Franklin (CV 13) - Naval Cruise Book

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San Bernardino. There were at least five battleships, nine cruisers, and a dozen destroyers. Immediately, at 1 :30 p.m. a heavy deckload — twelve bombers, ten torpedo planes and ten Hellcats — armed with rockets and bombs, sped off to at- tack. From 14.000 feet the Franklin jjlanes sighted the en- emy, moving ill two groups about eight miles apart, south of Sibuyan Island. The northeast group, in compact forma- tion, was steaming westward at top speed. The southern group of ten or twelve warships, was milling in circles as though under air attack. Comdr. Richard Kibbe, who had recently become Air Group Thirteen s commander, directed the attack at the bat- tleships of the northern group. In the face of a heavy flak barrage thrown up by the enemy, who was firing even his sixteen-inch guns. Big Bens warplanes thundered down. The battleship Musashi, hit by two heavy bombs, staggered out of line, smoking. After many hits later during that day. the Musashi sank. The battleship Yanuito. also hit. twisted and turned to dodge the armor piercing missiles. Two cruisers were bard hit and one was left dead in the water. A light cruiser, struck by a single torpedo, drop])ed by Lt. (jg) R. Q. Ransom, exploded violently and sank in seconds. That was one of the luckiest hits of the war. Lt. Ransom, under a hail of fire, was dodging in on a Jap battlewagon when he dropped his fish. A light cruiser, whipping along at 30 knots, ran in between and took it squarely. A magazine must have exploded because it sank almost instantly. Of the 32 attacking planes, two were shot down and four teen damaged. Ens. Robert Freligh and his gunner, Sam Plonsky, were later reported safe in the hands of friendly Filipinos, after the crash of their shell-torn bomber. Lt. (jg) Marshall D. Barnett. lad from dusty Texas, and a peel of stature, was lost in action with his gunner. Leonard Pick ens. of New Concord. Ohio. Their Helldiver went down near the Japanese fleet. While this attack was in progress reports arrived of a powerful enemy carrier force, the Japanese Third Fleet, moving southward from 200 miles east of Cape Escarpado, on the north tip of Luzon. Franklin s group was passing Leyte Gulf, standing north to join Task Groups 38.2 and Jup super-battleship Yanioto, firing all guns, liiisis ivildly to escape.

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CHAP I K R E I (; II I ... ' never forge! iiluit the captain told lis the oilier evening; and I guess I won ' t let my grandchildren forget, either . . . And I don ' t think many of us ivill ever forget that Jn i named inn. the little yellow pilot that laid his Zeke on our flight deck. But that didn ' t slop Big Ben ... BATTLE FOR LEYTE GULF Admiral Davison ' s klagshii ' . Fnuiklin. and the ships ol Task Group 38.4 withdrew to the westward on October 22nd to replenish supplies since bombs were low and the su])j)ly of torpedoes nearly exhausted. Task Groups 38.2 and 38.3 were now in the seas off Luzon and Leyte. supporting the doughboys of the Sixth Army. Task Group 38.1. with the brand-new carrier Ticonderoga, was on a course from Uiithi to the Philippines. Admiral Halsey knew that the next move was up to the Japanese Navy. The airfields for a thousand miles north ot Leyte were out of commission for weeks and the important Philippines ' bases were under daily attack from carrier bombers. The vital shipping lanes over which reinforcements must come to Yamashita ' s soldiers were under constant at- tack. Within a few weeks new airfields hacked from the Leyte jungles would be havens for the land-based Fifth and Thir- teenth Army Air Forces. If the Philippines — and the Fm- pire — were to be saved it was up to the big, black battle- wagons and flat-tops of the Imperial Navy to smash the .American Fleet. Their aim must be to isolate the 200,000 in- vading Yankee soldiers so the defending Nipponese Army could cut them to pieces. The Japanese plan of battle was simple in conception and held the threat of disaster to the .American forces. It was the old pincer movement. From the northern tip of Luzon to the southern end of Mindanao there are a thousand miles of island-dotted ocean — the Philip|)ine Archipelago. There are two ])assages by which a fleet might cross the island chain; Suragaio Straits. between Leyte Gulf and the South China Sea: the Straits of San Bernardino, between Luzon and .Saniar. 100 miles north of Leyte Gulf, where the hundreds of American trans|jorts and supply ships now lay. The Japanese First Fleet, two battleshi])s. half a dozen cruisers and screening destroyers, would force its way through the Suragaio Straits and fall upon the transports The Japane.se Second Fleet, two super-battleships, the ) anuito and Musashi. three older battleshi|)s. with a dozen destroyers and ten cruisers would drive through the San Ber- nardino Straits, and cut Leyte ' s supply line to Uiithi. The Japanese Third Fleet, two battleships, four carriers, eight cruisers, and six destroyers, would proceed southward from Japan and lay a hundred miles to the west of Leyte, support- ing the other two fleets by drawing off any American carrier assaults. Probably the Jajsanese admiral expected some as- sistance from land-based aircraft in the Philip]jines. It was a desperate gamble of a Navy for an Empire. Weighed against it in the scales of war were the Third and Seventh United States Fleets. During the night of October 23rd the fateful word Hashed to Big Ben ' s radio room from submarines in the China Sea that the Japanese Navy was on the move and that strong units of the enemy fleet were approaching the Philippines. Task Group 38.4 wheeled and steamed westward, flank sjjeed. At dawn ten search-attack grou|)s, six Hellcats and six bomli- ers to a team, were thrown west. Four of the assault teams came from Big Ben. Over a radius of 325 miles they ranged, covering the island areas and waterways of southern Samar, northern Leyte. Celiu, Negros, and Panay. No major forma- tion of the enemy fleet were sighted, but near Pucio Point. Panay. two destroyers and a cruiser were located. Lt. Dick Harding and Lt. ' Fats Miller joined their attack groups and thundered down to hit the Japs with rockets, bombs, and machine gun fire. The cruiser heeled over and sank. The destroyers ere blazing and listing heavily when the attack ended. Later in the day main unit of the Jajjanese Second Fleet uere sighted moving throuiih Tablas Straits. 1.50 miles from . J lip deslraytT. hit. is shaken by a close one from one of Big Hen ' s smrrh-nttdck planes . . . Ocloher 2Uh

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38.3, both of wliich were now under heavy air attack from the Japanese Third Fleet ' s ])lanes — in this action tlie light carrier Princeton was lost. Admiral Halsey had decided quickly. He was hurrying the ta.sk groups of his Third Fleet northward to engage this new threat, leaving the seven old battleships with their escorting cruisers and deslrovers. along with Admiral Kinkaids baby flat-tops, to protect the shipping in Leyte (jull. So in the evening of October 24th, Fmnklin and her com- rades were speeding northward. {)ast the escort carriers cruis- ing 50 miles of! the entrance to Leyte Gulf, for a rendezvous with the other groups. During the night two more new battle- ships joined her screen — now boasting the super-battle- wagons South Dakota, Alabama, and Washington. That night the search planes kept contact with the Jajj carrier task force until 3:30 a.m. An hour before dawn the bugles called battle stations; the Japs were somewhere to the north, about 100 miles away. Half an hour later a sixteen plane combat air patrol was iaunclied; at 6:3(1 twelve bomb- ers and eight tor|)edo planes took the sky to lly northward. They had orders to circle at a distance of ,50 miles from liig Ben while awaiting word from the search ])laiics which were now combing the ocean. Meanwhile, a second deckload ol bondiers and fighters was armed. At 7:30 the Japanese I ' leet was sighted, M) miles east ol Franklin s circling l)ombers. There were four carriers, the y.uikiiku, C.hitosv, Zuiho, and Chiyoda. Two battleships with Might decks, the Hyugu aiid Ise, steamed with them, sur rounded by a dozen cruisers and destroyers. The orders were Hashed out for attack. Hellcats from another air group hur- ried to the scene to cover Big Ben ' s airmen as they hurtled in. Seventeen enemy fighters were in the air over their car- riers and they fought desperately to save them. An Avengei piloted by Ens. Thomas P. Brooks, Jr., of Concord, Mass., w ith aircrewman Harold J. Shane, of York, Pa., and Francis J. Ploger, of (Jrand Rapids. Mich., spun down to the sea in a fatal water landing. But the bombers bored in. A few min- utes before u:00, Comdr. Kibbe ' s voice on the radio said: We are going down on a big carrier. Looks like it ' s trying to turn into the wind to launch. The voices on the radio w I he Jupuiifse I ' hird Fleet, under heavy air iittaek. throws Uj) flak . . . The currier to the lejl is hard hit