Franklin (CV 13) - Naval Cruise Book

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first pass but lost contact in the darkness as the Nip became suspicious and took an evasive twist that landed him smack ill ' Pony ' s orbit. A master night fighter on his trail, the Jap (lid c civlhing in tiic book to escape, but to no avail. He- IcMllcssly. on llie radar screens, the two dots closed together. Sonicwhere. out in the black night, high over the .- ullcn l ' a irir. a Hellcat fighter was grimly closing the yards to a careening, twisting Kniily. with ten scared Japs aboard. Contact came the words, low luit ominous, on the radio. Moments draggetl by. until: Splash one Kmily. came Tony ' s voice, barely audible above the static. Klation surged through the dozen of radarmen and |ilot- ting officers. John X ineger grinned with jiride for bis ■ night chick, Tony. Men on the radars rubbed their strained, sleejjy eyes and sucked hard on their cigarettes. They had joined in the kill, just as surely as had Tony. Guess we ought to paint four meatballs on this old piece of gear, eh boys? Vergil C. Hiram Johnson, radarman second cla.ss, kidded Johiuiy Ninos and .Albert Hallman, iwo of the lads who had been passing in the bearings, fast and. true. Even Bob Froehly. quiet, efficient senior radio technician, wore a smile of triumph. The other Jap had passed to the soutbuard. liut he soon reappeared on the screen. The night fighters swept out. unseen and deadly. Again ten Japanese airmen took the final plunge as their Emily fell two miles down to the sea. The task group turned southwest on September 3rd, after refueling at sea. for the next mission: to assault and neu- tralize the important Ja|)anese bases of Yap, Ulithi and Palau. then to make a scouting thrust at the island of Ngulu. The three day attack on ap. in the ( aroline Group, be- gan September 6th, when eighteen rocket-blasting Hellcais flared down on the startled Japanese. The next day, begin- ning with a sixteen-plane fighter sweep, three whole deck- loads of |danes. ninety in all, even the combat air patrol, roared in to tear the island ' s defenses to shreds. On the iSth only sixteen planes were needed to take care of unfin- ished business and to bring back photographs of every cor- ner and cove. Big Ben lost only one plane during this o])eration. Kns. Slingerland was shot down as he made a low strafing run along the beach but he made a good water landing. .After spending the night in his rubber boat he was spotted the next morning seventeen miles south of the island by Lt. Comdr. Coleman on a special search. He was rescued by a destroyer. The advance word was that the U. S. Marines would in- vade Peleliu Island in the (Carolines — of which Palau Group was a |)art — on September 1.5. Big Ben and the rest of Task Group oo. 1- were to j)rovi(le air su|)])ort for this operation and give cover for the troops after they had land- ed. To be ready for this mission the group turned south from ap and beaded for the Palau Islands on September 9tb. Starling the attack with a fighter sweep of twelve Hellcats at daun the next day. Big Ben was to launch five flight deck- loads. 150 planes, every day for a week, through the lOtli. the day after Peleliu ' s invasion. A total of 256 tons of bombs were dropped to aid in destruction of Japanese de- fenses or in direct supjjort of the infantry. The first fighter sweep ran into intense and accurate flak. The Ja[)anese were not using tracer fire, making the AA dif- ficult to dodge. Ens. Norman Drouin and Ens. Paul Rene Parent, both Frenchmen from the hills of New Hamj)shire, went down on Peleliu in flames and were not seen to bail out. They were reported missing in action. After this bad start, no more |)lanes were lost in the cani- |)aign by enemy action, for the .strafing, rocket-firing and bombing dwindled the enemy anti-aircraft fire to a few des- ultory machine gun bursts and rifle shots from the crushed Jap troops. On the 11th, however, there was enough enemy flak to strike the wing of Ens. Kehoe ' s Helldiver with such effect that it appeared the plane would crash. Kehoe ordered his gunner, Abner ' Red Harris, to bail out over a rescue submarine. He then decided that he might be able to save his plane. He brought her back to Big Ben, and Jhough his land- ing gear collapsed when the plane touched the deck, no damage was done the ship and every intact part of the air- craft was salvaged. Good flying! Abner Harris returned aboard Big Ben seven weeks later, none t he worse for his experience. On the night of Sei)tember 12th, Frunfilin ' s most costly operational accident occurred. A twilight patrol of four night fighters had been ordered to patrol Pelelieu Island against the chance the Ja])s might salvage one of their smash- ed aircraft and attempt to fly some of their senior officers from the scene of impending invasion. The weather was rainy and visibility poor. .At patrol ' s end, three planes landed safe- ly but the fourth came in too far over the flight deck and crashed among the thirty planes parked ahead of the last barrier. No one was injured: fire did not break out. but five planes were demolished and eight others so badly damaged it took several days to repair them. Just before invasion day, the cruisers and battleships moved in close to the shore and blew the beach defenses to rubble. On the morning of the 15th. waves of assault troops began to move in; although the first waves encountered little difficulty, the Japs soon began to emerge from their caves and foxholes. From the hilly terrain north of the landing stri]i, artillery, mortars and mobile guns went into action. recked American landiiii; barges were strewn along the beaches. The opposition stiffened so seriously that the in- vasion of Angaur, scheduled for the next day. was post- poned, and Big Ben launched five more deckloads of planes to support the infantrymen on Peleliu. With supi)lies low. Franklin and her task group refueled at sea on the 17th. before throwing one last support strike to the slogging Marines on the morning of the 18th. Then, with death-flinging bombs and rockets exhausted. Big Ben and her sister ships turned the invasion support over to a fresh task group and stood southeast toward Manus. in the Admiralty Islands — down below the equator. Franklin was approaching the realm of Neptunus Rex. and preparations for the traditional ceremonies which greet a sailor when he crosses the equator for the first time occupied all the spare time of the Old Shellbacks. Unfortunately, there is little record to be found of this crossing, save in the |)ictorial files of Big Ben. On September 21st. 1944. Franklin arrived at Manus — with another star on her campaign ribbon.

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A few mimttes before H hour, folloiving a coordinated bombing strike. Peleliu looked like this A few minutes after hour; already American landing craft blaze on the beach, as one of Big Ben ' s Hellcats swoops down to give an assist

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j Li. Honest John Tansey kneels before the Royal Barber Conulr. Kibhe presides over rites in bomber ' s ready room Some brand-new ' ' shellback Chief Petty Officers; FRONT ROW: Heibel, eiiman; Lotridge ; Burkhart; Hardy; Durrance; Gil more; BACK ROW: Womack; Coia; Brown; Gjefle: Mullins; Matzen The Royal Court: Royal Baby, Lt. Casson; Davy Jones. Ens. Lienen; Mcphistocles, Id. Red Harris: Royal Queen. Lt. Newman; Royal Baby, John Whit laker; Chief of Police. Lt. C.omdr. Caldwell t worried pollyivog is finally brouc,ht to bay by Shell- back Hizer and his merrymen