Franklin (CV 13) - Naval Cruise Book

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' M Every big jhil-top in the Navy made their last stop here at Ford Island, in Pearl Harbor, before steaming westward into battle veered for the little group of warships. There was tense action in CIC as Hellcats were ordered catapulted from the deck, and another pencil line moved across the plotting boards, to intercept the search plane. But it was too late. Radio on the Mitchell had warned the waiting airfields on the mainland. The Hellcats cut the Mitchell down 50 miles from Big Ben, but now an ominous warning of many swiftly approaching planes came from CIC. Into the wind came Task Group 12.1. Destroyers closed in a tight circle that their powerful AA batteries might better defend the carrier. Dozens of Hellcat fighters were racing off to battle the Army bombers. Dozens of carrier bombers roared into the sky and arrowed for the prime targets in the San Diego area. Soon came the swirl of mock battle as Grummans tore into Flying Forts. But some of the Mitchell ' s and Forts slipped through the fighter screen, twisting and turning to dodge imaginary AA, then levelling off for their bomb runs. Every gun in the task group had them covered — it had seemed very real. Quiet returned, however, and Big Ben finally rested at the San Diego Naval Air Station. Air Group Thirteen had already landed ashore; mechanics, ordnancemen, plane cap- tains, and others hurried to the planes to take up their un- ending tasks. Two days were consumed in urgent repairs after the 10,- 000-mile run from Norfolk. Fuel and supplies were re- plenished; half the crew were given shore leave, with pref- erence going to men whose homes were on the West Coast. Three days were needed for operations at sea, in which Rear Aclmiral Sherman, Commander of Fleet Aircraft, would pronounce upon the readiness of Big Ben and Air Group Thirteen for battle. After all tests Admiral Sherman was satisfied; back in San Diego things begun to hum again. Two thousand passengers, inevitable complement of a car- rier anywhere except in action, brought themselves and their baggage aboard. Tons of supplies were loaded. Days were busy but there was shore leave in the evenings. Franklins crew saw also another side of war prepara- tions. Each morning, long chains of landing craft, LCT, LCTs, LCM ' s, and others, loaded to the gunwales with troops, would pass down the channel for drills on the coast. Late in the day they would return, a tired, sweating bunch of soldiers — the men Big Ben would later cover and assist with fighters, dive-bombers and torpedo planes. Shore leave expired at midnight May 31st. At dawn next day, with the Twiggs, Leary, Cashing, and cruiser Denver, Big Ben edged into the channel and stood westward with her passengers, 500 tons of urgent cargo, her 90 airplanes, and a crew of nearly 3,000 men. She was headed for a fast voyage to Pearl Harbor, at 23 knots, without air patrols. She entered the winding channel to Ford Island on June 5th. Here, at Pearl Harbor, thirty months after their demol- ition, men saw the wrecks of what had once been the battle- ships Arizona and Oklahoma. They saw also the speedy repairs which had been made to the base since December 7th, 1941 ; they saw the formidable defenses which had been constructed. Army planes wheeled ceaselessly overhead; there were bristling rows of anti-aircraft batteries and radar stations which felt their way through the skies with magic rays from their weird antennas. This was a Pearl Harbor for men to remember, just as that other Pearl Harbor is one that the world will not forget. On December 7th, 1941, this had been the Navy ' s front- line post in the Pacific. Now Pearl Harbor was a staging base, 3,000 miles from the nearest Jap in arms. Big Ben and America had traveled a long way but the hardest journey still lay ahead. Here the passengers debarked to go their various ways, after a four-day trip which would have taken much longer by even the fastest transport then plowing the Pacific. The ])lanes of Air Group Thirteen had been flown to Puuneme, hut the next morning the Franklin and her destroyer escort put to sea to refresh the fliers in night landings, the most delicate operation which carrier personnel must mas- ter. Two tiny rows of light on her flight deck, visible only from astern, were there to guide in the planes; coordination

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deiiii ly of the clays to come as she |)lowcd northward, de- termined and forbidding. Just one day out of San Diego, on May 16th, ready rooms were alerted. Tlu; Army Air Foree, charged with protecting San Diego ' s vulnerable warplants, had been informed that a giant ' enemy carrier with escorting warships, was slipping northward to throw a suicidal blow at these precious in- stallations. Mitchell bomiiers, I ' lying Forts, long range reconnais- sance Liberators, were searching through the fog off the California coast for a carrier with the number Thirteen in huge figures on her flight deck. They were still search- ing the next day. with Big Ben only 100 miles off San Fernando Island, tilouds, rain squalls, favored the raid- ers; Big Ben lurked in the middle of the blackest squall. Then a lucky Mitchell, speeding through the overcast, had a contact on his radar screen. Like a pencil line, his course Even a routine patrol can have a lively ending. This Hell- diver is headed for trouble. A wing is smashed, as he crash- es into after gun mount. I ' ilot and gunner are shaken hut not badly hurt. Fire didn ' t start, this time. But hoses are ready as flight deck creivs suxirni about plane. grand foray into souvenir-land, with unbelievable nylons. Chanel Number Five from France, alligator skin bags. Swiss wrist watches, all manner of impressive gifts for that girl back home — and all the other loot a sailor loves. The little task group stood north on May 16th. with the command in Big Ben. Daily flight operations, daily pound- ing away at target balloons, daily drills by every depart- ment and division — and an omiiunis lack of details each day in Hadio Press News about the actual operations in the Pacific, where Task Force Fifty-eight was poised some- where, ready for battle. There had been no major operation since March. The Marshalls were secure; bloody Tarawa and Eniwetok were history. MacArthurs men continued their relentless mo|)ping-up in New Georgia. New Guinea, the Solomons. Somewhere there was a still-powertul Japanese Navy. hen would it come out and fight? Could we get there to meet the thrust? The men of Big; Ben talked won-

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Tlir hoys of I ' op W n u.firs STuo Division ucrr st ' rious about the war and in dead-earnest about their religion. that would make a micrometer look like a steam shovel was necessary to success — perfect harmony in the movements of ]Hlot, plane, fighter director, and the big ship herself. Even the episode of Willy could not slow down these final preparations. It was on this cruise that Red Harris discovered among his plane-pushers a huge colored boy, sweating as only a colored boy can; doing as much work as any man on the ship and obviously enjoying it more than twice as much. It was an odd sight, but Red ' passed it off with a shrug, thinking that one of the steward mates had come up for fresh air and exercise, curious as the latter ' seemed. Willy became known all over the ship. Below the third deck he labored tremendously with the engineers; on the hangar deck he fell in with working parties and joined willingly into any toil. Vi ' illy was taken for granted as a part — some part — of the crew, for no man arises to ques- tion another man who is working hard and seeming to love it. One day, however: Mistuh Wright, Ah ' d lak to get paid five dollars, suh. ' ' This to Lt. Pop ' Wright, harrassed mess manager, who saw in Willy just another of the 15(3 Negro boys of his S-Two Division. Pop signed the request, as did Lt. Comdr. Paul Speer, aide to the executive officer, merely as a matter of adding to Pop s ' endorsement, and hardly looking up from his desk. Paymaster Jess Albritton, however, had to he a trifle more technical about these matters. He sent to the exec ' s office for illy ' s pay accounts. The execs office did not liave them and a minor squall seemed threatening. Then s.omeonc thouglit to ask Willy al out the situation. Wliere ' d you come from, boy? Fode Islan ' , suh. Brought your records and ])ay accounts, didn ' t you? No use looking for my ]iay accounts, suh — dey was lost a long time ago. Then it all came out, in a string of events which will nut fighters of J ' F-13 at I ' liuneme Airfield. Maui, during Big Bens operations al Pearl Harbor stand dialect. Willy had not been paid in two months; his clothes had gone the way of the Lucky Bag — Navy Lost and Found Department. So had his bedding. He had been denied liberty — so he had just come aboard Big Ben in hif dungarees, to get away from Ford Island and its restrictions, and out into the broader Pacific where he might see what a Jap looked like. He simply wanted five dollars for a few little things such as cigarettes and soap. He was willing to wuk like Hell. But it was no soap for Willy: the Naval Regulations, which he did not understand, decreed that he must go back to Ford Islai (l. He was standing on the dock, sad and dejected, when Big Ben. on June 14tli, stood out to sea, and to battle.