Franklin (CV 13) - Naval Cruise Book

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Moy was hurrying to his post on the flight deck when sud- denly, he decided it would be an excellent idea to proceed by a new and untried route. He wished to familiarize him- self with the ship. Groping forward on the flight deck, he pressed on through the darkness — pressed on until he drop- ped headlong into the black Pacific, sixty feet below. Com- ing to the surface, after endless seconds, he began tooting the whistle which every man on Big Ben had been issued for just such an emergency. ' ' Man overboard, port side, blared the loudspeakers. Eyes strained to pick out the strug- gling victim in the water and darkness but only a faint despairing wail of the whistle marked the spot as Big Ben sped on at twenty knots. Doctor Fuelling, Moy ' s fellow medico at the battle station, remarked, these darn seamen. Always walking in their sleep. Fortunately Dr. Moy could swim strongly. Bemoaning the trick of fate that caught him with his life jacket still stowed at his battle station, he buttoned his collar and in- flated his shirt to stay afloat. An hour later, a destroyer picked him up and he was back on Big Ben in time for breakfast — adorned already with a nickname he was never to lose: Wrong- way ' ' Moy. Yet the chance of his escape had been narrow. Three months later Felix C. Cerra, sea- man first class, of Carbondale, Pa., fell overboard in similar circumstances, but could not be located. Almost every plane on Big Ben flew at least two missions on July 19th — 177 sorties for 90 planes. Every plane that would fly took the air against that battered island of Guam. They rained incendiaries on the last standing buildings; they strafed everything that moved on the roads. The enemy opened up with the concealed batteries he had saved for an emergency. For this, the Jap seemed to decide, was an emergency, if ever one was to occur. These batteries took their toll. Damaged planes limped home after every strike. Ens. Nick Smith, engine dead and aileron shot away, crashed ahead of a screening destroyer; Lt. (jg) Raymond B. Cook, with a huge hole in his right wing and his stabilizer in rib- bons, made a miraculous landing on deck which could have meant death to any pilot. July 21st was William Day — the day of Guam ' s invasion. . t 8:30 that morning a hundred transports and LST ' s stood off the beaches by Orote. A thousand landing craft, jammed Ll. Comdr. James Moy conies home to Big Ben, after a swim hcjore breakfast

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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

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■ ' H ti ' William Day! The invasion beach as it looked to Biii Ben ' s pilots on July Hist . . . Troops and tanks are ashore