Bunker Hill (CV 17) - Naval Cruise Book

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erew pointed out, We hit on l'1OlidayS.n I said the next holiday was Lincoln's Birth- day, We don't wait for that, the gunner said, We'll make our own holidays. The question of leadership was discussed by the chaplain the other day. The chaplain said a majority of the men on this ship had never been to sea before they set out last Summer, and that an even larger proportion had never been aboard a carrier. He said few of these aboard were aware of the change that was taking place, as the green Crew shook down into high efficiency, until they had their Baptism of Fire at Rabaul, when 150 Japanese planes, including many dreaded Betties or low-flying bombers, were fought off with heavy losses to the Japs, and not one man pulled away from his post during the engagement. 'dia egg 9' BY PHILIP G. REED Aboard a United States Carrier Flagship off Palau, April 1-CDelayedD--CINSJ: A mighty force of carriers, battleships, cruisers and destroyers shouldered their way to within 500 miles of the Philippine Islands in a three- day display of shuddering power to clamp a giant hand of death and devastation on the Jap bases of Palau, Yap and Woleai. The attack also marked a new phase in the vast Pacific war when units of the Central Pacific Fleet which has been prowling through the Waters of the middle Pacific for weeks attempting to bring the Jap navy out for battle. The combined juggernaut which is spearheading the Tokio drive was infinitely more powerful than the armada which ,hit Truk February 16. The concentration of American naval might costing more than a billion and a half dollars was again thwarted in its attempt to COYHCF the Jap Heet, as the Jap high command, mind- ful of Truk's downfall under one crushing blow, turned and ran at the first sign Of all approaching hostile force. BY DAN McGUIRE Aboard a Carrier Flagship, Carolina Islands , May 1-CDCl2lyedJ-CUPD: Planes from thls huge carrier task force which battered Truk Saturday and Sunday met aerial opposi- mon OUIY 0116 Clay, but the flak from anti-air- craft fire was so heavy one pilot said you could get out and walk on it. Despite the intense fire, however, American losses were small. And the vessels which went ln so close to Truk that its islands were clear- ly visible, were not even damaged . Hundreds of fighters, dive-bombers and torpedo planes took part in the two-day assault and pounded the installations at Trukin to rubble, particularly Dublon Island, one of the main points of the big atoll. An intelligence ofiicer, Lt. Charles Tenney, said the town of Dublon was leveled. The task force planes alone dropped more than 120 tons of explosives on the targets during the two-day attack, which began at dawn Saturday. ff, 'llc F. - 311 BY GEORGE E. JONES Aboard a Carrier Flagship off Luzon, Sept. 21 CDelayedJ-CUPJ: War's jagged light- ning can strike twice in the same place. It happened today at Clark field, 40 miles north of Manila. Here, nearly three years ago, American flying fortresses were caught and smashed on the ground. Pursuit planes were wrecked before they could take to the air against the rising tide of Japanese in- vasion. Today, American planes came back to Clark field and visited identical destruction to Japanese planes now based there. Carrier- based fighters and bombers caught the enemy entirely by surprise, not only at Clark but at its satellite fields and other airstrips in northern Luzon. That was a contributing factor to the over-

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A Field Da Among Bunker Hill War Correspondents 55s..MM325.,fib-:x..55ff3.sx?Qx.A.sf.Cwis...:Ts--53493ibf'E1..f.f1is-fB..fiZfsa:15ff'b...fikftffbfTI: BY SPENCER DAVIS Aboard a Carrier Flagship off Truk, Feb. 17-CAPD-A powerful surface force de- tached to bottle up North Pass and sink cripples aided in exploding the myth of Truk. The Naval striking force, greatest ever assembled, hit in ten precision strikes over a two-day period. United States carrier planes flew more than 1000 sorties, dropping approximately 1000 tons of bombs, torpedoes and incendiaries. Only Toyko can say pos- itively how many of its subjects lost their lives. At the height of the first day's raids, a powerful force of battleships escorted by cruisers and destroyers separated from the main force to bottle up Truk's North Pass. This strategy led to the sinking of a cruiser and a destroyer within ten minutes in the maiden action for this nation's powerful dreadnaughts. Both enemy warships were sitting pigeons for the battleships after being roughly handled by Avenger torpedo bombers and dive bombers and left dead in the water. , 3 . BY ELMONT WAITE Aboard the Carrier Flagship-Central Pacific--CAPE--1t's the nameless who are winning the Pacific war. This is a ship nobody's ever heard of- yet in less than six months it and its planes have: shot down 109 Japanese planes, aided in sinking two cruisers, three destroyers and 13 cargo ships, damaged two additional cruisers, seven destroyers and another 13 cargo ships. This carrier is only one of many new war- 232 ...gfnKf:..iiff:,.... 5...tQ?fu.1if41fffX...:iJi.s.iffl.f.C'?' ships that have steamed into action out here in the last year. A Her Hight deck has been splashed with salt water more than once by geysering enemy bombs. But if this ship's name could be mentioned, not one American in a thousand would recall the brief story of her launching last year. One impressive reason for her fine score: She was deep in enemy waters and the loud speakers suddenly boomed, Large group of enemy planes approaching . . . The hundreds of gunners, plane handlers and seamen on her flight deck broke into a spontaneous cheer at the prospect of action. There was another cheer from everyone on deck the night that Lieutenant Commander Evan P. Aurand took off in the darkness, chased a Japanese snooper plane so far and so fast he almost burned out his engine and returned to make a perfect carrier landing in the darkness . . . 1 xx .-,, BY RAYMOND CLAPPER I Aboard an Aircraft Carrier, Somewhere in the Pacific: Few aside from professional Navy people can really know what is involved in being the skipper of a capital ship, espec- ally of a new carrier such as this one. A month after this ship was launched, the Captain set up offices ashore at the shipyard. From then until the middle of last year he and his staff worked at outfitting the ship. eWhen outfitting was finished they marched the crew aboard . . . This ship had its first action on Armistice Day at Rabaul. It was in action on ChristmaS Day and on New Year's Day. As one of the

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whelming success of our bombing and torpedo attacks against shipping in Manila harbor. Enemy fighters were able to offer only sporadic resistance in the air. The Japs at Clark field were completely demoralized, according to returning Amer- ican pilots. Said Ensign William McCormick of C502 Aldine St.D Chicago, a Hellcat pilot: On the first strike, we saw two fires spring up along the runways and installations. There were two columns of smoke, going up to five or six hundred feet in altitude. JE, : Q1 It 1 N 9- ' .. l 5 1 3-if WE LOOK AT THEM ar brings out unbelievable talents in a man. It has been known to make an ordinary fighting man a writer, and some writers have been hailed as conquerors on the field of battle. Here's what we mean: in the Spring of 1943 four press correspondents armed with type- writers and mechanized by means of a jeep drove into a Tunisian town looking for the American Army. The town, until then an Axis possession, surrendered to the newsmen. On the other hand we know of a newspaper- man who spent nearly three years with the British Eighth Army, He came home on leave, contemplating a book on Monty and his men, only to discover that a soldier had beaten him to the job. One look in the book- store window on any corner will convince you that many fighting men have turned writers. Since marching away to the wars, the Bunker Hill has mothered her share of war correspondents, some of them famous, some less well-known, and some whose by-lines you don't remember from one story to the next. These press representatives had an opportunity to look at us and write about us, now we're assuming the author's pose and we're going to write about them. They've stood shoulder to shoulder with us in some trying hours, their job was to keep the public informed as to how the war was progressing, and their commentaries have become recorded history. Stories of successful attacks, of surprise tactics, of air battles over land and sea. There have also been stories of personal tragedy, of valor and bravery, and a host of unbelievable epics that censorship, of neces- sity, must preclude. These men have ex. posed themselves to the same dangers and hardships that our men must face, in time of battle they court the most dangerous localities in order to see the story in its most effective light. If you will check the files of authorized war correspondents, you'll find that their casualties run high. Most of the correspondents that came aboard the Bunker Hill were our friends, even after they departed for other stations. They have told their stories with a sympathetic effectiveness, always bearing in mind that the public back home consists of the mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters of the kids of whom they write. There's a big difference between sitting at a desk and writing about a war and going to the war as a part of it, these writers have found that difference. And their personal glory is only an infinitesimal fraction of the largely thankless service they render. Spencer Davis, of the Associated Press, flew over Hellcat-dominated Truk the day Navy fiiers exploded the myth regarding the Jap- anese bastion, and he knew of what he wrote finger-like pattern of torpedo wakes con- verging on a Nippon cruiser. Raymond Clapper, noted and respected columnist for Scripps-Howard, lived with the crew and successfully captured their preoccupation with battle, and he wrote of . . . floating up 21 river toward the day of battle with effective realism that is seldom achieved in wartime reporting. Clapper was our most distinguish- ed reporter-guest, and we somehow suspCCf that his world-wide popularity was a result Of his honest simplicity in talking to people and then writing about them. Newsmen first came to the Bunker Hill while she was still a gleaming hulk of steel and welding torches. They followed her thr0Ugh shakedown doctoring, and they came back t0 when he sat down that night and told of the,