Bunker Hill (CV 17) - Naval Cruise Book

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The daylight left, and unidentified Planes sent all hands to battle stations. Shortly after 2000, two night fighters were launched to cover the landings. There was no moon and the force remained blacked-out. -At 2030, the wing-lights of the Hrst returning fighters appeared and the task group turned on its lights, looking like a vast, drowsy city- but willing to sacrifice the security of dark- ness in order to land its planes. The first three planes landed aboard with- out trouble. Then they came in alone, and in pairs. Wing lights of two bombers, waved off because a plane had not cleared the land- ing area, went past the starboard side of the ship and then, with a sputter of engines, sank lower and lower and finally were extingusihed as water landings were made. Several more fighters landed, then a bomber from a sister carrier came aboard. His wing- man followed him, came up the groove, took the cut and went into the barrier, his pro- pellor buried deep in the deck. Crews rushed feverishly' to clear the wreckage. Every second counted. You could look up, if you had the time, and see planes making water landings, destroyers combing the water with search- lights, picking up pilots and crewmen. But once clear, we took aboard a few'more planes. A bomber from one carrier, a fighter from the Wasp, another from another carrier. It was nearly midnight when the last plane dropped out of the sky and we recalled the night fighters. The sparse results which we heard of the strike seemed dull and uninteresting. Tension and shock filled every man topside. The flight deck crews were soaked with grease, salt-water, sweat. But their only thought was of the men who had been forced to make water landings. Few men talked. The horror of the night, the anxiety for the men who had carried the attack to the Jap, kept them silent as they cleared the deck that night, spotting for a dawn strike that would be launched in but a few hours. And it wasn't until that strike had been launched and recovered, the follow- ing day, that the ship realized the smashing blows its squadron had dealt in the long. sought chase. The Bunker Hill strike group had been first to sight the enemy and to attack, passing up a group of six oilers and three destroyers to hit a force consisting of a large carrier flanked by a battleship, two cruisers and several de- stroyers. Lieutenant Commander Arbes led the dive bombers to the carrier through a wall of intense anti-aircraft fire, putting his 1000- pound bomb just aft of amidshipsg his wing- man, Lieutenant Bob Horne, scored a hit with one of his 250-pounders and near-misses with his other and his 1000-pounder, doing a heavy-duty strafing job with his twenty-mil1i- meters on the pullout. Lieutenant Cjgj Ster- ling was observed to score a hit forward, and Smith and McIntyre tallied with hits on the after part of the flight deck. Lieutenant Art Jones dove his division on the carrier from the north, and with wingmen Pilcher and Huntsman saw one direct hit and two damaging near-misses, before belching columns of flame and smoke obscured the target. Commander Musick took his wingmen, Carter and Mason, in on a torpedo run fol- lowed by Jim Gagnon and Willie Folkedahl in individual runs, but were unable to observe hits because of their jinking and eVaSiVC tactics through AA, but Gagnon and M8809 reported at least three large explosions follow- ing the runs. Lieutenants LeCompte, and Buxton, seeing that the carrier was virtualll' doomed, threw their fish at the Kongo 012155 battleship. Their gunners reported that the torpedo wakes indicated sure hits, but WCTC unable to wait for confirmation. Lieutenant Logan Meathead Phillips saw his torpedo miss the battleship but go on to hit the port bow of a cruiser spinning behind the first ship. At the beginning of the attack, Commander Shifley and Wingman Jerry Rian fought Off 9' SFOUP Of Seven Jap fighters attempting to head off the torpedo planes, downing two' sending two others away in smoke, and thot'

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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.

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oughly discouraging the remaining trio. The Group Commander then resumed his task of getting photographic coverage, weaving in and out of AA fire at low altitude. Off from the main action, Lieutenant Beau- champ and his division were working over a destroyer, pouring hot fifty-caliber lead into it until it was burning furiously. The score as totaled by Intelligence officers: aZuiko class carrier heavily damaged by bomb and torpedo hits and probably sunk, one Kongo class battleship hit by two 1000- pound bombs and probably one torpedo, one Nachi class cruiser probably hit by torpedo, one Chokai class cruiser hit by a 1000-pound bomb, one destroyer left burning furiously and in sinking condition, two airborne planes destroyed, four others probably destroyed and another three damaged, as reported by L. H. Harman, Avenger turret gunner, Radiomen O'Brien and Langiotti of the bombers, and Lieutenant Cjgj Hank Sharp, who turned his .20s loose on a lone Zeke. June 21-D Plus What-the-hell, time had lost value. Through the day reports came over the announcing system of the recovery of the various pilots. It was the greatest mass rescue ever made of Hying personnel, and calmed earlier fears for the pilots and crews. Skipper Arbes came aboard, fresh from a seven- hour snooze he'd taken during his twelve hours afloat, Skipper Musick was picked up by the same destroyer that once before had rescued him, and two hash-marks had been chalked up under his caricature on the de- stroyer's score-board. Personnel of but four planes were missing after the force had thor- oughly combed the waters from launching point to target: Lieutenant Cjgj P. I. Jug Wilson of the fighters, J. R. Roberge, Lieu- tenant Buxton's radioman who was unable to extricate himself from the TBP when it was forced to the water, Lieutenant Folkedahl and his crewmen, N. H. Whitson and H. H. Hughes, Lieutenants Cjgj J. O. McIntyre, and R. E. Sterling, and their rear seat men, R. N. Vermette and H. W. Ashton. PAGAN ISLES We checked in at Saipan to see how things were going, found we weren't much needed, so headed northeast to dust oH' the Pagan Islands with a junior-size strike. A pair of sister carriers hit the jackpot over at Iwo Jima, reports giving Fighting Two a 67- plane tally, thus causing no little envy in the fighter ready room. Three days went peace- fully by, the usual patrols and a track meet va,- being the only items to disturb the Hight deck. Back again at our anchorage the ship was re-armed and reprovisioned,liberty parties plodded in ankle-deep sand for a crack at a can of beer, we made a two-day jaunt to sea to shakedown an Air Group ordered to an- other carrier, and knocked out more letters to Sally and Sue. agp. 1. fly' M SECOND TINIAN The pause until July 14 was refreshing, pro- viding us relaxation after the harrowing first phase of the Marianas operation, and priming us for the drive against Tinian and Guam, in which the Bunker Hill was sched- uled for a part. We took up the cudgel on July 18, pouring seventy tons of bombs on the island and repeating it the next day. The