Lexington (CV 16) - Naval Cruise Book

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. . .. qi q3,g5.:.99i:A-m:.uN- ...tw Y..Y- - V A JAAN.,-.L.. -,.,... Felix B. Stump became her initial commanding officer. Following a fitting-out period in Boston, the carrier steamed south, and, on April 23 in Chesa- peake Bay, welcomed aboard Air Group Sixteen which was to make history in strikes from her deck. The ship engaged in training maneuvers until May 11, when she departed for a shake- down cruise to the Gulf of Paria, Trinidad. Four weeks of rigorous exercises sharpened the crew and Air Group before a return to Boston was made for a brief post-shake-down shipyard avail- ability period. The tide had definitely turned for the better in the Pacific War in the year or so since CV-2 had gone down in the Coral Sea. Offensive tactics were now the keynote, rather than defensive, and the Allied high command was plotting a step-by- step advance across the Pacific toward the lap- anese home islands. The United States joint Chiefs of Staff had formulated a plan on May 20, 1942 for the de- feat of japan, according to naval historian Samu- el Eliot Morison. The object was to attain posi- tions in the Western Pacific from which the enemy's unconditional surrender could be forced, either by air attacks alone or, more likely, by invasion following repeated air strikes. A key to this offensive would be simultaneous and parallel carrier and amphibious operations. As Morison states, i'The basic idea was this: an offensive through Micronesia fGilberts, Marshalls, Car- olinesj must be pushed at the same time as MacArthur7s New Guinea-Mindanao approach to Japan. The one would support the other, and the fast carrier forces, now being augmented by the Essex class, could free-wheel between the two. It was a very bold plan. Nothing in past war- One of the mostfamouslohotos to come out of World War II was this one of an F6F taking ofjfhom the deck of c'Lady Lex. These aircraf? and their crack Naval avzators played a key role zn countless azr and sea battles throughout the Western Pacz c scorzng several lczlls for each ofthezr losses 0

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fare told how amphibious forces could advance in great leaps across an ocean where the enemy had dozens of island bases. Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Fleet QCINCPACD had secured through reconnaissance of the Gil- berts, and as a result was able to convince the joint Chiefs that it would be wise to seize Tarawa and Makin for air bases before pressing on to the Marshalls. Such a directive was issued july 20 1943, with the operations scheduled for November. Meanwhile Lex transited the Panama Canal july 26-27 arriving at Pearl Harbor August 9 and reporting to the recently-organized Fifth Fleet. Her first mission was as apartof a Carrier Task Force under Rear Admiral Pownall, striking Tarawa and Makin September 18 and 19 Half of the eighteen enemy aircraft on the former island soldiers were killed and wounded' a Japanese 32 diary entry described Tarawa as Ha sea of flame. The most significant result of the raid, however, according to Naval Historian Morison, was the Lexington 19 planes' obtaining reconnais- sance photos which were to prove of great bene- fit in plotting the subsequent invasion of the island. October 5-6 Lexington joined five other car- riers Cthe largest fast carrier force yet organized under Rear Admiral Montgomery for strikes on Wake Island The six Air Groups flew 738 com- bat sorties, and these attacks so reduced the enemy s air strength that apan was forced to call upadditional planes from the Marshalls Heavy damage was also done to the island s fixed installations, according to estimates record- ed in the ship s War Diary at that time, least 60 per cent of the gun installations ap- peared to be untenable on the second day The forward anchorages had not yet been cap- , . . , I ' - ' ' ' . . .at target were destroyed and a great number of X'