Franklin (CV 13) - Naval Cruise Book

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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

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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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with American youth, headed in waves toward the shore. Three hundred dive-bombers and torpedo planes were ex- ploding destruction on Japanese lines, a thousand yards from the beaches. As the first landing barges grounded and the troops began to pour ashore, the Japs opened up. Bui a special strike squadron from every carrier in the force had been waiting for just this. Now those Hellcats and Hell- divers stormed down on enemy trenches, on mortars, on mobile artillery and on tanks, enshrouding them with lead and explosives. By 10 a. m. the first wave of troops was a mile inland and the tanks were coming ashore. Throughout the day the ca])tain kept Franklins men in- formed of the invasions progress. Army officers, who had expressed themselves as uneasy, a few hours before, were now filling the radio with such fervent remarks as Your support of landing well timed and effective . . . Heavy air strikes during the last four days and especially today iiave left nothing to be desired. There were few spoken words among the men of Big Ben about what had gone on ; Mech ' looked at plane captain, engineer looked at gunner, and grinned. But here the feeling was born that Big Ben was earning her jdace as a fighting unit to be classed with the best. The day after the invasion of Guam. Big Ben distributed her last bombs in two final strikes by Air Group Thirteen and set her course for Saipan, where Japanese and Marines were still locked in a struggle to the death. At sunset, Franklin anchored in the open roadstead off Saipan. dis- dainful of the nearby enemy, to go through the ordeal of loading bombs and rockets from a supply ship in a tossing sea. Throughout the night artillery flashed on Tinian, six miles away, and flares lit the mountains of Saipan. By 6:30 a. m. more than a hundred tons of bombs and rockets were aboard. Three minutes after the last bomb touched the deck. Big Ben weighed anchor and was bound south with the task group to meet the tanker fleet and refuel at sea. Task Grouj) 58.2 was now joined by the two other task groups which had assisted in the leveling of Guam. As Task Force 58, without any decimal points, the merged groups became a fleet which could sink any navy in the world. Westward and south it steamed, for the islands of the Palau Group. The words in the air for weeks had been : Next the Philippines, but the key islands in the Palau chain must be conquered as bases before that invasion could be attempted. This cruise, the mission of Task Force Fifty- eight was primarily reconnaissance, secondarily the de- struction of enemy aircraft, shipping and installations. Big Ben had been assigned a full share of all objectives. On July 25th, Franklin s flying fighters were swarming all over the islands of Babelthaup, Koror, Arakabesan and Malakal. Three enemy planes were knocked down; the air- strip at Babelthaup was demolished; a small oiler, a lugger, and a cargo ship were sunk. Ens. J. J. Jimmy ' ' Langford. Jr.. in his Hellcat, made a photographic run over Babelthaup which won him the Distinguished Flying Cross. Five times, on a straight course, at one thousand feet and through in- tense flak, he roared across that island to accomplish his mission. During tli iiext two days nearly two hundred and fifty combat and |)hotogra])hic sorties were flown from Big Ben. Two bombers were lost in combat but their crews were saved. Two fighters were lost, and Ens. Robert H. Martin, of Rutherford, N. J., died in one of them as he crashed into the sea while landing. The other pilot was saved. The mission accomplished, the task force swung eastward on July 28th, then north on a course to Saipan. Captain Shoemaker had a message of appreciation for the crew. In the Franklin Foriim, he reminded his men that he had told them in Newport they would be in the Pacific war with Big Ben in six months. He was proud that Big Ben was here, proven ready for battle, carrying out the same assignments as veteran carriers, and equally well. Proud too, he was, of Big Bens offensive weapon, its super-long- range battery, Air Group Thirteen. But. to quote him ver- batim, without a smart, efficient ship, the air group would be impotent — unable to show its high quality; and without a highly competent air group the most experienced carrier would be ineffective. That is why I have repeatedly stated that none of us in the Franklin has a non-essential job, be- cause the bombs and the bullets that the airplanes carry won ' t hit the Japs with scheduled regularity unless all hands carry out our duties with courage and determination. As your command ing officer, I want you to know you have all lived up to my greatest expectations and that, come what may. I have complete confidence in you . . . The Franklin already had another assigned mission when Task Group 58.2 arrived off Saipan and dropped anchor in Garapan Roadstead August 1st to take aboard bombs, rockets and fuel. She would join Rear Admiral J. J. Jocko Clark ' s Task Group 58.1 and jiroceed to Iwo Jima to destroy enemy aircraft and shipping in the vicinity of the Bonin Islands, which must be kept ineffective if the invasion of the Mari- ainias was to proceed successfully.