Hancock (CV 19) - Naval Cruise Book

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Avengers Along French Indo-China, Coast another enemy plane as it neared the release point of its bombing run on the Hannah, the bomb striking the water within one hundred feet -of old number nineteen. Enemy planes were everywhere and fighter pilots took many chances by following them right into the formation and through the fire sent up by their own ships. One F6F, set afire as he courageously dove after the raiding planes, managed to right his ship for a water landing but his plane exploded as he hit the water and searching destroyers were unable to find a survivor. Attacks continued through the night and into the Zlst with little let-up. During the raids our own ships hit the Hannah's stack with ack-ack in their efforts to knock down the persistent Japs. Air strikes were launched against the Nansei Shoto Islands daily from the 23rd through the 27th. On .March 28th, strikes were directed against Minami Daito Jima, about T80 miles from Okinawa while strikes on f-the 29th con- centrated on Kyushu again. From March 3Oth to April 6th the Hannah's planes flew in close support to the Tenth Army which landed on the western coast of Okinawa on April lst, Again the Japs fought from deep-prepared entrenchments against the onslaught of the Fifth and Sixth Marine Divisions

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One of 15 Jap Tankers Hit Off Camrcmh Bay- Jcmucwy 12, 1945

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Bombs Away and Fourteenth Army Corps. Across the globe, on April lst, Navy landing craft fooled the Germans by showing up to ferry the troops of Generals Patton, Simpson, Hodges, and Field Marshal Montgomery across the Rhine. Rockets by the thousands flashed from carrier planes to blast gun emplace- ments and strongholds but the enemy gave ground dearly, exacting a heavy toll for this important island. A part of the cost of victory was paid by the Hancock's own crew when a Jap plane skimmed through heavy fire in a low level attack that ended with the enemy cartwheeling sickeningly across her flight deck into the spotted planes of Air Group Six. His bomb hit the port catapult with a terrific explosion, followed by the blast of pent-up gasoline fumes as tanks burst under the onslaught of the Japanese juggernaut. Hit hard at both bow and stern the Hannah reeled once more under searing flames as the fire immediately spread to gallery and hangar decks. Many men were blown over the side by the initial explosion while others were forced to jump to the comparative safety of the open sea by the heat waves that spread over the flight deck, distorting and refracting vision like some sur- realist painting of an imagined hell. Destroyers circled among the bobbing heads, some frantically waving, others inert and motionless except for movement imparted as the waves sought to