Hancock (CV 19) - Naval Cruise Book

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Jap Shipping Dots Manila Harbor-November 19, 1944 The anticipated action with the Japanese Navy failed to materialize after a thorough search of the South China Sea for enemy warships proved fruitless. Turning east once again the fast carrier force cut through Balingtan Channel, a narrow pass separating Babuyan Islands north of Luzon and the Bataan Islands lmost southern group of Philippine lslandsl to enter the Pacific on January 2Oth. At dawn on the Zl st, the carriers were again in position to hit Form.osa's airfields at Takao, Toko, Toshein and Koshun. Strikes were con- tinued throughout the morning as carrier planes returned to refuel and rearm as bombs were expended. H At i328 a torpedo plane returning from a sortie over Formosa made a normal landing on the Hannah and taxied forward in the approved manner to a point abreast of the island. Suddenly a deafening, blinding explosion jarred the Hannah from keel to masthead--a gaping 'hole appeared in the flight deck where a moment before a plane carried three tired airmen toward its accus- tomed spot by the forward elevator. Within seconds the flight deck was covered in a mass of tangled wreckage, inert forms and burning pools of gasoline. The gallery deck, a maze of staterooms, offices, control rooms and passages located between the hangar deck and flight deck, caught its full share of fire-torn hell as wreckage cascaded through holes in the flight deck to the spaces below. Ruptured fuel lines and burning wreckage combined to make the hangar deck another blazing holocaust as fire parties recovered from the initial shock and commenced to make inroads on the spreading tongues of flame.

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Vice Admiral John S. M cCain on Hancock Admiral and Captain Confer Flag Bridge Commander Task Force 38

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Avengers Over Cavite Already at high speed to recover her planes, the Hannah heeled far over in a sharp turn which took her clear of her column of ships and washed tons of flooding water from her hangar deck. Racing here and there, like a fear- maddened deer with the raking claws of a wildcat on its back, the Hannah utilized the wind to keep the flames from spreading and to shake the cooling but weighty water clear. Long snake-like trains of fire hose trailed from fire mains placed at strategic points on flight and hangar decks. The busi- ness end of each hose consisted of a four- to six-foot metal pipe surmounted by a fog nozzle directed at the base of the fire in a cooling spray of salt water. The resultant steam choked off the flame-feeding oxygen. Midst all the heat and turmoil, hospital corpsmen, doctors and the chaplain labored among the injured and the dead, bearing stretchers and giving shots of morphine to the wounded and succor to the dying. ln thirty-eight minutes the fire was out and a tired and gallant crew surveyed the damage to the injured ship. Below in the sick bay, seventy burned and bandaged men lay, some so seri- ously injured that within hours they would join the thirty-seven men to whom no mortal aid could come. Above on the flight and hangar decks, grim and sad-faced men worked to make room for the Hannah's planes which must find a haven upon their return. They worked with many a conspicuous gap in their ranks-a gap filled with memories of some half-forgotten liberty in far-off Dago or perhaps that one-night binge in Panama, or even back to Boston where . . . . . had come aboard this proud new carrier,