Bunker Hill (CV 17) - Naval Cruise Book

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AIR GROUP EIGHT .K Z HQ JA, ,mL.t..e...,. .. . 2-it-sw.. ..-W ...MJ - X J N--g...e,,..- ,.... M- x , ,. Li A -1.,.,.e, A. .,,,,-f 1 5 g ft 9 g ,' i 5 l ., if a ,ig I 1 1,53 J' X'-if 2 X ,fl 1 I- 1 ' ,f I K S, f! Masterl performances etch: their combat career The missions Q' Air Group Eight earriea' squadrons swy'tly across the Paeihe, age .the Yap Fleet ana' into the Philippines. can-nnaumunmmn.-x-vasanwm,-g2.u.mv-Q., mumuwvwaumxmmuuvffmavmhunyf-aw-ae.7ive-.f.rw-,,-,-f.q-.1g1..s.- ommander Andrew lVlcB. Jackson J USN, aeronautical engineer and vet- eran of duty in Scouting and Fight- ing squadrons, moved from the Fighter desk of BuAer to become Commander, Air Group Eight upon its commissioning in June, 1943. With his squadron skippers, he paced the Group through its intensive train- ing and fiew it aboard as a highly polished team. He led it personally on ten combat missions before being promoted to ship's Navigator, when he turned over the command to the erstwhile Bombing Eight skipper, Com- mander Ralph L. Shirley, USN. A precision flyer whose wingman vowed he kn Commander Shifley leld the Group through most of its long tour f d o uty, always was found where the going was tou hest and g the anti-aircraft fire the hottest. ew no fear, 202 1 4

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The Night Fighters flew aboard late in jan um-y, 1944-five young flyers sporting Hell- Cats specially designed for night aerial com- bat. Leading the detachment was youthful, ambitious Lieutenant Commander Evan Pete Aurand, USN, skipper not only of the Bunker Hill's detachment but also of two similar units on sister carriers. With him landed Lieutenant Cjgj Norman Doc Davis- son, his Exec, and Ensigns Robert Bice, john Bertie and jack Connor. Within a month, they had seen their first action. They had been scheduled to fly an intruder mission to open the first raid on Saipan and Tinian and their takeoff had been delayed by the all-night air attack on the ship, thus finding them over the target after sunrise-and heavily outnumbered by inter- cepting enemy fighters. In a brief but hot flurry of scrapping, they knocked out five Jap fighters. Bertie totted up three confirmeds, two of them after receiving serious wounds to himself and heavy damage to his plane, and for which he was awarded the Navy Cross. Skipper Aurand added a Distinguished Fly- ing Cross to a Navy Cross previously won while a divebomber pilot, for his part in the action, and Davisson the Air Medal. Bitsy Bice, however, failed to return. Combat missions at Kwajalein, Eniwetok, New Guinea, Guam, Iwo and HaHa Jima were logged by the night fighters in addition to the monotonous night watches which they stood while the ship operated in combat areas. Those watches led to an odd type of carrier duty for the Black Chickens of which no small part were the conversational free-for- alls that developed. Their Ready Room Log records one thusly: The pin-up of Lena Horne opened a discussion of her singing. We then kicked around the following topics, in this order: jazz music and orchestras, -the art of the performer in music and acting, the theatrical profession, radio broadcasting, misrepresentation of the news, journalism, the realities of war, patriotism, political per- secution, death and the fear of same, pro- hibition. I was going to remark that the conversation has been noteworthy for not even touching on Women-but just now. . . Additions to the squadron during its time aboard were Lieutenants Cjgj Paul Kepple, and julian K. jollife. Bertie and Connor, it might be noted, had achieved the rank of lieutenant, junior grade-thus dropping claims to being the Navy's oldest ensigns- and the new rank did not sway established seniority privileges, such as who did the engine tune-ups or who calls for coffee. One thing the night fighters did have was squadron administration. They were admin- istered by a full-dress set of A-VCSD officers. In fact, for each pilot, there was one admin- istrative oflicer! Clixplanations that they also handled the detail work of the units on the other carriers never did carry much weightj Lieutenant VV. VVild Bill Cunningham led off the desk jockeys, followed closely by Lieutenant V. S. Mitchell, Lieutenant Cjgj C. M. Martenson of flying destroyer fame was listed as the Fighter Director Officer, and Ensign R. D. Slobodin the ACI officer. The extracurricular flying that the squad- ron did majored in lifesaving procedure par- ticularly effective for pilots downed in target areas, and many were the missions carried out by Aurand Sz Co. giving an assist to dunked pilots. Many of the missions, too, were conducted in the face of gunfire from Nips seeking to isolate the pilot for their own purposes. Squadron casualties, besides Bice, were Doc Davisson, missing in action off Guam on june 19, 1944, and Joliffe, missing at sea May 2, 1944. I 201

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can-,C in Autumn of 1943, but the Bunker Hill had to wait until March, 1944, to meet Fighting Eight, a union that was to become terrifying news to Japanese airmen, Sailor soldiers, sampan coxswains, beach gunnel-S and several umbrella salesmen who were mis- taken for paratroopers. The formal meeting of the air group and the ship was short and without ceremony, Red Imel said, When do we eat and where do we sleep? and the pains of introduction were over. Fighting Eight and the Bunker Hill were inseparable friends, and each was to complement the other as the days and weeks and months of operations were woven into a pattern of destruction and conquest. Fighting Eight was a collection of vigorous individuals moulded into a powerful, con- fident team. Its history covers eighteen months of colorful behavior, and its trail- counting training grounds and combat forays -stretches half way 'round the world. What began as a nucleus of several veterans and two-score youngsters back on the tidewater sourlands of Virginia shaped into a galaxy of aerial stars in action: men who took the bombers and torpedo planes in to the target and brought them back, men who sent hell- driven attackers hurtling into blue space and blue water, men who rode the routine com- bat circuit during the days of monotony, Warriors who gave everything they had when the chips were down, some of them never regaining any part of what they offered. . . . In the beginning there was one man, Commander William M. Collins, skipper of Fighting Eight. A Virginian, taciturn, re- sourceful, energetic, the man who was to show them how to be ace gunners and the pilot who was to fly them through those Hrst months of painful shaping, the captain was to lead them on attack missions into enemy skies. He was to see his boys Hy unbeliev- ably long hours, take chances that for the time would not seem worth the risk involved, suffer from monotony Cas all warriors some- times dojg he was also to see them S119-FC generously in a glory that had nO 1'CC0fded Sa equal: wiping out an entire Japanese Naval 311' fleet in a single day's work. Commander Collins envisaged these hardships . . . and glories . . . and so he sought to build Fight- mg Elght with hand-picked veterans and in- defatigable newcomers, starting back in June of 1943 . . . It was spring, all right, and the day in Jacksonville, Florida, was hot. The new skip- per of a new Fighting Eight, Commander Collins, had just finished a squadron com- mander course at the gigantic Naval Air Base out from Jacksonville. He had spent several weeks considering his rising responsibilities, knowing full well that the Navy counted on him-and counted heavily-for 1942 and -'ffgfi '1,gfQxifffe iFf? X, -,D-i.,-K 4 , ' is 5,e.pi.:,5:'fg y,',r7'33,,M3V M. 'V fri.: pg' 1 i i 3551 K ' ii 'el sl X ,. il , il 221235 711.3 f.,,fgt tf 1 n J if if 5 at ,Q , A. .K 3 l eng ll' diff --'-. E wil-fpf i.-f e-Al V3 N V H5 V ,gQw1,giigia5:,? f ag, 3 4 ' f. 1 J 'g,,,'l p ff 'i f i i i it 1 f . .. 1 4 Q5 ' : I .Q ' ' ' 2 ,a , 5, ,7 , iii, 1 H 9- 1 X , fx-5 I J :Qlf 1 ' .4 'M'-- ' ' i - . 4 . ua , ' lf 1 'fi ' , .-4 'hi if -, . , 4: r YQA 5 Z L6 N... A e l f '-tif s X .T I: V I- I i Q ,AA X I Q,- . f 5 ll '- V' W., 1 . l li-fir! Y V' 3 'I e - i v i 1 .w u u V , 'W KST- A V, Q , ., ' '.,. i IW ' 'l lf -- '. ' Q I, mm- I ,J 55.1, Nvvvii imvfxi ,P ' - .1 fiiiiili ill f :ww .r , I -SJW 4, 'f,..,f,j, Ji, WV, !Yj1,Ei,f,,!w,,xw, , - L'f'll'l ',f'filn 4. .1 'ma a W , ,Ml 'wldriili 1 '- 1 m.yp,,g .ig , i 1' ,, 5'- in, ll ff ,ff-. e 1 lgfzlliif! ei. F ri- 1 i . x X ir S 3 af 5.5 Pg, X .1 ' v o if i . X' 1 r Y i +- v 3' ' ff Vi . .3 . X 7,4 v..w,,if3Q4, A .1-lf E . I Ai Pvt gif- f r 1f' 5 ' 1 LTU i - f I J wifi' pggkf -e Q .K 1 ,LM . g In lb, , I ' V La. X New Q 1 .1-A? -V Y Eu iii-elsif .T J s if ' l , ' , rw- ' ,' QL, ip' ,L 4389, ' '3 '?47iga:r.a, early 1943 had been costly months for Ameri- can aircraft and carriers in the far-Hung Pacific, where inferior forces were meeting around-the-clock schedules in stemming a Nippon tide that threatened to engulf nearly half of the world. One day before leaving Jacksonville Commander Bill met a battle- wise lieutenant who at the time was an in- structor at Jacksonville, Lieutenant Scott lVIcCuskey Qnow Lieutenant Commanderi. After several hours and much conversation, Commander Collins had persuaded lVlcCuskey to join Fighting Eight, a task that wasn't too difficult in view of lVIcCuskey's checkered