Hancock (CV 19) - Naval Cruise Book

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OPERATION NINE l Arriving in San Pedro Bay, Philippine Islnads, on June 25th, the Hannah reported to ComThird Fleet, Admiral W. F. Halsey, aboard the Missouri. for operations against the home islands of Japan. During the run northward the force was under constant menace of drifting mines which were quickly dispatched by rifle fire from the destroyer screen. On July 8th the Hanlnah and 'her cohorts rendezvoused with units of Servron Six IService Squadron Sixl to fuel and re-arm. Operating from such bases as Ulithi and Leyte the tankers, ammunition ships, refrigerator ships and even sea-going tugs were able to provide the combatant ships with the necessities of warfare without interrupting the air and surface assault on Japan. I During the final phases -of World War II the replenishment group steamed within 300 miles of the enemy home islands servicing carriers, cruisers, bat- tleships and destroyers under the noses of an impotent Japanese fleet. The Hannah launched her first strike of her ninth operation on July lOth, hitting airfields and air installations in the Tokyo Plains area. Northward to the edge of the Kurile Islands the fast carriers hit installations on the eastern side of Hokkaido Island on the I4th and I5th, knocking out airfields in addition to hitting shipping in'Nemuro Wan and Kushiro Harbor, paving the way for the scheduled landings under Rear Admiral Frank J. FIetcher's Ninth Fleet via the Aleutians. I Cutting the Jap Fuel Line - Z E I I f

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close over the life-jacketed figures. Aboard the Hannah men struggled to close off and subdue the fire that threatened her even as the Franklin had been threatened in the previous week. Once again the Hannah left the formation to fight against destruction. Wheeling in high speed right turns the skipper attempted to throw the three burning planes forward over the side and to dislodge the sixteen planes parked aft from their moorings as the carrier heeled with the wind and force of gravity. The Task Force Commander kept his force near at hand to fight off renewed attacks on the crippled carrier and in less than 50 minutes the Hannah was back in action, hurt and breathing hard, but ready for action. By heroic and skillful work the damage control party had the fire under con- trol wit-hin a half-hour and planes returning from strikes were able to 'land aboard four -hours later. At quarters next morning the ranks were thinned by 62 absentees-27 had been killed and 35 were missing in action as a result of the fires and explosions of April 7th. On the 8th the destroyer Eng- lish came alongside with Hannah survivors picked up from the water on the 7th. The Hancock and Cabot were detached from Task Group 58.3 on the afternoon of the 9th and ordered to Ulithi for repairs. Three hours after leaving the formation the Hancock crew gathered on the hangar deck in honor -of the 27 men who were killed aboard the Hannah dur- ing the Okinawa operation. At l5I 5 their bodies were committed to the deep off Okinawa in solemn burial ceremonies conducted by Chaplain James J. Doyle. lFor his heroic work in rescuing wounded and dying personnel during t-he trying hours of the Hannah's misfortune Chaplain Doyle was awarded the green and white striped Commendation Ribbon as a small tribute to his devotion to his shipmates, duty and country.i When the Hannah left the Okinawa area the occupation was still meeting fierce resistance, ia resistance that was to continue for seven long weeks. ' Enroute from Ulithi to Pearl Harbor for drydocking and repairs the Hannah found time to take count on her seventh operation against the Japanese. Air Group Six had racked up 30 planes destroyed in the air, 45 on t-he ground, and sank one enemy ship. Three more were listed as probables, while 26, including tw-o carriers, were heavily damaged. Honolulu provided the closest approach to a real stateside liberty for the Hannah's crew and the famed beach at Waikiki drew many sailors for surf- riding and shuffle-board at the Navy-operated Royal Hawaiian. There were few dates for the average officer or sailor and ten o'cIock curfew found the busses and taxis crowded with Navy men laden wit-h their purchases of grass skirts, photos, shoes lunrationed in Hawaiil, and other souvenirs of the Territory of Hawaii. The crowded, popular Liberty House department store presented a stateside appearance and record or music stores found the Navy men buying records and instruments for shipboard amusement. Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Air, A. L. Gates, honored the Hancock with a visit on May 20th. After several weeks of post-repair speed and gunnery trials the Hannah joined up with the new Lexington, Cowpens and destroyer screen to form Task Group I2.2 under command of Rear Admiral Albert Jennings, ComCarDiv I I laboard the Hancockl. The Task Group passed through the anti-submarine nets on June I2 on a strike against the by-passed Jap Garrison on Wake Island. OPERATION EIGHT The Hannah's planes struck the surprised enemy on the morning of June 20th and gave them a thorough pasting with rockets and bombs. Wake was a test for the new white phosphorous bombs which covered the visi-on of enemy gunners and made things a little easier for succeeding waves of bomb- ers and strafers. There were not many planes in evidence and the attackers retired westward to the dawn of a new day-the end of Japanese resistance on Okinawa and the beginning of the end for the doctrine of Japanese expansion.

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-V v? 1 ffl pr 1 The End of Three More Jap Tcmlcers Target for the l7th was Mito, in the Tokyo area with the big sweep on the l8th hitting the important naval base at Yokosuka. Badly damaged from these attacks, the battleship Nagato was rendered uselss, to lay a smoking, blackened symbol of a once proud fleet. Hurricane weather prevented further strikes until the 24th when carrier planes blazed a path across Shikoku lsland to hit Kobe and Kure Naval bases on the Inland Sea. The battleship-carrier ISE, the heavy cruiser ACDBA and carriers, AMAGI and KATSURAGI suffered heavy damage in Kure l-larbor and raids on the 25th and 28th eliminated them from the Japanese surface fleet . The German Navy had been designed as an undersea fleet but the Japanese Fleet rested on the bottom because of American, not Japanese, design. Strikes were launched against Osaka and Kure airfields on the 2Oth but little enemy opposition was met. The planet-shaking atomic bomb floated to earth over the city of Hiroshima on August 6th to wipe out a metropolis of 3l8,000 and to render the soil beneath the rubble of ruin lifeless beyond the lifetime of any surviving witness. Three days later smaller Nagasaki fell under the unleashed fury of the same incredible force, The l-lannah's strikes were dwarfed that day by the lethal power of a single bomb from a single plane.