Lunga Point (CVE 94) - Naval Cruise Book

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VVi- continiicci to pick up Bothies near our formation, l)iit not nearly so often as ciiirin oiii earlier clays in the conihat area, and those that we did pick up did not seem to be Cjuite as anx- ious to die for dear old Nippon as others with whom we had come in contact. They seemed to he mostK ' snoopers ' just looking us omt. They did, however, continue to he the cause of our goinu, to general cjuarters at all hours of the day and night and, consequently, the cause of our losing lots of sleep and time from otiier .ship ' s work. On -2 I June f made anotiier isil to Kerania Relto to re-arm and replenish our stores, and. just to make us feel at home there, a Boge closed to within three miles of us while on tills visit. We speedily loaded our ammunition and stores aboard, though, and got underway earK in the afternoon, just in time it turned out. since a few hours after our departure two ships were badly damaged there by Kamikazes. On the 24th we .set our cour.se for Leyte, where we anchored in .San Pedro Harbor on the 27th. I,i: Tr: . llhough we had participatr-d in the Ix-yic operation in .N ' ovember K)44, this was our first isit to Leyte proper, since our part in the o|)eration had consisted of giving air cover to ()nv(jys in I- -yte Ciulf. C:(jn.se(|uently, we Inund much to int ' rest us on our cjne or two liberties while there. We found the native.s most happy to see us and outwardly grateful to the . mericans for their liiieration. We also 7 op: Residential section of Toloso; below: Business section. Lt. C:d. I nto breeches i)tioy lu found that the ravages of war had inflicted al- most irreparable damage on them which would take at least a generation to erase. It was quite evident that they would need the moral and economic backing of the United States for .some time to come; however, they seemed to ha e a spirit that would enable them to acquire and maintain independence as a Nation with grace and dignity among the Nations of the W ' orld. Leyte afforded us the first opportunity to buy sou enirs since we left Pearl Harbor and most every member of the ship ' s company returned from liberty with something in the way of a souvenir of our short visit to the Philippines. On I July we got underway from San Pedro Harbor for the East China Sea, the locale of our next operation. It so happened that Cap- tain WashbiH-n had received orders to be Com- manding Officer of the Naval Air Station, CUinton. Oklahoma, during the latter part of May, and, by this time, he had become some- what concerned over the arrival of his relief. He had felt quite certain that he would be re- lie ed in Leyte. But such was not the case, and he took the conn out of Leyte completely reconciled to another long operation before he 214

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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

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C:aptain Hullinssvvorth arrives aboard in AvxiiKU Exec, escorts new Skipper to the bridge. would be relieved. Meanwhile, his relief would be chasing us all over the Pacific. We had hardly gotten underway from Leyte, however, when a Grumman Goose (JRF) began circling our ship, and we soon learned that the Old Man ' s relief was in it. We told them to return to the Samar Air Field and we would send for him. Consequently, we dispatched two Avengers to Samar, and .shortly thereafter they landed aboard with Captain William Right HoUingsworth, USN, who was to relieve Captain Washburn. We continued on our way to our operating area in the East China Sea where a very large group of minesweepers were sweeping an area due West of Okinawa, mid-way between Okinawa and the China Coast, probably pre- paratory to a landing on the China Cloast, Ise- cause the area swept was approximately 50 by 40 miles— a very large mine field. Our mis- sion was to provide air cover for the mine- sweepers as they swept back and forth, day eiiii Captain Washburn, I rcli Claptain HoUingsworth reading his orders.