Fanshaw Bay (CVE 70) - Naval Cruise Book

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detonated as it plunged beneath the waters of the Pacific. In the late afternoon the CIC fCombat Inforf mation Centerj reported unidentified aircraft to the Southeast, distance 40 miles. General Quarters sounded as pilots and crews manned their planes on the double. In a few minutes 14 planes were in the air to join 32 planes from other carriers. An estimated 70 planes at' tacked the carriers from all sides as the 40 millimeters and 20 millimeters salvos joined in the roar of planes. The shipboard AA batteries claimed three shot down, one probable and one damage. Meanwhile one enemy plane was shot down by ighter planes, scrambled by this ship. At 1852 an enemy plane released a bomb at approximately 1,500 feet after making a run on the Fannie Bee. The bomb hit a corner of the after elef vator, crashing through the thin decks, showering fragf ments into shattered compartments as fires broke out from severed electrical cables. The Air Group was forced to seek out another ship as fires raged aboard the Fannie Bee. Two planes were lost after forced water landings but watchful destroyers picked the pilots off their rafts. The ship took on a severe port list while all hands turned to forming a long bucket brigade waist deep in water as the men fought through the night to save their ship. The Fannie Bee lived to ight again but at 1130 on the following morning 14 bodies were committed to the sea victims of the enemy bomb. The Fannie Bee returned to Pearl Harbor for repairs and a well earned rest for the crew. The month of August found the ship underway again Rear Admiral C A F Sprague hoisting his ComCarD1v 25 Sopus at Manus in the Admiralty Islands Jap salvoe land on CVE PAGE TWELVE mE W 'HWFUWWUWNW Near miss by enemy bomber, June 17, 1944.

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DE s lay protective smoke screen for CVE's off Samar. I shakedown trip to Australia the Fannie Bee headed for Majuro, in the Marshall Islands. A brief submarine hunt proved fruitless and the Fannie Bee carried Rear Admiral Bogan and his staff back to Pearl Harbor for a rehearsal on the coming Saipan landings. Composite Squadron SiXtyfF,ight became the first Air Group to see action from the decks of the Fannie Bee as she joined the CVE's of the Fifth Fleet on Dfl Day. In the earlier Marshalls campaign the CVE's were used for the first time in direct ground support but in the absence of enemy air opposition. In the Marianas the CVE's were given the full duties of ground support, combat air patrol and antifsubmarine patrol. In a few short weeks the importance of the CVE role had broadened to that of a regular fleet carrier. This utility enabled the fast fleet carriers to increase their scope of activity to provide for possibility of enemy fleet attack. The enemy was not unaware of this new threat and at 1715 on DfDay five enemy planes were reported 71 miles to the Southeast, closing in at high speed. The fourfplane CAP fCombat Air Patrolj of the U.S.S. White Plains was vectored in for interception. The CAP intercepted at 36 miles and shot down three planes in the first encounter, another being shot down within visual range of the ship. At 1812 the last enemy plane penetrated the fighter screen and launched a torpedo at the Fannie Bee. The Fannie Bee heeled to port as Captain Johnson ordered full fright rudder and the torpedo passed harmlessly by. At 1815 the ref maining enemy plane was shot down by Lieutenant Sanders, leader of the CAP launched from the Fannie Bee at 1809. June 17 is a dark day in the Fannie Bee's history. The first aircraft launched crashed on takefoff killing pilot and crew. Depth charges in the plane were Destroyer screen draws fire from Jap cruisers.

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1.1 'P '! P - . wrzefeffs-:. 1l7455Ei?iiQELHf3if25ai1-Sea !?!Pi??fi.'fQ59 4.., . Ezlllli a 223521934a111'1i25f1!2f1E::::ifa::u:m1::f1511a?Qrffrefiifvf wife Jap Tone class cruiser C visible just to right of splashesj leads CVE with salvo. Early in September the Eanshaw Bay headed for Morotai and commenced patrol of area south of Samar Island to lend support to landings at Tacloban. On the 18th and 19th of October planes from the CVE units destroyed 36 planes and damaged 28 others in the air and on the ground in attacks on Cebu, Panay and N egros. As planes from the OVE's pounded shore installations along Panay and Mindanao in close sup' port -of the ground troops, the tension grew daily. Rumors fscuttlebutt in Navy lingoj as to the wheref abouts of the Japanese fleet raced through the ships. Enemy strikes grew in intensity with a particularly heavy attack on the 24th of October by enemy bomb' ers and fighters. A fourfplane OAP shot down five out of eight enemy fighters that came out of the sun over Leyte. In all some 66 planes were shot down by air groups from the OVE's. A general fleet action appeared imminent. About 0100 on October 25 a force of battleships, cruisers and destroyers under Vice Admiral J. B. Olf dendorf waylaid a strong Japanese force attempting to transit Suriago Strait under cover of darkness. The attempted attack on our unloading area ended in virf tual annihilation for the enemy force as PT boats and destroyers unleashed a spread of torpedoes through a hail of surface ire. Guns from the U. S. battleships and cruisers found the range quickly, routing the enemy force in a mass of confusion and smoking, sink' ing hulks. Attacks on the crippled remnant of the Southern Japanese force were resumed at dawn by air groups from thc OVE's when the Fannie Bee's CIO reported ' i'f5q,41s'4 -ei, CVE survives close one. Egifggg 45' -Wwaa PAGE THIRTEEN X ' dum 9 -Wu 'pt mi 5, 1, 1 rn I :nu n nm W :mmnu rrggg ,y 1-mn:1::1:n:u .sniff 'T::.:.v:---