings of vapor trails, tracing the paths of the hunters. Ships of our screen opened fire. Our own guns were trained, hovered as they traced a target, paused. Three crippled fighters were trying to land aboard the Wasp, on our port beam. Out of a cloud came a.Jap-every gunner on the ship saw it but had to hold fire to avoid hitting the crippled fighters. It was a Judy, a Jap carrier-based dive bomber. He made a shallow dive on the Wasp, dropped his bombs and pulled out, probably with a smile of satisfaction that died a- borning, however, for he had missed, and the Wasp and a destroyer on her bow opened up and nailed him. Almost simultaneously, our own guns opened up on another pair of dive bombers coming in on our port quarter. Both of them were literally blasted out of the sky, falling to the sea in blazing pieces, but not until their bombs had been dropped. On the hangar deck, re-arming crews had moved bombs amidships for ready jettisoning, and were standing by when the Jap made his drop. The drop was close, a near-miss that geysered water island-high, and threw ugly, hot shrapnel into the ship, blasted through 1 140 splinter shields, stabbed in every direction gn the hangar deck and through the skin of the Ship above the armor plate. Lieutenant Gordon Stallings, at his battle station on a forty millimeter director, went down mortally wounded. The two halves of a lifeboat lay beside G. F. Taphilias, Sea2c, instantly killed on the hangar deck. On the third deck, shaving cream and cherry pie were incongruously mixed as the shrapnel blasted through Ship's Store and the galley. Even as the attack continued, the re-arm- ing crews on the hangar deck went on with their task of jettisoning the bombs as others directed the care of the wounded. The prac- tice drills of months paid high dividends that day as emergency dressing stations treated the wounded. At one station an ordnanceman assisted the treating of a dozen men, before he discovered his own wounds. ' Meanwhile, fighters of the Task Force were wiping out the cream of Japanese Naval Avi- ation. Most of the fighting was done at altitudes so high that first knowledge of a skirmish came as a broken, blazing Nip plane fell into the sea. Twenty minutes after our guns had quieted, an uncontrolled Jap Judy screamed out of the blue and into the sea off the starboard bow. Our own fighters, al- though not vectored out to the main body of the attack, accounted for six sure kills, bringing the day's total up to twenty-one A check of sick bay revealed that more than eighty men were wounded in some degree aS a result of the near-miss, with only sixteen of them hit badly enough to be hospitalized. A brief resumption of the fight occurrCCl Shortly after noon, when a quartet of JUdYS blazed down out of the sun and clouds OH our starboard beam but failed to score with their bomb loads. Shortly thereafter the ship went into Con- dition One Easy, and hot coffee and sand- wiches made their appearance at the 81111 batteries and on the flight deck. RCPM Partles cleaned up the minor damage done below decks and the Gas Gang went over the