Lexington (CV 16) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 112 text:

w QAQ FIRE AND SMOKE OE THE FIRST PLANE DOWN AHEAD OE THE LEX 4 3 A Q . af: A, QBQ THE SECOND PLANE JUST ASTERN OF THE LEX IS ALSO HIT I ' 'S I I pf 100

Page 111 text:

down. These quick, straight-shooting, young gunners are feeling good, they certainly make no effort to conceal their pride. I have watched these boys at target practice on several occasions, was amazed at their extreme youth, most of them look like high-school kids. They have had com- paratively little target practice but they met this swift surprise attack today in the manner of seasoned veterans. They have just demonstrated how quickly the average American youth acquires a new know-how . . . learns how to handle a gun. The gunners on the port side gun galleries grumble about the guys on the starboard side having all the breaks, for the lap planes came in so low, the port gunners didn't get a chance to shoot, couldn't even see them. As the Lex was steaming past the burning wreckage of the first plane shot down, the port- side crew saw the Iap insignia, the bright red disc, on part of a plane's wing and were able to guess what happened. I hear one lad laughingly tell his chief about seeing some of the gun crew throw all handy loose tools at what looked like the heads of lap airmen bobbing around in the water. The chief explodes with, What the hell did they want to do a fool thing like that for, waste good tools, why didn't they turn the machine guns on the bastardsP,' Frank Morris comes along wearing the same style grin most of us are flashing. I-Ie is protesting that he has been out in the Pacific with the Navy for six months looking for action and nothing happened until this trip. You are either a Ionah or a rabbit's foot, depending on how I look at it, is the way he puts it to me. ihlong the flight deck everybody displays an expansive friendliness. War has moments when it seems almost like a ball game or a horse race. YVe,re the winning team out here today, we,re the jockey receiving a big Horal horseshoe after the race. I know I couldn't join in all this festive excite- ment if the trigger-happy 20 mm gunners, that failed to identify the I-Iellcat this morning before peppering it, had killed that pilot. VV hat a tremendous difference it makes, who gets killed . . . who throws the monkey wrenches and at whose heads . . . bobbing around in the water. I O15 'Q L it i A I 7 EXPLODES-CRASHES INTO THE WATER cREATEs AN IMPGSING FUNERAL PYRE 99

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c 'iw' fx A A f KCI BLOXVS UP AS IT LANDS ON THE WATER The three photographs on these two pages depict the attacks on the Lex as seen from the U.S.S. Coufpens. The top left-hand picture was made at the same time as the one on page 98. The print on the next two pages shows the flaming arc of the third plane arching down in flames just after firing a torpedo at the Lex. This one was made from one of the destroyer escorts. 12:30. From the port side of the bridge we are watching the Yorlqzown land her planes .... What's that? . . . Strings of smoke-puffs just above the horizon, the distant rumble and boom of exploding shells, indicate that low flying enemy planes must be moving in for another attack. The skipper points his binoculars in the direction of the flring and I point my camera, begin taking pictures. It's too far away to see clearly what is going on, I flnd myself wishing they would head this way, want to get a close-up of a Iap plane coming in head-on . . . then develop a sickish feeling in the pit of the stomach as I realize with sudden clarity what it is I am wishing for. A big pufl of smoke appears beyond the Yorlqtown-undoubtedly a lap plane down. A gunnery captain points out another one closing in, a fast moving speck it seems to be flying directly over her deck, becomes a streak of flame, dives into the water, Hares up into a pillar of flre. 1 101