Franklin (CV 13) - Naval Cruise Book

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' Hots ol Air Group 1 hirleen relax in the fighter ' s ready room . . . tomorrow will he a busy day . . . ing position. Attacks were to begin at dawn and Captain Shoemaker had promised the crew a Fourth of July cele- bration with fireworks aplenty at the expense of the little men who did not believe in independence. Bib Ben. named for one of .A.merica ' s greatest leaders, was to see her first action against an enemy of her country on Independence Day! The captain ' s promise was fulfilled. All day strikes roared from the flight decks of the four carriers in this con- centrated attack on Iwo Jima. Chichi Hima. and Ha Ha Jima. The enemy seemed stricken with paralysis. Hellcats shot down Zeros over their own airfields. Helldivers loosed tons of bombs on gun positions, airfields, hangars and bar- racks. Avengers roared in low over the coastline, dealing death to shipping with their torpedoes. Big Ben lost three good men on that flaming Fourth: Lt. (jg) Milton Bonar, from Akron. Ohio, was shot down by Jap flak. His gunner. .Albert D. Lowenthal. from Pulaski street in Baltimore, perished with him when the dive-bomber crashed into the sea. Later in the morning, a damaged Hellcat, missing the wire with its tailhook, crashed the bar- riers and careened into the island structure. The pilot, Lt. (jg) Davy Jones was seriously injured. Eighteen-year-old, blond Jimmy Mulligan, electrician ' s mate and movie oper- ator, was struck by the plane and instantly killed. Throughout the day the force steamed within sight of the islands. It withdrew that night and set a course for Guam. arriving off the northeast coast of that Jap-held island on the morning of July 6th. Guam was one of the four major Japanese bases in the Mariannas. Saipan, the main base, writhed helplessly as its garrison slowly died at the hands of .American soldiers and Marines. Rota. Tinian and Guam remained. They must be pounded to impotency from the air, their swarms of planes destroyed, their garrisons jirevented from aiding doomed Saipan. On William Day, July 21st. Guam itself would be invaded. Then, for the first time since December fj. IT illy Cove cuts his birthday c ' lk V en He

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liiu: Hen and thr linlil currier Monterey make a I8l) degree turn to rejoin jormation

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Bombers from Hi Brn are the Japs un Guum lots of headaches 10th, 1941, free, fighting American troops would walk again on the soil of that island; would redeem the flag that had been trampled there in the dust. The afternoon of arrival, sixteen Hellcats from Big Ben. each armed with six rockets and six 50-caliber machine guns, went in for the preliminary kill over Guam s Orote penin- sula. Here were barracks for thousands of Ja]) troojis, sup- ply dum[)s. ammunition stores, gun emplacements, an air- held. Flak was moderate at first, but increased heavily as llie attack progressed. Again and again the Hellcats thun- dered over the Jap positions, pouring destruction on the en- emy, starting dozens of fires, silencing guns, blasting build- ings. It was during this assault that Lt. illy Gove, leading his division, pulled out of formation with his engine streaming ominous smoke. He glided his Hellcat into a water crash landing, two miles off-shore, near Point Kitidan, almost directly under the muzzles of Jap batteries. Dark was fast approaching. Ens. Roger L ' Estrange, his vvingman, care- fully noted the position of the crash. Back on Big Ben that night. Navigator Benny Moore and Lt. Walter Levering, Intelligence Olhcer, worked far into the night computing the exact drift the downed officer ' s raft would take. Half an hour before dawn, four fighters, led liy ■ Sunshine Howerlon. flew to the computed position with two seaplanes from the cruiser Boston — hoping for the best. ithin fifteen miiuites Gove was located almost exactly where Benny Moore had scientifically jirophesied, lucKc miles west of where he had crashed. Conscientious, friendly, faithful. Vtill Gove li ed to strike many another telling lilow at the enemy. On July Mh, photographers discovered a concealed am- munition dump on Orote; the following day thirty-five of Franklin ' s planes blew it to kingdom-come, smothering the surrounding gun ])ositions with their own fire. Troop con- centrations near Agana, Rota Islands airfield, and radio stations — all of the.se felt the punishing blows of Big Ben ' s flying arm. Until July 17th Franklin ' s fliers continued to attack the defenses of Guam; the lioatyard at Piti Town, the airfield at Orote. bridges on vital roadways near Taloforo and Togcha Bays. On one of these embattled days, before dawn, a group of Japanese planes rose from one of Guam ' s torn airfields to seek out the task group. Hadar spotted them. Big Ben ' s fighter directors, collaborating with a combat air patrol from the carrier San Jacinto, made a perfect interception thirty miles away. Four Oscar fighters and six twin-engined Betty bombers of the Japs were splashed in flames. Long after, intelligence officers learned that those last Japanese planes to leave Guam were carrying high Japanese officers, trying to ffee the doomed island stronghold. All was not triumphant shouting. On July 16th, during the | re-dawn warm-up of planes for the day ' s first strike, in treacherous half-light. Jim Smiley, seaman first class and a [ilane captain, was struck by a whirling ]iropeller — one of the countless hazards always threatening the men on a car- rier ' s flight deck. His shipmates buried him at sea. Death was breathing on the necks of Big Ben ' s men and fliers. All was not tragedy either. Routine general quarters sounded one morning an hour before sunrise, and every man began to grope his way to his battle station. Doctor James