Franklin (CV 13) - Naval Cruise Book

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evi ' iy mail on tlie lli|). (idiiidr. Ilalc now liciaiiif the na i- gator. Scjitcniber 21tli, 19 11-, l car Adiiiiial Davisoirs task group, with Franklin llagslii)) and guide, set its course to tlie northwest and the I ' alau group. lUithi antl llie key ( aroline islands had fallen, though fanatical .laps still hung on at Moody I ' elelieu. The stage was set for a mighty scene in the I ' acific drama. Through the air. like the voice of doom, hack over the bloody years since dark Bataan. a knell souniled lor the treacherous, cruel Japanese: 1 shall return . . . A vision of licarded. gaunt weary men. .standing unafraid, wreathed in the last grey smoke of Corregidors guns, spurred on the avengers. Every mati on Big Ben was jnoud to l)e there for his |)art in the Liberation of the Philippines. To make secure the beachheads that would be established on Leyte the Third Heet must drive into the strongest bases of the P mpire — into the jaws of the heaviest trap the Japs could close. From Okinawa, on the door-sill of Ja|)an. to powerful Formosa, south through Luzon, hundreds of air bases must be crushed into helplessness. The Imperial Navy must be smashed if it tried to interfere. For a week in the storm-swept seas east of Palau. Big Bens group awaited a rendezvous with the two other sections of the Third Fleet. Lo ng range enemy search planes flew out to reconnoiter. The combat air ])alrol ke])t the skies cease- lessly, ignoring the hazardous flying weather. One patrol of three fighters Hew into a heavy squall; two fighters came ihrough. Ho|)elessly the search planes scoured the area, but no trace of Lt. Wade H. W ' inecofT, a country boy from North (Carolina, was ever found. (Phasing a ' bandit through the murky night, Lt. Benny Miles, of Medina. N. Y., and bis Jajianese quarry suddenly disappeared I rum the radar screens while 60 miles to the southwest, over the stormy. Iilacked-oul ocean. Though John X ineger called tirelessly through the static and search ))lanes combed the area at dawn, no word was ever heard of night fighter I?enny Miles nor of the Jaj). After a week of this depressing wait orders came to move northward. On the tail of a typhoon raging toward Formosa and Okinawa, Admiral William Halsey was preparing to take the seven Essex class carriers, the ten light carriers, seven fast battleships, twenty-five cruisers and a hundred destroyers of his Third Fleet into the teeth of Japan ' s mili- tary might and strike the inner bases of the Empire. Nine thousand miles from the Third Fleet ' s homeland, in wateis Another combat photo from one of Big Bens planes . . . Okinawa

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An Avenger takes a wave-off ed; the fueling depot could fill a fleet ' s oil tanks; modern piers were flanked by warehouses on the jungle ' s edge. A huge recreation park was waiting for the men of the fleet, and the beer ration was limited only by the five hours allowed to consume it. Saxie Dowell ' s band, at home under the eucalyptus trees and alien sky, made many new friends as Big Ben ' s men mingled with lads from other ships to swap yarns of battle, meet old shipmates, talk of home. There were odd reunions — Lt. (jg) Joe Heinrich, one-time Bronx cop, of Fighting Thirteen, met two fliers from other squadrons and in exchanging reminiscences learned that of the twenty-five fledgling pilots who came through Pensacola together three years before, they were the only ones alive. The others had smashed up in operational accidents, or fallen to flak over enemy targets. At Manus, Comdr. Day received a long-due promotion to the rank of Captain and was detached to command a new es- cort carrier. Comdr. Benjamin Moore, who had been Navi- gator since the commissioning, became Executive Officer. Comdr. Day had worked hard to make Big Ben a fine fight- ing machine ; Comdr. Benny Moore was a fitting relief. The L.S.E. — Little Short Exec, as he came to be affectionately known, was admired and regarded as a personal friend by Here too, there was time for a jew quiet moments in the library

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that lapped the enemy ' s shores, would be decided an issue which armchair strategists had declared could have Itut one outcome. Fleet-based aircraft would meet shore-based air- craft, on even terms. This would be no hit-and-run missior.. Carriers would slug it out for days witii dozens of bases on shore, pitting their hundreds of planes against thousands the enemy had at his instant command. The stakes would be the lives of a half-million soldiers and the fate of an empire. Admiral Halsey reckoned on the typhoon which would sweep across the enemy coasts a day before Task Force Thirty-eight ' s warplanes. He knew it would disrupt com- munications, ground enemy search planes, make detection of the fleet difficult. On October 9th, 1944. the Third Fleet steamed in three formidable groups 100 miles south of Okinawa ' s teeming harbor and airfields. 200 miles east of Formosa. The autumn rains and mist of the Central Pacific shrouded the ominous black and slate grey warships. Half a dozen Jap search planes had fallen to the guardian Hellcats without a glimpse of the fleet. In the afternoon 200 rocket-firing Hellcats climbed from a dozen flight decks and plunged like a bullet at the heart of the Japanese defense — the airfields and hangars. What the Japanese called their radar failed again. A few bewildered Zeros were shot down over their own airfields, then hell exploded in front of yellow faces as the American fighters thundered in. Hangars were demolished. Dozens of planes were ablaze on as many air-strips. Revetments were strafed. Barracks flamed. When the fighter sweep landed at sunset the disrupted, smoking defense of the island must have been a headache to the frantic Japanese commander. Nip radios crackled and whined. Air stations on the home island of Kyushu, 350 miles north, looked hastily to their defenses. Squadrons of replacement planes warmed up on fields at Kobe, Nagoya, Nagasaki, Tokyo. Nervous, slant- eyed pilots trooped to their ready rooms. Up to this time, in their march across the Pacific, the flat- tops had mostly fought the naval aircraft of the Japanese. Now the Imperial Army Air Force, with its swarms of Betty and Judy bombers, its speedy Zeke and To jo fighters, was the main foe. Heretofore the carriers had assaulted smaller is- land bases, with a few airfields that could be swiftly crushed. Now the air bases of the Empire were in position to rein- force each other — only the bases close at hand could be ef- fectively neutralized. Big search planes, Kates and Emilys, squadrons of Betty Coastal installations ablaze at Okinawa