Hancock (CV 19) - Naval Cruise Book

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Kamikaze Planes Continue Attacks as Intrepid Crew Fights Fire attacks on aircraft and air installations at Koniya Seaplane Base and Tokuna Shima followed with shipping and bombing forays at Anami-O-Shima, Okinoyerabu, Tokuna and Takara Shima. The Hannah anchored in Ulithi in the late afternoon of March 4th to prepare for her next operation against Okinawa. . V On March 5th Rear Admiral Ralph Davison, U.S.N., Commander Carrier Divi- sion Two, reported aboard for duty and Rear Admiral T. L. Sprague, USN., Commander Carrier Division Three, and staff were transferred to the Wasp. Air Group Eighty was detached on March 9th and Air Group Six reported aboard for duty. This Air Group started the war on the Enterprise and was the first Air Group to see action in the Pacific. Kamikazes raided Ulithi Lagoon on the evening of the l lth with one getting through the anti-aircraft fire to hit the carrier Randolph in the stern while a confused buddy piled up on a nearby atoll, apparently mistaking it for a flat t-op. OPERATION SEVEN ' The l-lannah's seventh operation commenced in the face of the most serious threat to our naval forces the fanatical Japanese had been able to devise to

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Though the Army Air Force had hit lwo Jima for seventy-two days prior to the landings and the Navy strikes had eliminated a large share of reinforce- ments and supplies before they were able to get ashore, the enemy was so tenaciously dug in that the most thorough air support was necessary throughout the operation. Strikes were directed against the two completed airfields and one partially completed fighter strip while other groups hit enemy ground troops in low strafing attacks designed to keep them entrenched until Marines were able to blast them out at close range. Hitting the naval base at Chichi Jima and Haha Jima, Air Group Eighty struck shipping in the nearby bays before making a final sweep over the island at nig-htfall. During the first day's operations, landing craft had ferried 30,000 Marines to the beachhead north and east of Suribachi. The fast carriers launched strikes again on the Zlst and 22nd as 60,000 American troops were committed to action on the vol- canic little island which measured about five miles in length and two and one-half miles at the widest point. Driving northward once again the fast carriers attacked the shores of North- ern Honshu on the 25th, hitting airfields and shipping at Konoike and the Chiba Peninsula across Tokyo Bay and the Sagami Sea from Tokyo. lnclement weather prevented further strikes on the 26th and 27th. Fortunate timing on the fueling rendezvous effected on the '24th had topped off the heavy units of Task Force 58 and allowed for diversionary attacks on the Nansei Shoto Islands on the return to Ulithi. The strikes came off March lst with Evasive Action

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The Emi of One Kamikaze