Bunker Hill (CV 17) - Naval Cruise Book

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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

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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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gdg to patch up lines that had been torn open by shrapnel. Another search was launched, and the ship rested. At evening, the combat air patrol returned, as did all of the search but Lieutenant Cjgb P. I. Touw, with his radioman W. H. Hammer, and their escort- ing fighter, Lieutenant Cjgj Doc Davisson, believed to have been jumped by a, wolf. gang of Jap lighters. Although enemy planes came within twenty- eight miles of the force at sunset, they failed to close and the Bunker Hill and the Task Force steamed west after the Jap. Reports indicated that more than 350 Jap planes and their crack Naval pilots had been wiped from Hirohito's fast dwindling stock of air power. JUNE 20, 1944. The morning search of June 20 returned with negative results, and the ship continued to sweat out the chase as the afternoon search made its long Hight. Men exhausted by the battle of the previous day stretched out at their gun stations, sprawled on deck along- side the island. Plane captains dozed in the shade of aircraft that waited, waited, waited for V I P a crack at the Jap Heet. The sun began its slow drop toward the horizon. In ter-ship communication suddenly crackled in Admiral Montgomery's Flag Plot. Tele- types in ready rooms began to tick off the information. REPORTS CONTACT JAP FLEET 15-CON, 135-25E. CRS WESTER- LY. SPD 20K.', It was 1555. Pilots tightened their para- chute harnesses, eager and relieved of the strain of waiting, and were ordered to man their planes. The planes, which had been warmed up hourly during the waiting period, began roaring down the deck at 1611, fighters, Helldivers and fat Avengers, bellies full of bombs and torpedoes for immediate delivery. Their swift ascent into the air caused Com- mander Shifley, in his report of the action as Air Group Commander, to term a superb performance . . . and definitely assisting this group in being the first to attack the enemy fleet. In the gallery walkways, gunners and radio- men who weren't making the first strike, as well as pilots and spectators, cheered and signaled thumbs up to every pilot and crew going down the deck. Broad smiles were on every face, and a prayer in every heart, as the strike left to fight at extreme Hying range and to return in darkness. At the time of the launch, the Jap forces were reported to be 215 miles away, but amplification of the report placed them 100 miles beyond that point. Thus the second deckload of planes, brought up and spotted for launching in a seventeen-minute operation, was held aboard. 1 The long wait began. An attempt was made to relay reports of the action over the ship's announcing system, but the action was too far off for accurate reception. We heard that a search plane had spotted the Jap force and was still sitting over it taking pictures and relaying weather information. He re- ported two carriers, three cruisers, eight de- stroyers in one force, and another force of one carrier and four battleships. He reported no airborne opposition.