Lunga Point (CVE 94) - Naval Cruise Book

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After cclchratini; our first anniversary in eominission at (iuam we remained tiiere lor several clays, and all hands enjoyed liherty at the recreation center over at (»al) (iali and at the OHieer ' s C:lul)s at Orote. Finally, on 23 May, Composite S(|iiadron Ninety-eight (VCl-gS), I.t. Cldr. R. Semmes, commanding and Lt. A. Fisani, Ivxeciiti ' e Ollicer, reported aboard for dnty to relie c VC-85, and on the same day we got underway for our new operating area. VC -gfi quickly sold themselves to us, not only as a line hunch of shipmates, t)ut also in their skill and accuracy in liring on towed spars with tlieir machine guns and rockets, they ha ing conducted prac- tice runs beginning the second day out. We were underway to join a large group of tankers south of Okinawa, where wc were to remain and pro ide air co er for them for a while, and we rendez oused with them on 26 May and pro ided them air co cr until 2 June, at which time it was intended that wc set our course west for attacks on enemy air strips on Saka- shima Ciunto, a group of Islands just north of Formosa. ' 1 ' PH()()N ! We set our course west all right. JDUt soon learned that one of those dreaded C hina .Sea typhoons was heading our way, so we, nat urally, changed (jur crjurse to avoid Ix ' ing (aught in the center of it. China .Sea typho(m.s, however, are pretty diliicult to determine the course of and, try as hard as w - could, wc (ouldn ' t avoid getting well on the edge of it. ihe blow started on the afternoon of 4 .June, increasing in intensity until dawn of the j-,th, when it began to subside, but it did not entire- ly subside until mid-afternoon that day. To say that the peaceful waters of tlie Pacific wa.s a u ' clcome sight to us all is putting it mildly, because few of us had slept at all the night before. One cannot imagine the eHects of a typhoon without having gone through one. Our ship was rolling and pitching as never before all through the night and. although all loose gear and our planes had been thoroughly secured, there was little sleep to be had on board that night, because there was just enough loo.se gear shifting about the .ship to keep us awake. In addition to the noise created by this shifting gear and the mountainous waves beating against the sides of the ship to keep us awake, it was practically an impossibility for us to stay in our bunks. C onsequently, most of us sp ent ' the night just walking up and down the pas- sageways or in the wardroom. Twenty and

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ADDENDA It is not intended that this addenda be a sequel to the pictorial log covering our first year in commission, but rather that it simply be a brief synopsis of events of interest that have transpired since our first anniversary, up to our return to the States. This has been deemed advisable in the interest of all hands in view of the sudden termination of the war and our most interesting operations in and around Japan and the desire of our present Command- ing Officer to make recent pictures available to all hands, it being felt that they would not justify the publication of another book, but would certainly justify an addition to the one that has gone before. S. Linton Smith, Lieut. Cmdr. USNR

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twenty-five degree rolls were more than fre- quent throughout the night, and, one time, about dawn, wc had a forty degree roll, which is just about the limit to which we could go without capsizing. Many times during the night the ship would list to port or starboard and seem to poise at its peak, undecided wheth- er to continue or to come back. The Old Man was, of course, on the bridge all night, and it is understood that quite a few times we rolled . slight roll during June typhoon. S ; . over so far that the ship poised at its peak long enough for everyone from the Skipper to the Quartermasters to say a fairly long prayer be- fore we rolled back. Waves were continually breaking over the bow, some even coming up over the flight deck, and it is a real tribute to all departments that they had the ship so well secured that nothing more than superficial damage ccnild be found when the storm was all over. June ih found us (jperating oil Sakashima Gunto, with our planes making strikes against enemy air strips and other installations. It was on this day that we had our first close con- tact with the enemy since leaving Guam. We had just secured from morning general quarters when, at 0636 to be exact, a Kamikaze dove into the forward end of the flight deck of the U.S. 8. Naloma Bay (C;VE 62), coming to rest on her forecastle. This was another case of a Bogey slipping in on us without detection, not a ship in our. formation having anything on their screen. The . atoma Bay was just about 1 .000 yards on our port beam at the time, and many of our personnel saw the plane go into its dive. Fortunately, however, the damage to the Xaluma Bay was not great, and they were able to continue operational with temporary repairs. Just after this, however, a Bogey was picked up on our screen and at 0637 we went to general quarters. Shortly after all hands had gotten to their battle stations another Kamikaze made a dive at the U.S.S. Hoggatt Bay (CVE 75), but missed, diving into the sea and exploding close aboard without doing any damage. The Hoggatt Bay was in the middle of our formation and the Kami- kazes were getting too close to us for comfort. Later on other Bogies were picked up ap- proaching our formation, but they just looked us over and left. Following this, we continued our operations against Sakashima Gunto for several days with our Squadron making quite a number of successful strikes. While we were still operating in the Saka- shima area Admiral Durgin came aboard on 15 June on an official visit, at which time all hands were called to quarters on the flight deck for the presentation of awards. . -.- nd dwelling n I ulubu, Club at It 213