Lexington (CVA 16) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 11 text:

The crew of The TourTh LEXINGTON hoped They would be kepT TogeTher and senT To a new carrier. Their services were needed immediaTely in The war Though. The individual MinuTemen wenT Their separaTe ways To carry on The TighT. Meanwhile, The hull of a huge carrier resTed on The ways af The Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, Mass. On .lune l6Th a Telegram saT on The desk of Secrefary of The Navy, Frank Knox, in Washing- Ton. He read iT and a smile came over his Tace. IT was from The presidenT of The Fore River Workers, and he spoke for 23,000 workers in The yards. The telegram explained that in 1925 the fourth LEXINGTON was built in that very shipyard, and now she was sunk. It went on to tell that the loss was a personal one to many in the Fore River Yards who had worked on CV2 and were still employed there. The carrier resting on the weys had a simple designation, CV16. Future name: USS CABOT. Could The new ship be named LEXINGTON? An answer reTurned The same day-PERGRA. The news was passed on, and work on CVT6 increased Three-Told. On SepTember 26, i942 she was launched, one year ahead of schedule. AT The launching RADM F.C. Sherman, USN, Commanding OTTicer of The old LEXINGTON said: Today The new LEXINGTON Takes up where The old leTT off. May her career be full of glorious achievemenT. She will help carry ouT our pledge-ThaT freedom shall noT perish from This earTh. The ship slid down The ways, eager To avenge The deaTh of her namesake. In July, T943 CVAT6 ioined The SEVENTH FLEET, ready To Take up The TighT, ready To carry on where The Old Girl had lefT off. 31 new lceixiimgloui -Tillie same llfnglluil

Page 10 text:

The ship shuddered violently tive times during The short battle- struck five Times in as many minutes by Torpedoes, all on The port side. Surprisingly the ship was holding speed, thpugh listing slightly. ln The bowels of The ship The Engineering Officer and his men were already pumping fuel from one side To The other Toveliminate The list. ln his summary The Engineering Officer said l would suggest, Captain, if you must Take any more Torpedoes, Take Them on The starboard side. Suddenly a shattering roar ripped Through LEXINGTON. Fires spread quickly and many men were killed in The blast. Fire parties manned Their stations but The confiagration soon surrounded Them and raged out of control. The crew fought The fires for hours to save The Old Girl. The injured were Taken To The hangar deck and immediately re- lieved by men Topside. By afternoon fires engulfed The machine shops where a number of l000 pound bombs were stored. AT i630 The Skipper ordered all men Topside To Abandon Ship. One particular group commander had his men gathered about him on The flight deck and was speaking To Them about The fortunes of war. One of his men approached him and reported that he had finished fitting an accessory on his plane's pump. Took you a long Time, The Commander said. Yes, Sir.. .had to draw iT from stores and had an awful iob getting To iT. There's a Terrible fire down There. ln another instance someone remembered to save The ice cream. Some fliers were using Their little yellow life rafts To escape. One crew chief got into a raft and started to paddle away. An OTTicer whistled To him and The man paddled all The way back. What do you want, sir? Nothing!-just wanted To say you look fine and that iT is only 4000 miles To Australia. The captain made his last round of the ship, Then started down a line in the after section. A tremendous blast lit up the twi- light sky and shook all the ships in the area. Clt was later learned that the captain and exec were on the lines when this occurred, and the blast shook them loose and dumped them into the water where they were picked up by some of their own men in raftsl. Much later a muster revealed that 92 per cent of the crew were picked up by the destroyers and cruisers. - The word was passed to evacuate The area, for The tremendous light from The fire would surely attract lurking submarines. The ships pulled out, and men lined The sides and watched The illumina- tion from Their great ship in The night sky. A destroyer was ordered to stand back and send Torpedoes into The LEXINGTON hull. When four Torpedoes belted into The star- board Sldef The great ship groaned and slowly settled. She did not go down head first nor tail first. The Old Lady died with great dignity. x

Page 12 text:

LEXlNGTON'S first mission was a raid on Tarawa late in Septem- ber, I943. The Allies were starting to island hop, the cruel, bloody push back across the Pacific. The first LEXINGTON stab into Japanese forces came during the Gilbert Islands campaign in November. On December 4th the new Lady Lex drew her baptism of fire-a torpedo into the starboard side. Lookouts on the starboard wings spotted the torpedo planes and LEXINGTON was first in the task group to open fire. The first two planes blew up in the air, victims of five inch shells. A large force of enemy planes turned back, but it was apparent that a night attack was imminent since the element of surprise was lost. At T846 they returned and the ship underwent an attack for the next seven hours. It was times like this that the men spent I5 to 20 hours at their battle stations. The cooks prepared sandwiches which were taken to each station by messeger. From the LEXINGTON log, December 4, 1943 : At 1925 bogies began closing and the Task Group began flring. Both groups were meneuvering at high speeds on evasive courses, and flring by the screen was continuous. To those with topside battle stations it seemed like a long, drawn out, unreal dream-the ship silently steaming through the water, throwing out a brilliant phospherescent wake, the moonlight reflected against the planes on the flight deck, and all the while the bright streamers of tracer bullets and the flash of five-inch bursts from the ships of the screen flring at unseen targets. At 2l5O fioat lights were dropped in the water to guide the attackers to the target. At 2322 four parachute flares appeared on the port beam. They were beautifully placed to silhouette the ship, and it was obvious that we had been picked out as the target. At 2325 the ship opened fire, bogies were closing in fast on the starboard bow. A torpedo was seen to drop from a Betty on the starboard beam who was immediately tired on, but came in close and got away at high speed directly over the ship. At 2327 the torpedo hit. The ship settled five feet to star- board and lost steering control. reieertecdl eurrrllr by ielrre rese Limping away after the battle, ships company quickly extinguished several small fires and regained Steerage. The Lady returned to Pearl Harbor and later to Bremerton for repairs. Meanwhile, in the first of a chain reaction, LEXINGTON was reported sunk by Tokyo Rose. Fully restored, LEXINGTON returned to the fight and struck the Japanese forces again and again. In the states she was the symbol of the carrier fight in the Pacific. The name echoed from the main- land and shot across the ocean to Japan. Soon LEXINGTON became known as the Blue Ghost. Many reasons were attributed to the origin of this nickname, but two predominate. First, following each Tokyo Rose report of her having been sunk, she reappeared-a ghost ship. Secondly she was the only carrier in the fleet without camouflage, and from a distance she appeared blue. One thing is for certain- Tokyo Rose herself originated Blue Ghost. The name caught on fast--as did respect for her. P The last months of the war passed in hectic activity. Up the Solomon chain, through the Carolines, Bouganville, New Guinea. Victory in Europe is followed by Victory in the Pacific. On Septem- ber 5th, l945 LEXINGTON steamed into Tokyo Bay and rested for the first time in 67 days. The war was over. The Blue Ghost slowly moved out of Tokyo Bay in early December, l945. Moving into the open sea she picked up speed, eager to return home once more. In i946 she was placed in the Pacific Reserve Fleet and shortly afterwards de-activated in Puget' Sound.