Franklin (CV 13) - Naval Cruise Book

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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

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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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faded as the bombers went into their dive. Tense minutes passed. Then pride leaped in every heart as a voice from the radio said: Check off one big fiat-top that just spun in. ' Later, back on the ship, Comdr. Kibbe, in one of his reports to Franklins crew, told how Lt. Skinner, Lt. Swede Hal- strom, Lt. Broach, Lt. Hoyt and half a dozen other dive- bomber pilots had scored direct hits on the big carrier. For a few minutes it had seemed indestructible. Then, almost too suddenly, the Zuiho sank. Over the radio came reports from the south. The old bat tieships and destroyers of the Seventh Fleet, aided by PT boats, had nearly annihilated the Japanese First Fleet, of two battleships, some cruisers and destroyers that had been engaged while trying to force the Suragaio Straits during The Japanese carrier Chitose, ju st before she went down. . . 4 Big Bens Bombers helped sink her The Chitose was sunk by planes from Big Ben and other air groups from the task force . . . This picture was taken by plane from Enterprise, shortly before she ivas struck on starboard side, aft, by another torpedo . . . Two bomb hits may be observed in deck and another hit aft, with fire hose in use