Hamlin (AV 15) - Naval Cruise Book

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7? s CJ .O EE' Kerama Rhetto was fast becoming a place of quiet. Daily routine continues as ever but our sleep was less frequently interrupted. It was easier to laugh and live again. No one was sorry, however, when the wing was ordered to proceed to Okinawa proper and to operate from a harbor more sheltered and suitable for seaplane activities. Our new home was in Chimu Wan, iust north of Buckner Bay. lt was a pleasurable feeling to know that the land about us was liberally sprinkled with Army Anti-Aircraft units, equipped with radar screens and searchlights. For an entire month everyone rested easier. Now, however, we were to be victimized by the greatest of all enemies, the weather. This was the season of typhoons and less than four days had been spent at Chimu before a near-gale sent us from the harbor, cruising on a course to avoid the storm. At all times during our operations in the seas of Japan were we to be subjected to these Acts of God. lt was this foul weather and rough sea which resulted in the loss of two of our seaplanes and the deaths of nine squadron personnel. TOKYO BOUND Days followed one another with amazing rapidity and the heat of mid-August was upon us when the first talk of Japanese surrender became the topic of every conversa- tion. The Atomic bomb was a reality and many of us were as unbelieving as were the Japs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but for different reasons. Then through the ether came the message which shocked the whole world into incredible joy. The Japanese had surrendered unconditionally! Surprisingly, there was very little celebration because of this unexpected turn of events, yet everyone seemed to feel years younger and for the first time in months, slept soundly. We had spent a few hectic nights while the Japs were debating on terms. During that time, with talk of peace in the air, the USS Pennsyl- vania was struck by an aerial torpedo, causing severe damage. lt was unfortunate that the luck of Lucky Pennsy ran out so near the end. Following immediately upon the surrender came orders for a tender unit to prepare for entry into Tokyo Bay with the Occupational Forces Afloat. With four other ships of our Wing composing a task group, we were to ioin the Third Fleet units to enter Tokyo Bay in a display of sea power, the likes of which the world had never seen. On the sixteenth of August, our group steamed in single file past the submarine nets at Chimu Wan, joining in formation beyond. The next eleven days were days of waiting, cruising in convoy north of Iwo Jima with other ships of the Third Fleet. The dispatch came on the eleventh day and we moved in. The island of O Shima, a silent sentinel of the outer harbor drifted by on 'our port hand that morning of August 28, 1945. Ahead lay Sagami Bay and off to starboard was the entrance to Tokyo Bay. ln Sagami we anchored, and all about us were battle- ships, cruisers and destroyers of both the U. S. and British Pacific Fleets. For.that day and night, every ship in the harbor was in a condition of readiness with guns manned for instant action. We were not the trusting people which the Japanese had met and killed at Pearl Harbor. Any sign of treachery would have loosed a shore and aerial' bombardment of unprecedented proportions. Just over the horizon, the carriers had planes on deck, poised for flight. The hours passed without incident. 'The following day, the tender group moved into Tokyo Bay and dropped anchor in the seadrome area. We had arrived. It was there in the Bay on September Second, Nineteen Hundred and Forty-Five, that the formal ceremonies were held on the spacious weather decks of the USS Missouri. Overhead, a vast armada of carrier aircraft and Army Superfortresses darkened the sky and nothing could be heard above the roar of their powerful engines. The day of wild combat and the black nights of fear were behind, ahead lay the hope of a world at peace. POSTLOGUE Where is the HAMLIN now? What has become of her Captain and each man of her crew? lt would be easier to sweep the snows from Fiiiyama than to obtain such a record. The life of the USS HAMLIN CAV-T53 began on the 26th of June, l944, and that life will never end as long as there is a piece of the ship, a member of the crew or a duplicate of this book in existence. Page 44

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Wl G' cw IIAVIE Jllill DespiTe The capabiliTies of our plane handling crews and rescue parTies, There were TacTors beyond our abiliTy To conTrol. The weaTher was one of These. During a rough sea aT Chimu Wan, Okinawa, The bow of This flying bcaT was ripped open and waTer rapidly Tilled The forward secTion of The plane. The rescue parTy aTTempTed To Tow The plane under The dangling hook of The seaplane crane buT sTrong cUrrenT and a cross wind made The maneuver impossible. WiTh The weighT cf waTer The Seaplane nosed over unfil The aTTer fuselage made a fcrTy-five degree angle in The air. All crew members had by Then been removed and from The TanTail of Th HAMLIN we waTched The olane gradually seTTle inTo The sea. IT was ThroaT-lumping To see The Tail secTion, poised Tor an insTanT, Then slide quieTly below The waves. Page 43

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THE lillilll T0 'Pllllllll With the surrender ot the Japanese Empire came orders to move in with the Third Fleet Occupational Forces. Cruis- ing in convoy north ot Iwo Jima, we awaited the signal from Admiral Nimitz. Though delayed by typhoons in the Tokyo area, the time at sea was not void ot excitement. Each day brought new problems of ship handling, maneuvers and station keeping. Passing mail or movies and refueling labove and at rightl while underway became routine, only a little more difficult than the same operation at anchor. Finally the dispatch came, sending our small armada into the seas ot the Nipponese homeland. This was to be our last wartime operation. Page 45