Bunker Hill (CV 17) - Naval Cruise Book

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After the Truk attack Lieutenant Com- mander Shifiey received a double promotion, advancing to the rank of Commander and assuming command of the Air Group, leaving with the unswerving gratitude and loyalty of every member of the squadron. He was succeeded by Lieutenant Com- mander James D. Arbes, USN, who fitted in the picture as smoothly as though he'd been with the outfit all along, and immedi- ately took over in every respect and proved to be a superlative commanding ofiicer, and to win similar admiration and respect. On the 16th of June the most exciting news of the war leaked out, the build-up for the Bombers' greatest strike. The Jap Heet re- portedly had sortied and was enroute to intercept our force. Immediately began a series of searches hunting down the little yellow men. Late in the afternoon of the 20th the Jap fleet was contacted and a deck load was launched from the Bunker Hill, including twelve bombers. It was a dramatic situation. Skipper Arbes and each of his men knew the hazards confronting them, the range, the impending darkness, the calibre of the op- position, but they flew off confidently. And K -'z z' V., -f. 1 ft '- QW? f 'W-wr . N, iv- ' f ,fs .-Q1--,, 2.213.341-f.. .K I wg PX, 15f:.2vi ' ,f H' f ggwi'-212. af ' -, v. . ,:,1,fs1 -, ' A -. .2-T71.'f -t' 'ifhrfz s. Q, '- X 5 3511 -.ggi-5 if, , fz. , N . 4 f . sw X? 'MQW' s XM.. if ' ! 2 ' -- .!- 11 5,5 3 I-aj-ia-.',1 HQ E , S, gal Pia' -3 -. , Q3 X i xi f4.x.,,gsi35., f. .- A 'X , , ev 144, nf,i'!55i:.5ff 5.15 -,. ,.,, 3 7 Ab, ,- -f Jgf 52X2Lff'L:.'f'1'1 fx ff . cw' , f ' .. 1-vs 33- M .' i 1 ' 4- ' Q- 3 -' if.- 'f.-'i f U .f X I ' . lg uf 1I5J?Q1'3ff'7ali7,'f 'N ff' ' if ,,f, if . a ' f ff 6, 'fa--'fr 'K-T':.s y -rw .J .' f . V , v,f,,C,'fg,yi . ' 5-1Ej i.fg-if:gg,,E5.' 5, - I A r jt3J1jrfiLfri:3,1ff wwjgi' .. - If ,- ,, ' .gf s . . 1. , , ff-21111. ' ' sy-f. - ,fglf--,,. f 1 7 4 -- -, ,f rw -an f -.aria-,,. ' 1 i Q' - ' ' .j ' ' If 4.-if I N' '+A' fxlffif' fp: I 5 W -N E 4 W' 'J ' ' - ' n-M-Q 'ti -- ' 4 f' 1 4 f 3 .. i Q.,'.., sf, 1 :1 if .rv-W'g ',,.2,, i-- , ,..i-,..- . 'TVHFQF' f 2 ' f2il i'i '-Q 7 ' , ,J . V ' -gafffl. A it - NX ,V . NM.. , .,, , .ryk it was a black night aboard. With almost no word as to results, they had the discour- aging tally of not a single bomber returning to the Bunker Hill at the end of the attack. On the 21st the scene cleared a little. Ken Holmes, the only man to land aboard a car- rier, returned early. Then all day aviators and gunners were returned via the vigilant destroyers that had rescued them from their fleet of rubber boats. The count mounted. The Skipper returned, then Jones and Pilcher, Scheff, Horn, Sharp, Mooty, all with their rear-seat men, and fin- ally Perry Huntsman and his gunner, Houston, who had spent more than fifty hours in a life raft under the broiling tropic sun. Photo- graphic evidence showed incredibly good re- sults. Out of twelve bombs, VB 8 scored nine hits, six on a carrier which was probably sunk, two on a battleship and a very dam- aging blow to a cruiser. As in every victory, it exacted a heavy toll however, as six men failed to return: Lieu- tenants Cjgj C. D. Smith, Robert E. Sterling and James C. McIntyre, and their gunners K. E. Barttelbaugh, ARM1c, Harry Ashton, ARMIC, and Robert N. Varrette, ARMQC. It was one of the most successful dive bomb- ing attacks in history and the squadron takes pardonable pride in the men who participated. As a kind of anti-climax the bombers flew a strike against Pagan Island in the Marianas group on June 24, returned to the Marianas to support the Guam invasion and for three days rained bombs on the key point of the island-Orote Peninsula with its air craft and military facilities. It was not a glamorous assignment, aimed at gun positions principally, but it was a workmanlike job of destruction. On July 26 they returned to Palau for a two-day operation, moved on to the scene of their first endeavors and attacked another two-day strike on the Bonin Islands, only six hundred miles short of Tokyo. By that time they thought they'd seen all the anti- aircraft the japs had in reserve but the Nip had an unwelcome surprise at Iwo and Chichi Jima. The sky was literally black with AA. Then a return to Palau to soften it up for the

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the squadron inaugurated its training, con- tinued, after becoming Bombing Eight, at neighboring Fentress Field which was to be the base for the summer. On the side of experience were Skippers Shifiey and Dew, six battle-scarred veterans of the valiant Enterprise, Red Carmody, Les Ward, john Ritchie, Bruce McGraw, Benny Shefchik and jim Keefeg and the redoubtable Flying Mustache-A. D. jones-back from many a Mustang sortie against the bloody ferries. As for the rest, the majority was composed of ensigns fresh from fiight training but none the less convinced they knew all the answers. It was a herculean task that confronted Skipper Shifiey, and he inaugur- ated an intensive training program with the emphasis on bombing and gunnery. Right from the very beginning one man emerged from the crowd to become the driv- ing force of the squadron, big, energetic, en- thusiastic M. D. Big Red Carmody. A veteran of some of the Enterprise's most grueling battles, he had the word on carrier operations and an incomparable ability to drive his point home. He and Les Ward toiled unceasingly in fiight, in lectures, and in bull sessions to mould an integrated squad- ron from the divers material at hand. They had to learn to fly alike, think alike, act alike and gradually with Red's ringing ad- monition, You've got to play it smart as a by-word, they began to round into shape. Early in December they were off to the war, or so they thought. However, due to an un- foreseen chain of circumstances, they laid over in Panama for a week and naturally embarked on another final whirl. After furthering Latin-American relations for several days they took departure again, but the ship hugged the west coast of the U. S. and docked at San Francisco, just in time for the holiday season! In 'Frisco the squadron threatened to dis- integrate entirely, Lieutenant Cjgj jack O'Neil recalled. The human constitution, it became apparent, could stand only just so many farewell parties. We managed to hold out through the New Year, though, and on January 6, 1944, we took sad leave of the U. S., headed West. After some nine months of training we were off to the war. But still another disillusionment was in store for us. Before we even came in sight of the fabulous Diamond Head the squadron was launched and we moved to Maui, the jewel of the Hawaiians. Bitter as was the initial disappointment, this was the luckiest move yet. It made two things possible. First, the polishing of a squadron grown stale from lack of fiying time during the farewell tours of the previous two months, and most important, it gave us our chance to move aboard the U.S.S. Bunker Hill, the finest carrier in the fieetf' At Maui the bombers dug into intensive training operations free- from the distractions of such worldly billets in San Franciscoand Norfolk. Meanwhile they sent emissaries to the Bunker Hill in the person of Arthur jones, Don Johnston, Perry Huntsman and Wilbur Bigger Ballance, who operated with Bombing Seventeen during the Marshalls and Marianas operations of February. They came 'back with glowing reports and the squadron climbed aboard on March 14, 1944. The rest was easy. After a couple Of group gropes, Ctraining exercises to the un- initiatedj they set out for the first encounter with the japs. On March 30 Skipper Shifley led the first of the strikes against Palau, the strategic Jap naval base in the Western Pacific. F ortwo days Bombing Eight pounded shipping and installations with wave after wave of Helldivers. When the smoke had cleared away conservative estimates gdVC them five ships sunk and many others badlY damaged. It was an auspicious beginning: and transformed the squadron into battle- tested combat pilots, baptized under fire. Heartened by its initial success, Bombing Eight began compiling one of the finest records made in the Pacific, marched their bombS across Hollandia, jinked through the Dubl011' Eton slot at Truk, and paraded on to the Philippines.

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landing forces, and Ward's division found a DD that they were able to damage despite the bad weather. Jim Keefe was shot down, but rescued before he'd hardly gotten wet, with his gunner, R. I. Whitaker, ARM1c, sustain- ing a slight injury. As September wore on, they hit Davao, ran into heavy AA, and saw Art Jones and his gunner forced to bail out. They moved to the Central Philippines on the 12th and 14th, sank two ships, heavily damaged an- other, damaged five others, ranged far and wide, hitting airields on Leyte, N egros and Cebu, with Drone Weber hitting a daily double when he shot down a Hamp on the pullout from his first dive, in which he did not drop his bombs. He found a PC a little later and sank it with a direct' hit, with the entire flight as audience. Fierce and Ward smoked some airborne planes but couldn't claim conflrmeds. Back to Palau to support landings on the seventeenth, followed by a full dress crack at the Philippines, hitting Clark Field, Subic Bay, San'Fernando, and other assorted targets. It was in the attack on Clark Field that C. F. Jukebox Carrico, ARM1c riding with Al Mooty, shot a Zeke off their tail. V Y A few days later Benny Shefchif lighted off a 10,000-ton oiler in the attack on Koron Bay, a hop characterized by extreme range and intense anti-aircraft fire. Over in the Visayas area they racked up three ships sunk. It was at Matsuyama and Shinikiku air- fields in Formosa, October 12, 13 and 14 they mauled hangars, barracks and other in- stallations as well as blasting a lot of small AKs. Mid-October was marked by the searches for the reported Jap fleet, long, tire- some patrols with the navigation board being both a bore and a thing of hope as it showed the course through the search. On Gctober 16, Tommy Shea found a unit, comprised of two Kongo class battleships, three heavy and one light cruiser and eight destroyers. Unable to get his message through, the news was bottled in his cockpit until he returned to the force, too late for a strike to be launched. . . . AND SO DAY BY DAY It's three o'clock in the morning Not time for the last waltz with you Good Night Sweetheart . . . This is dance macabre . . . War . . . Mars dressed up and plenty of places to go The lilting, yet jarring and irrational of Reveille resound throughout the bouncing off bulkheads and blasting sciousness into the most remote corners .tif this mass of steel, twisted into feline' gi-ages fulness by the sweat of man's brow .1 .1 L The pilot swings down sleepily from his bunk, cringing slightly when his feet touch the cold deck . . . The plans for this day+ minute by inexorable minute-were conceived months ago . . . A green cloth-covered table . . , Smoke-filled room. . .Stars on shoulder straps sparkled like the stars in the Pacific skies . . . These stars above us once looked upon an enemy triumphant . . . Now in their timelessness they witness his retreat . . . Hey, what'd you get . . . 240? '. . 1. Right on the nose . . . Brother, Pm the greatest Nav' expert in the Navy .' . . From the island, the scene is eerie . . . Fascinating . . . Flight deck crews are only silhouettes in the gloom . . . Then, The Voice . . . Gabriel's trumpet on Judgment Day . . . The third, and most important senat- ence, START ENGINES . . . Sputter Sigh . . . Sputter . . . Spit . . . Roar. . Louder . . . Purr . . . Scream . . . Steady' . . . Swift streaks of purple flame from exhausts . . . Crescendo . . . The of destruction has finished tuning up Shaded lights appear along the flight . . . As if by magic, lighted wands beckon, motion, stop . . . A plane forward . . . The pilot is dimly outlined the red glow in the cockpit . . . FLAG . . . Tail up, stick forward, throttle . . . Perfect takeoff . . . . . Then another . . . Red and wing lights flash on . . . The sky in east is paling . . . The rendezvous Then on into the Unknowni. . .