Bunker Hill (CV 17) - Naval Cruise Book

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plastered heavily, shore installations blown sky high, the town of Takinoura on Ani Jima reduced to rubble, and shipping taking a beating. A convoy found between the Bonins and the Empire by an accompanying force was slowed down by their air power and finished off by the cruisers, as a further thumbed-nose at the Nips. We returned to our home, after that, delightedly reading in the Press News that Tojo's cabinet had been sacked-with no little credit for that action going to our Bonins operation. There wasn't much scuttlebutt as to where we'd go next. The Air Group was feeling the strain of the strenuous combat . . ...i------'M--'M .....------'-- , A 3 .....-'81, 'H -- ,WM--..,, fb ----0-U . ww 1 I., '-A--..,,,i'ft+f :::.-'-.....L1 n pl. , ,i ' -1 bi,-,VV in Y -----Q Qi hx NJ. j?4!,aB1.-vzswliitl W -Z-gli f-lc' qhim ,Gig 5 .f'Vgy,f,ij5 1--l lflg,,w.i3iyllmra'fi '-T-A-1 gliilxri' 'V '11 Shiv-.x my afvffmii-mt f ...,1'. .1. vghfwg x lag, pl! 1, ,i , --- iw, f-lr 11:4 It f .4 ----- ssh 9i'n:.w l'l'f 2f '917:' ---- g-Qi ,'.t.iQN,' f'-w .1 Q ' 'S 2 'fiif 'T-:..' sky +Qi3'iiill'lA.lf ,iff L -i ., M H, , ., X 4' 1 ' 1 :',1-.:,:'::i W' -Pali. if ff ' .gas 111.45ff'1ff1:nf1elf-.fm 'fm - ': WlUf' 'iff ef A--1-. ,-,. ..r.,4-FN -' A' Q '1 A VWifi? A-i-,A-jf-if.,'2f?g.jifQ2Q-:gg-' 4-9' - 'W A .. -'f s' ..- - f N' .s ' -1 f-f-:Ili - -- ..., A A-as-cc. 'M v'e'e--e ..., : , : Q., Ji:-?i1-- f , aagu: G' W . ., - M ' z-fxfr-' A ' rr' ..,Mf51f'1N--:Q.IfT'i A ,B a .ff , if 1 1-2. .aa-T?f:'fFm?:'?w s 'ri-1 '- ' ' U v1'i?f1'A Af MJ 1 img, , ' r., ,, -Y gps Alffp V' ..,,. P ' wifi' . if 'L - schedules it had flown, and the mess deck's hottest dope suggested that the Bunker Hill might be dispensable to the Pacific war long enough for a trip home. It didn't look like it, though, as Rear Admiral Montgomery lowered his Hag and started home, and Rear Admiral G. F. Bogan came aboard within six hours to succeed him. It looked as though there'd be one more operation. August down south is hot enough anytime, but that steam-heated ,base didn't help cool the Bunker Hill's visit. Partly due to the weather and partly due to heavy operations for the past few months, the crew seemed to be turning lotus eaters en masse, inervated and content just to sit in the shade of a TBF wing. LJ' rv' il Y , 'Q gin? .551 ,Q 51 f, 'gf 51 l i I l it .... ELET ' 1' www-.Q V' A :Fix 1' I On August 21 Captain T. P. Jeter received orders to leave the Bunker Hill and to report to the Commander, Battleship Force, Pacific Fleet, where he was to be Chief of Staff. Our new skipper, Captain Marshall R. Greer, Naval aviator of the old school, took over his new command in a simple, but impressive ceremony on the hangar deck. In departing Captain Jeter expressed deeply-felt apprecia- ffl. Q. 'i ' GH, . d7fm..-- rl ...-SVA l , tion for the crew and their work under him, in taking over Captain Greer expressed his pride to be stepping into the life of the Bunker Hill. He quickly won the hearts of the crew when, in his deliberate manner of speaking, he pointed out that loyalty . . ., goes 'down . . . as well as up. A heart-warming feature of the new Captain's beginning came when he announced that he had stopped in Pearl Harbor and visited Admiral Ballentine, who wanted the crew of this ship to know that the Bunker Hill is still my first love . . . Late August. News reports reaching us were devoured hungrily by brothers-in-arms, Pacific Area, who read that American mechan- ized might was delivering death blows to the Nazi beast in France. 'Blood and Guts' . . . new paratroop assaults behind enemy lines . . . cheering throngs sweeping deGaulle's staff car as he drove from one French town to the next. Stories telling of the mademoi- selles entertaining GI Joe were hard to take out

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A this way. The nearest thing to Parisian fem- inity we had seen in months were dehydrated French fries-or can you imagine? . - - Anyway we were proud of the soldiers and sailors who had worked so magnificently to- gether in the European theatre, a job 610116 so well that General Ike Eisenhower had been led to say: We are here to stay . . . afi- SECOND PALAU But the Bunker Hill had to forget the mes- dames, and forget them quickly. We joined forces of the U. S. Third Fleet, shaking sea- going hands again with Admiral William Bull Halsey, who was going to take us on one of his little trips. It had been a long time since we saw Admiral Santa Claus, and all hands were busy speculating as to where we would go before the famous South Pacific Commander would stop to rest. Our first mission was to lay waste to and support landings in the Palau Islands, a job that began with several hundred bangs early in September. With the clearing-away program well under way, part of our forces steamed west to take part in an epoch-making strike: the return of carrier-based planes to the Philippines after an absence of nearly three years. Mindanao was the target, more specif- ically the town of Davao and its outlying air- fields and installations. On hand for the Palau and Mindanao strikes were the Hon. Artemus L. Gates, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Air, and his aide, Captain B. W. Wright, USN. These officials had fiown all the way from Washington for an inspection of the latest Navy conquests, and, more specifically, to make a combat cruise aboard an aircraft carrier. The N avy's return to the Philippines was almost disappointing for its primed pilots. Sweeps over Mindanao and its adjacent har- bors, channels and islands netted no air op- position, and the fighters had to content them- selves with strafing land and surface targets. Bombers and torpedo planes soared in behind 1 46 the fighters, picking their targets cautiously from the clear, green-covered countryside and towns. Hangars and buildings in airfield areas were smashed into ruins, while other bombs were dropped among parked aircraft in dispersal areas. Harbors were cleared of sampans and coastwise craft, while a sub- marine and a medium-sized AK were also destroyed. It was almost a perfect day, marred only by the loss of veteran-of-two theatres Lieutenant Art Jones, former Ameri- can pilot in RAF, and his radioman, W. L, Oliver, who were forced to parachute from their burning plane over the target. higib ,W MINDANAO Southern Mindanao was still the target on September 10, and strikes were ordered in to level Davao town. Lieutenant C. W. Smith left the town in the dark by slam- ming home a 1000-pounder on the Davao Power and Light Company, while Lieutenant Red Carmody, Lieutenants Cjgb Jack O'Neil and Bob Horne and Ensign D. M. Blatz tore up commercial buildings over the business area. Everything from the Imperial Council Hall to Saleelv Pool Room was blasted, and retiring planes at sunset reported the city submerged in a pall of thick smoke. On September 12 we were back in the Phil- ippine area, sending strikes into an areaabout 150 miles southwest of Samar Island. Prize packages of enemy shipping were spotted north of Cebu Island, and two strikes WCFC detailed to concentrate on this prey. When the afternoon's work was over two shipS, totalling 14,000 tons, had been sunk, five ships heavily damaged and probably sunk, and five ships damaged, not counting Sam- pans and luggers. The bomb-laden planes labored long and heavily, and the fighter C0111- bat air patrol routed out and shot down tW0 Bettys for lack of something better t0 do- One of our screening destroyers chased d0Wf1 a small craft, and took forty-fourjapanese pris- oners. The captured Nips stared dazedljf 5 .,.g,, -' . sri ri. f