Bunker Hill (CV 17) - Naval Cruise Book

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about, probably never knowing what a stir they caused among American seamen, who curiously fought for a good look at their enemy specimens. QSEQL PHILIPPINES Gperations the next day continued in the same area, with strikes sent out over Legaspi, Fabrica, Cebu and Alicante. Strong air opposition was encountered by our lighters on their first sweep over the Legaspi and Negros areas. Our fighters and planes from another of our carriers joined up and were busily engaged straiing airfield installations when they discovered that a swarm of Jap Zekes had moved in above them. Lieutenant Cronin, with a three-plane division composed of himself and Lieutenants C gj George Groves and john Vanderhoof were working together, and 'Hoof' discovered that enemy planes were present when Zero bullets began passing through his cockpit. Miraculously unhit, Van- derhoof found that his engine was missing, coughing oil and threatening to conk out on him. Groves turned to cover him, and the two began a flight toward friendly waters. Vanderhoof was forced into the water about four miles offshore, with one Hellcat above him standing between him and sure capture. Groves provided the one-man cover until his gasoline was running low. He then joined the flight back to the ship, which had been radioed for a rescue plane. 'Hoof' pulled out all the survivors' tricks in the bag, spurred considerably by the sight of three Jap patrol boats combing the water for him but encouraged by a pair of Hellcats that were keeping him in sight. For six hours he fought the currents to stay out from shore and relievedly greeted the sight of the rescue plane, escorted by two night fighters. The cruiser pilot made the pick-up without diffi- culty but on retirement a Betty stood in to challenge,making no attempt to run until the Black Chickens, Lieutenant Commander Aur- and and Lieutenant Cjgj Connor, pounced down. The scene was enlivened by the ac- curacy of the Jap tail gunner, who scored scratch hits on both night lighters before Connor finally made the put-out. Over Negros, Fighting Eight was having the Held day that it had sought for so long. The japs fielded some fierce airborne resist- ance, led off by a four-plane group of Oscars attempting a run on the bomber and torpedo planes. Lieutenant Commander Ron Hoel's division put a stop to that, I-Ioel smoking one from a head-on run and his wingman, Jack McGuire, throwing so much lead into another that the pilot parachuted for his life. McGuire then got into a rat-race with a Zeke and literally flew it into the ground. Over in another corner of the arena Lieutenant Cjgj George Kirk set up a kill for his wingman, Lieutenant Cjgj Tommy O'Boyle, then jumped the tail of another Nip fighter, leaded it down with .50 caliber and caused it to crash, and then went on to make his bomb drop. Pulling out, he found himself in the middle of another dog-fight, burned one out of the sky and broke up that party. Lieutenant Lloyd Hein- zen had his division working up a good lather, too, setting the pace by plugging an Oscar while Ensign Czekala exploded a Zeke, Lieu- tenants I-Iobbs and Mendoza tagging a single- ton and a pair, respectively. Czekala, however, had taken some damage to his plane and was forced to bail out, but mounted a life raft dropped to him, and was picked up after five hours of sun bathing. The bomber and torpedo pilots weren't wasting time that morning, either. Lieuten- ant Les Ward spotted an Oscar below him in his dive and smoked it with a few choice bursts, part of a double play that saw Lieu- tenant jack Weber, following Ward, tag the Nip for a kill. Lieutenants Cjgj Pete Evanoff and Tommy Shea, and Ensign Ralph Fierce of the bombers also had similar experiences but could claim no better than probables. Lieutenant Cjgj Ernie Leggett picked up a Zeke in his dive, but couldn't quite reach him with his wing guns, so Lieutenant Cjgj johnny 147

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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

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i l xrfviq, l 1 131 0 3,5 EJ 1 1 in Fx! , 1 1 111 'll v , 4 ii. 1 z I I , V. '1 W If 1 ' 4 -1, rl 1 1 , A r, ' 1 1 i Peacock put his Avenger crewmen in pOS1t1011 to score at least a probable- Lieutenant Weber scored for a daily double by routing out a 300-ton patrol craft and pouring his bomb load on it, sinking it before squadron mates could get around to do muCh strafing damage to it. During all this time, other bomber and torpedo pilots had gone from one end of the island to the other raising all sorts of hell, firing ammo dumps, fuel storage tanks, blast- ing barracks and hangar areas and causing gasoline rationing to go into immediate effect with the destruction of the facilities of the Asiatic Petroleum Company. The early morning Hghter sweep, getting negative results on a search for shipping off Cebu, returned to Negros to paste a group of thirty Bettys, Topsys, Judys, Zekes and Oscars found around. Mindanao loomed darkly out of the sea as we pulled away from the area, the following two days dedicated to standing by to support the landings on Palau but not until September 17, D Plus Two, were we called upon, and then but to do pin-point bombing on Angaur, where troops also were going ashore. No-someone was kidding! Manila? Nobody was kidding, Manila was the next target, so we took another hitch in our belts, followed the progress of the Browns and Tigers in the American League pennant chase, and prepared to do some more slugging. The mail delivery was remarkable, destroyers sid- ling up to us a couple times a week with letters from those S 8: S gals. That helped. September 21. Admiral Halsey marched American air power back to Manila . . . The white-starred fighters, bombers, torpedo planes threw shadows over Cavite, Correg- idor . . . Promised to come back . . . Commander Shifley was nominated ship- ping evaluator for the entire force, and combed the area in routing out a total of 107 ships, at least forty-two of them ranging from med- ium to large transports and cargo ships, in and around Manila Bay Cavite, Subic Bay, Marivele s Harbor and off' the Capone Islands ' f 4 'tg Q A' lu.. 1 1.4 , The first fighter sweep caught the Jap with his planes down at Clark and Nichols fields, and the bombers hunted down a five-ship convoy outbound from Subic Bay, sinking two definitely and leaving the other three in sinking conditions. 4-fc Q F V , 1, ' ,31 'f , ' Q Q5 'ffm -Ji. ,K 'fl bb-f'7if.'f , , ,,., b I V . t iT ',:4V.,:, , J P Tfljilffj F . - ' gi':.'1'g.:L'5 1 , .N Q ,y -,.l,-,...,,,.., A , Q ' ff ..,g1i1:i..g1L,7i:,zf 5?'1iml??Q'l . 'C ' 1 1 I . 3 1 C f . ,f-M-. 1 .f C 1 5? :fff .. X ...M f-ff' '41 1 ' Q ' ff 'f 1 ...-...,.,, 'a-time ff' ,ff f f Jr -'wif IJ.-Q ff TJ -. ,,'5'- J' fi . . . fr' flffif 1571 L ' ,z 5 QM s .. 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W -.-nn...,.. --.......-................... I -A-3, -- ...- v,.,...,..,.... f.f..., -. s..s.-,.. Na-..-...,..-...--.....-.---....1. ,, -,... .--..,.,... ..- w5il'.5S'i2. Y-.. .f..v....n....,.......-........-...............-1.. -T-......----- .., . .Af ,F .sa .....r...-..., .f...-...,...... ,, , ...,.......,.l..-.......... The air opposition that did rise to meet the attack was swiftly slaughtered by ram- paging Fighting Eight. Lieutenant Com- mander McCuskey burned down three, Lieu- tenants Cjgj Topliff and Longino flying hiS wings accounted for a pair apiece, as did Lieutenant Cjgj Johnny Galvin and Lieuten- ant Kirk. Everybody was scoring and the word got around fast that Fighting Eight finally had hit a jackpot. Bombers continued their powerhouse pal'- ade across Clark and Nichols fields, while back aboard the Bunker Hill the tension was .Off a little as the Jap made no attempt to strike back, heavy rain squalls keeping the entire force well covered. Sole shadow over the day's operations was the loss of Lieutenalff R. D. Horne and his rear-seat man, Lesl1C Stinson, whose plane was hit by AA thr0Wn up by the convoy outside Subic BRY- A two-strike schedule was carried out the following day, hitting such additional targets e seaplane base and shipping in Llngaye , Where one large and one medium S1 5 . . ' as th ' ' ' H . J i Zed' - transport were sunk, and two others left in 1 148 ifjfi z- ii fr F-