Hornet (CVA 12) - Naval Cruise Book

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--- -' -' - x in lf- drifted dead in the heaving sea, ln an amazingly short time, four scattered blazes were under control, but the most serious of the many fires had begun to gnaw away at the Hornet's vitals. A thousand men were organized into bucket brigades to fight the flames. From starboard, the Northampton came up with cables and took the wounded car- rier in tow. At 1100 hours, a new wave of Jap torpedo planes knifed through the screen. One of them muffed a sitting duck shot by a matter of yards. 'The other Dlanes, possibly because they believed the Hornet a gone gosling, headed out of the screen and made for the Enterprise, Admiral Kin- kaid's second carrier. Damage control aboard the Hornet be- came a matter of muscle and indomitable will. Executive Olfficer Captain Appolo Soucek worked with the crew to manhandle the anchor chain and cable. By 1400 hours, fire no longer menaced the ship. The wounded went over the high-line to a waiting destroyer. Repair parties had the generators turning over by 1530. One tur- bine was about to spin when the Japs came in for one last run with torpedo planes and dive-bombers. They were through in a hurry, and when they left there was nothing to do but abandon ship. Raked with bombs and listing,from at least one more torpedo hit, the Hornet was done for and the crew was ordered to hit the boats. By 1700 all but 129 men of the ship's complement of 2,900 were aboard other craft. After ten hours of constant attack, the valiant Hornet was a listing, burning hulk. But she was still afloat. Two U. S. des- troyers came in close to deliver the coiip de grace. They pumped 300 rounds and 12 tor- pedoes into The Fighting Lady's hull before she went down. At that, it was more than the Japs had been able to accomplish. Perhaps it was prophetic that as th-e Hornet slid beneath the surface and settled for her long, canting plunge to the bottom, the day faded and the Pacific sun went down. The passing of that Hornet, s-eventh of her line, was sad news mitigated by only one heartening fact. Squadron Commander Gus Widhelm, rescued from the drink after his bomber was shot down over target, sent the news by radio to Admiral Mason. Scratch two Jap flattops, Gus told his rescuers. You should have seen those Zeros hit the water when they came back home. Our boys worked hard. 'There weren't any H broodhens for the chicks to come back to. When the official score was tallied, the fight off the Santa Cruz Islands put two Jap carriers out of action, damaged two battleships and four cruisers, and sank two destroyers. The brave death of the Hornet had far-reaching consequences. On Guadal- canal, Henderson Field remained in Amer- 5 Q f.,i,l,-, yy. 5 .,A.ix V ,.-qv ,. --, -- - ,V-N 1 , . ican hands, and the Imperial Fleet retreated north, never again to risk its carriers in South Pacific battle. There was an eighth Hornet on the high seas within 10 months of the day number seven sank beneath the Southern Pacific swells. She took terrible and telling revenge on the enemy in the closing years of the war, proving herself to be a worthy heiress to a noble name. In the fall of 1944, the war was drawing to a close, but the Jap fleet was still to be routed and crushed. Admiral I-Ialsey had yet to carry through the great strikes on Leyte Gulf, Manila Bay and Luzon. What has been called The most decisive cam- paign in American naval history was not yet won. October 26, 1944, was heralded aboard the Hornet number eight by two provocative specimens of wartime literature. The first was the official plan of the day, duly entered into the log. The second was a piece of doggerel composed by some anony- mous poet in the Chief Petty Officer's Mess. Today will be a field day, the official log reads. Air department, dust off all overheads, removing any snoopers which may be adrift, and sweeping all corners of the Philippines, sending incineration or throwing over the side Cfirst punching holes in bottomj any Nip cans, AP's or AK's still on topside. Gunnery department will assist as necessary. Engineering, continue to pour on the coal. Medical, stand by with heat-rash lotion. Damage Control, observe holiday routine. , 'The verse is in- like character: Fill the bomb-bays. Ta-ke on ammo. H ornet-men, these are oiir plans- We will steam to Jacko-Jima' Where Jap maidens ply their fans. First we'll pulverize their cruisers, Then we'll perforate their cans. ' Morale ran high aboard the Hornet on that last day of the Second Battle of the Philippine Sea. The Fighting Lady had raced 605.2 miles in 24 hours in order to reach her station offrthe southeast coast .of Samar. She was there when a steel-shod prong of the triple-headed Imperial Fleet tried to sneak through the slot on its way to Leyte Gulf. The Nips had tasted blood. Seven U. S. ships of a small carrier force built around the Princeton had been put out of action on the punch to Leyte. Only the Hornet stood in the way of a drive to relieve the besieged Jap garrison ashore. The ensuing battle was one of the most furious in the history of the Hornet. While the heavy Jap guns hurled box- cars of explosives to bracket the Hornet, the carrier's I-Ielldivers leveled off and streaked over the flotilla in the Slot, wreck- ing terrible havoc among the desperately maneuvering surface craft. A Kaga class . , ,, - . -, . 1 .., ,, ,,r, ,-- .1 -.r--44 ' -f '- -.4-.LT f. -- '- - ' i- ' -i-Inav' 'o'l ' e ll -P 5 n qt -, 6,7 Y-,,. . ,.,,,,,si- 4, Axel. carrier launched a swarm of Kamileaees which fell before the H0rnet's guns like swatted Hies. A dauntless dive-bomber plunged through a screen of flak to drop its full load on the Nips carrier's flight deck. The Kaya blossomed like a fiame-colored Chrysanthe- mum and began to settle in a steep list to port. A heavy Jap cruiser rushed in to stand alongside of the crippled carrier, but the H0rnet's skip-bombers sent her reeling away with a shattered stern. Overhead, Jap planes which had escaped the Hornefs fighters circled in a vain attempt to land on the smashed carrier. They made precarious passes, wheeled and returned. Then, like weary birds,,they began to drop into the sea. Aboard the Hornet, the gun crews work- ed like goaded toilers in King Solomon's Mines. They poured on the heat and estab- lished a ship's record for rounds fired in a single six-hour period. The Hornet maneuvered out of the way of suicidal Japanese attacks like a whirling ballet dan- cer. She seemed to be wearing a screen of invincibility which l-eft her unscathed while her adversaries plowed curved wakes and foundered into watery graves. Despite strike after strike, until the end of the war the Hornet number eight wore her aura of invincibility like a jaunty cloak. After serving as a troop transport in the great Homeward Bound operation of 1946, the famous Fighting Lady was consigned to mothballs. But the oldgirl wasn't des- tined to remain in storage overly long. Recently converted in an up-to-date fashion that made her a bit too broad in the beam to be accommodated by the Panama Canal, she was recommissioned in September, 1953, and ordered to report back to duty with the Pacific Fleet. Before setting out on a world cruise that would take her to her new duty station, she went through the previously mentioned maneuvers off the Atlantic Coast. The revamped Hornet has a new deck- edge elevator and a buttressed flight deck measuring-151 feet by 880. Generating 150,- 000 horsepower, she is in the over-30-knot class, and with a full load displaces 32,000 tons with a 29-foot draft. She stands a towering 190 feet above the waterline. Her normal complement is 2,700 men, 210 officers, and 80 planes. She is armed with eight single five-thirty-eights and 28 rapid- fire three-fifties. 'There are a few other weapons, besides, but we can't talk about them here. Right now, the Hornet is Hying jets- F9F5 Panthers, F9F6 Cougars, and F2H3 Banshees. She also carries a normal con- tingent of prop-powered AD's. But most of all she carries a good American crew, a fiaming pride rooted in a great tradition, and a name that will live as long as there is a United States Navy. 11- '-4 b'J't' ' v-' ! 1 '- lf' i ! -i 'l'TT:- -IV ll HT i 'if'llTHw

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