Fanshaw Bay (CVE 70) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 19 text:

Enemy torpedo planes under fire June 18. same time a little cheer was heard as one of our planes landed a 500fpound bomb on the stern of a Kongo class battleship. The damage control party of the Fannie Bee was struggling to control fires as shells crashed through the ship. Meanwhile, the destroyers completed their heroic atf tack on the enemy battle line. The U.S.S. Johnston was last seen making a torpedo run between two cruisers while a plane reported the sinking of the U.S.S. Samuel S. Roberts. The U.S.S. Hoel reported a sixffoot hole forward, above and below the water line. The U.S.S. Gambier Bay dropped back from forf mation as water poured into the forward engine room. Planes continued their attacks on the enemy as the range closed to 11,000 yards. Fortunately the battle' ship Hre was inaccurate and spasmodic but the cruisers again scored with a hit on the flight deck as two ' Splash one Bogey! f

Page 21 text:

. -- uu.:'.'Aw:..u--.--g -1- ' -- 1 1 'S' ' ' H ---V-J 'H '. -'4 .L 1 'E. 1 ' I : 1 :ru ' 'l ' - ' .. 4. . ...,. ix I Y lu? if F? L' ' -f' il -i NYY , i l lun! Mt' 1 111536311111 '1 cruisers and destroyers concentrated their fire on the smoking Fannie Bee. 1 About 0900 the U.S.S. Gambier Bay capsized and sank after a terrific pounding from enemy heavy cruisers at close range. After two and onefhalf hours of sustained battle the japanese fleet chose this time for a final destroyer torpedo attack and commenced retire' ment to the North, an unexplained but welcome sight to the battered Task Group. Every ship in the Unit had sustained hits while the Gambier Bay, Hoel, Rob' erts and Johnston had gallantly gone to a watery grave. The destroyers Heerman and Denni suffered major damage while the Butler and Raymond were little bet' ter off. Scarcely were the Japanese ships over the horizon when a new battle commenced for the warfweary CVE's. Jap suicide planes arrived to polish off the crippled carriers and succeeded in landing one Kama' kaize on the St. Lo flight deck. The resulting ex' plosions were too much for the battered St. Lo and at 1105 all hands abandoned ship as she slid to the depths of Leyte Gulf. The four remaining CVE's limped southward to Manus for temporary repairs before heading back to the United States. Captain Arnold assumed command on January 10, 1945, and in February, 1945, the Fannie Bee headed back to the Realm of the Golden Dragon. Admiral G. A. F. Sprague rejoined the ship in Ulithi in March, hoisting his flag as ComGarDiv 26. From Ulithi the Fannie Bee headed north for the Okinawa campaign. Again the Fannie Bee assumed the work of the big boys, providing ground support, blasting tanks, trucks, troops and being in turn subjected to every retaliatory trick the enemy had in his bag. The Fannie Bee was subjected to Kamakaize raids, suicide boats, submarines, mines and even suicide swimmers but her luck held, she remained unscathed. For 69 days during the occupation and neutralizaf tion of Okinawa the Fannie Bee operated continuously, with Composite Squadron TWO flying a total of 2,089 sorties. During this period fliers averaged 91 hours of combat flying per month! Pilots from this squadron literally pulverized all opposition, both on the ground and in the air. The havoc created among enemy troops contributed to a greatly reduced casualty rate in our own ground forces as the relentless air pounding blasted tanks, trucks, gun emplacements and equipf ment into uselessness. In addition to lending ground support, fliers of VOG2 also shot down five enemy planes during this same period. July found the Fannie Bee penetrating far into the East China Sea in a highly secret minsweeping expedif Heroic Destroyers and DE's lay smoke screen to hide beleaguered CVE's.