Lexington (CV 16) - Naval Cruise Book

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V, ,-f ,. ...,....-H , . - -Av--Y-- , J ,1-sync. -affix 'ff-ff 'SJFF-11fm:11'11f-0--':L'Ji'1i:1 ::i:t'5: ' M' B? M 'r'i's H 1 sunk. By the attacks on Formosa the Navy. . . Qwasj neutralizing the base from which the jap- anese could best replace their lossesf' Heavier air resistance was met in this period than had been confronting Navy pilots recently, and on October 14 a raid of enemy torpedo planes Uillsj sneaked past the Combat Air Pa- trol and launched their attack. Lex gunners were the first to open fire, shooting down three and assisting in two other kills. The cruisers Houston and Canberra took seri- ous torpedo hits during the attack, but the elated japanese pilots, in their usual modest style, flash- ed word that eleven carriers, two battleships' and three cruisers had been sunk. Radio Tokyo duti- fully broadcast these reports to the world and japan was 'cswept by a sudden wave ofexhilara- tion which dispelled overnight the growing pessi mism over the unfavorable trend of the warf, After lingering 'briefly in the area to cover our retiring damaged cruisers, Lexington resumed at- tacks against the Philippines October 21. Three days later an enemy force was located in the Sibuyan Sea, and pilots from Air Group 19 were credited with hits on three cruisers and an assist in the sinking of the battleship M usacki. The same day TF-38 fell victim of an air attack LeX's guns are manned and ready as an F617 makes ker ina! approach, be- low. At right, is a view of tke flight deck, looking ybrward from Prilfbz, as aircrap' ,are respotted afer a strike on Formosa in Octoben 1944. itseli the CAP was able to splash or drive back most enemy planes Qwith Air Group 19 splash- ing 63 of the 150 shot down during the dayj, but one broke through for a hit on Princeton. When Essex scout planes sighted the japanese carriers the next morning, their Air Group joined with Air Group 19 to deliver a fatal attack on one of them, Ckitose. A second strike successful- ly attacked other enemy units Qincluding the car- rier' Ckzjzodaj an hour later, while Strike No. 3 was sent against additional carriers located to the north. Lex is planes here were credited with sink- ing Zaikaku and assisting in the serious dam- aging of another flattop, Zuiko. The dayas opera- tions were facilitated by the fact that most of the N ipponese aircraft had been caught on the ground at Luzon rather than being on hand to defend the -shipsg Hellcats reportedly made short

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.... V rn U . . , ,,,---,,,,.,.- -, - .,.. . -F.:-.,-Li.. ----Q-zasfsa-wa-efiisfa mf-r v v--f-1-.1 v-ff f- work of those Zeros which did venture off the island to do battle. The fourth strike, during which Lex3' planes worked with those from Langley, resulted in only near misses on Ise Qa battleship which had been converted to a carrier, and put up Hexceedingly intense anti-aircraft fire j, although the carrier Zuiho, concentrated upon by 27 planes, was finished off. The fifth strike of the day again was aimed principally at Ise, but again no hits were scored -only U34 near-misses. Strike No. 6 was the third in a row to accomplish negligible results, and prompted Japanese Admiral Ozawa's-Chief of Staff to remark later, HI saw all this bombing and thought the American pilot is not so good. However, as naval historian Samuel Eliot Mori- son points out, HHe was pretty good to have sunk four carriers and a destroyer with a total of 527 plane sorties-201 of them fighter planesf, It should also be pointed out that the majority .of the pilots flying the final two strikes were on their third of the day. This important action was a part of the Battle of Leyte Gulf, which was described in the afore- mentioned Potter-Nimitz volume as 'cfor com- plexity and magnitude, without parallel in naval history. The Great Sea War continues: L'Last- ing four days, it was actually a series of actions hundreds of miles apart. The most important were the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea. . .and the Battle of Surigao Strait, the Battle of Cape En- gano, and the Battle of Samar fOctober 25j. When the long-drawn-out conflict at length sub- sided, the Imperial japanese Navy no longer existed as an effective fighting force, and the United States Navy commanded the Pacificfi About this time Admiral Mitscher, back in the United States on a thirty-day leave, commented to the press, Hjapan's homeland is pretty well open to our naval power.'9 I On October 25, 1944 thejapanese carried out the first successful operations of the newly-orga- nized Kamikaze fDivine Windj Special Attack Corp against units of the U. S. Fleet operating near the Philippines. The corp of suicide pilots took the name Kamikaze from the typhoons that saved Japan by scattering Kublai Khan 's inva- sion fleets in 1273 and 1279. 60 The Kamikaze pilot did not merely crash his plane into an enemy target, he deliberately flew to his death in a special, explosive-laden aircraft -literally a human guided missile. Within three months after the first such attack, 424 suicide planes had sortied from Philippine bases to attack the American Fleet. At least 50 of our vessels were damaged by them, including six aircraft carriers, two of which were sunk. After two more days in the Visayan area, Lexington Qnow Admiral McCain,s flagshipj, retired to Ulithi to replenish, emerging on the battle scene again November 5 to strike aircraft facilities at Clark Field on Luzon. The same day her Avengers and Helldivers blew off the bow and stern ofthe cruiser Nachz', sinking her. A severe counter-attack blossomed that after- noon, with the enemy taking advantage of the considerable cloud cover to strike with Kami- kazes. As her War Diary related: 4'All batteries opened fire on cZeke' 4,000 yards on starboard beam heading aft. Plane was hit and on fire, but came in to crash ship, directly outboard of sec- ondary conn Qcontroljf' Tarawa to Tokyo elaborated: uThe havoc that followed, though localized and soon brought under control, will never be forgotten by any man aboard. Much of the island was wrecked and numerous guns put out of commission. All of the radars went out temporarily, as well as much other similar equipment, the- largest radar antenna was reduced to scrap metal. The list of several communication leads and other electrical connections takes up six single-spaced typewrit- ten pages in reports. The gasoline explosion from the plane and the bomb blast together start- ed many heavy fires, though prompt work by fire-fighting parties had the blaze under control within twenty minutes. ' c'The human damage was more tragic and less reparable. All told, forty-seven officers and men lost their lives as a result of this blow, and 127 more were injured, many seriously. Hlncredibly, through all the shock and confu- sion, the ship continued normal operationsf' Quenching fires, repairing machinery, halting flooding-which allowed Lex to steam on, was what Commander Shaw was talking about in his