Bunker Hill (CV 17) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 156 text:

X kt, 8417261 -q ETHOIIDZ 6 1 fwginazva :mm .Iwo Qgfafgug Zfbrffzam ' :vfllfake Q Wayan aa Ljfffariazza 3. -E Vg I N Q Jizfaz' a fa W1 pl vw JK Y M I - gzzzkuefokyi E j E? Qgjfwajalezgq I IEWQIZQZEMH ISLE. iigiuk-' .Femme Y 'l ,lxl b NJ 'I ' ' C, Q? Ill-is 4: 361955 .564 Qr aiine fy Za n df Zffyi If ' -, q if., SSM ' A I RJ '30 l Mmakefa Wifmouien 19 1a1'lditL may 15. cggmw . ,A ', I. ,K SC X t Q-Mymiqa qw I fH 0 A? Ireland eg. rf Q G I ougain 111716 G I 'e-nv- gr X Nif0i?ff'?Z'Zds 6 ff- T I 7, 5 wfim 0 Guadaffan? Syd! cfxfobaz . WL 0 'LH A I JK 2595 1 tn. KQXIIR- X 1' 3 i i bi ff ,1

Page 155 text:

tire from the screen shot them down. Eight minutes later our own guns opened fire to port and from then on it was touch and go as we fought off repeated attacks and repelled planes nightlong. A total of fifteen enemy planes were destroyed by night fighters and gunfire from our own task group in a night laced with the crescent, red tracers that etched the sky. Twin high spots of the evening were these: At 2030, an enemy bomber almost blundered into the ship, avoiding the island structure by a matter of a few feet, his engine roaring off into the night and the plane silhouetted in gunfire. Shortly before midnight, guns again answered to attack, this time seeking planes that streamed the awful light of parachute fiares. The attack was accurate, the light brilliant and nauseating. Sparks and burning fragments threatened the deck and the ship lay bathed in the eerie illumination. Wle waited, a perfect target for a sneak attack. Gunners trained their eyes into the blackness. On the bridge, Lieutenant Cjgj Ralph Burgin stood at the ship's amplifying system, his voice crackling with cool conhdence as he described the scene to men below decks. The fiares fell closer and closer aboard and as their trailing lacework of sparks seemed certain to hit us, the twenty-millimeter bat- tery on the port side opened up to shoot the guts out of the parachutes and render them harmless as they fell with a hiss into the sea. The following day, after a midnight-to- dawn Condition One Easy, the strikes went over as scheduled but found little of the op- position met the day before. Ernie Beau- champ found a Dinah to swell his total, George Kirk got a Zeke, and a Topsy was the victim of Avenger pilots Robinson and Pittman, assisted by D. R. Smith, Pittman's gunner, and a 'helpful Hellcat. At evening the ,laps came again but were unable to penetrate the defense. The day saw the loss of Lieu- tenant CjgD Pete Evanoff and his Helldiver radioman, J. F. Jenkins, who bailed out over the target. The two-day toll of men lost was high: Lieutenant Cjgj Norman Red Imel, Fighting Eight's Character, was forced to bail out over the target after his plane was set afire by AA, and Lieutenant Cjgb Hank Sharp and his radioman, J. R. Langioff, made a water landing in their Helldiver in a spot believed inaccessible to rescue efforts. Formosa was again boresighted October 14, as a strike of twenty-three fighters and 10 bombers fought through opposition that spelled death to a dozen enemy planes airborne over Taien, and smashed twen ty-six planes aground, leveled several buildings, a radio station and gun emplacements. During the day, thirty- one enemy planes were shot down over the force, with our CAP and ASP accounting for six of them. One was shot down by ship's guns during one of the afternoon attacks in which the Jap sought futilely to tally on us under the protection of stormy skies. Dive- bombing Judys were splashed by Czekala and T. I. Brown, a Dinah by Gociog a Betty by Mendoza, a Nick by Rehm and a Kate by Vanderlinden. The attacks on the ship and the force reached full-dress stature in mid- afternoon, as we cut through squalls and storm, when Chaplain Dreith, making the play-by-play report over the announcing sys- tem, passed the word: Stand by for a straf- ing attack. All hands not actively engaged in the defense of the ship take cover. His words needed no repeating. The Jap strafers apparently lost us as a target, however, as the attack failed to materialize. An exhausted crew secured from General Quarters about 1930, and tension began to ease off. The next day information was re- ceived that the Jap fleet was again at sea, north of our force, postponing for the time the future schedules for attacks against the Philippines. Searches were launched October 16, while we heard Radio Tokyo boast how its fieet was engaged in cleaning up rem- nants of the great American fleet. Bogeys careened blazing into the sea a half-dozen times during the day, shot down near the force by our own Combat Air Patrol, or en- countered by the Hghters escorting the search planes. The first search fCominued an page 1543

Page 157 text:

he-fff - I WW Emu mn ,Mn 6 yi A l ililiiiiiiiiii fan, Fwzcz fs ffl J ff QQ 0 f Malta if Jignjjiigif' 'rliawl' ed ,ffawaii .jolmslon Q, F10 0 Cgff JZ 4 Eraangga lrlamic A M 0 If fc m ' Mago77ago Q, 0.3 ' La v 0 O O 5' .tilfii K' ' 11311 'GSK 'P- LSB 4 1 1 f if 520 Pacjcjlezzfre NOV. 1 V. 44 ' ' 'K ff . fx