Franklin (CV 13) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 16 text:

BIG BEN THE FLAT TOP . . . stood on the dock and set down my seabag. Then I pushed my hat hack on my head and just looked. There she was . . . my ship. No name, no planes, no bridge, no guns. Just a great, big hull — the biggest hunk of steel I ' d ever seen in my life. It looked like a floating table top. On that I was going off to fight a war ...

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The Franklin is launched THE FRANKLIN Marshall D. Barnett Hungry for the ocean ' s surge, for white plumes across her bow- Thirsting for a draught of oil, to snort, to roll, to plow; She doesn ' t believe in luck or omens: she is on Gods side of this war; She mothers red-blooded Americans who know what they ' re fighting for; Longing for the touch of men, someone to pull her hook; Looking for the enemy; the devils are in her book; She ' s ready to die tomorrow, if dying she can turn the tide; That men may live once more, where harmonious love abides; Grim missionary of Peace. but she is mighty full of fight; Sent out with tender touches, to set the world aright; We salute you, proud warrior of steel, with Mizpah we say adieu ; Our eyes will be on your actions; our prayers will be for your crew. Lieutenant (junior s rude) Marshall D. Barnett, U. S. A ' . R., of Bombing Squmhon Thirteen, ivas killed in action 24 October, 1944. uhilr his squadron was attacking the juixmese Second Fleet in the Sulu Sea Philippine Islands.

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C H A 1 T E K ONE BIG BEN IS BORN On December 7th, 1942, the first anniversary of the stupid and infamous aggression which plunged the United States into giolial conllict, the keel was laid of the U. S. S. Frank- lin, an airjdane carrier of the Essex Class, in a graving dock of the Newjjort News Shipbuilding and Drydock Com- pany, on the shores of the Atlantic, in Virginia. Most of the lads who one of these days wouKl man the ]ilanes that would thunder across her deck into enemy skies or who would push her planes, load her bombs, fire her guns, were still in school or working at home — though a handful ot them, even now, were with a hardpressed fleet fighting for Guadalcanal, and others were off Africa, forging the steel noose which one day would throttle the men who ruled with horsewhips. But none dreamed that a ship was born that morning which they would sail and fight through one hundred and two thousand comliat miles in five major Pacific campaigns; a ship whose warbirds would send scores of Japanese ships and hundreds of Japanese planes to destruction; a ship whose bombs would sink the mighty carrier Zuiho and a dozen other warships. This was to lie the carrier on whose decks they would live through the thunder of exploding bombs with enemy planes crashing all about them, where they would fight and die to save her from a holocaust ol fire. Four times they would suffer with her in battles where the Jap broke through and from the last battle sexen hundred and four of them would sail her thirteen thousand miles and write into history the story of the most heavily damaged warship ever to reach port under her own power. Home from the very shores of Kyushu, shattered but un- daunted, eager to return and avenge her dead. These early days after the keel was laid knew not the noise of combat action, but they were far from peaceful as workmen and engineers toiled at top sjieed. under the sun and by the glare of electric lights at night, hastening the giant carrier ' s construction. It was not a simple task of providing a hull to support the eight hundred and eighty foot ilight deck . . . almost as long as three regula- tion football fields. In ten months she must be forged by master American craftsmen into almost a sentinent being, nearly 30,000 tons of warship. Her topmast would tower 150 feet above the water; the ' idth of her beam would be 106 feet; the massive flight deck would rise 60 feet above the sea. Four engines would be installed, with the power of 150,000 horses, to thrust her through the water at any speed up to 32 knots with ease, and for days on end. There musi be huge tanks for fresh water, for salt water, for fuel oil, for high-octane gasoline, lubricating oil — • great generators not only to supply enough power to light a city but also to furnish that essential force to turn the guns, swing the rudder, raise the swift ten-ton elevators which hauled the planes from hangar deck to flight deck. This power would keep radio and radar alive, run the ven- tilators, spin the fans, hoist the fifteen-ton anchors and — what was also important — cook the meals in the great modern galleys. Thirteen quadrujjle mounts of 40 mm. machine guns would bristle from her gun galleries and island structure. Forty-six high speed 20 mm. machine guns would guard her flight deck and twelve five-inch rifles would add a lethal five-mile punch to her armament. So Big Ben was born, ten months prior to her launching on October 14th, 1943, when Captain Mildred A. Mc- Afee. Director of the WAVES, splashed the traditional magnum of champagne against the massive bow and the dock was flooded to lift her gently from the chocks until she floated in the sea. Now speed became ever more vital as the 2,500 officers and men who would compose her crew were being as- sembled from all over the fighting world, as well as from more peaceful, but sweating, training bases. A carrier — first and last — is a mobile base for her war- planes; her fighters, dive-bombers and torpedo planes. All the .seemingly endless preparations, from the moment the first rivet was pounded into the keel, focused on the day when the ])laiies could thunder off the flight deck to take the skies over an enemy target. Captain James M. Shoe- maker, U.S.N., a naval aviator, now designated to be Franklin s first Commanding Officer, knew well his task and Big Ben ' s mission. Commander D. L. Day. also a naval aviator, would be Executive Oilicer: her first Air Officer. Commander Joe Taylor, had won the Navy Cross in New Guinea and had won it again as the flying commander of a torpedo plane squadron in the battle of the ( oral Sea. Then, too, the 600-odd petty officers and chief petty officers who were to be the backbone of her crew began to assemble at the Receiving Station, Newport ,News, Va, in December, 1943 — scarcely a year after her keel was laid. Practically every man of the 600 was a veteran of two years of history ' s toughest naval war. One chief water- tender had helped bring the cruiser New Orleans out of a flaming Pacific battle i n whicli her bow had been blown