Lunga Point (CVE 94) - Naval Cruise Book

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after day until ili - IkIcI was clcarccl. While this was not a paitit iilariy interesting; opera- tion, it was not lai kini; in excitement, heeaiise mines were eonslantly l)einn sii litec! elose to us, and our esroris would explode (hem; howe cr, the knowledge of their presence was not too comfortini; at nitjhl. CIaptain CJat Leaves Us On 5 July, shortly after arriving in oui operating area, all hands were called to lop: Captain ' (,.it lilil laicw.ll lo Exrc: ifn ri; Claptam Gat is piped aboard his plane with Department Heads as side boys ; below: Captain HoUingsworth inspecting V ' C-98, C|iiarters on llie llighl de( k for the ceremony of relieving (he (ominand, and at 0824 Captain HoUingsworth relieved Claptain Washburn, and at oH;j() Captain (iAT flew away from the decks of the I.un a Point, which he had com- manded since commissioning, and was landed on Wjnl ' an air strip. Okinawa. I y one of our Avengers, from which point he was to liy t j (kiam and thence to the States. We continued to crjver the minesweepers un- til 1 5 July, during which time we went to gen- eral quarters many times due to Bogies in the area, most of which seemed to he snoopers; one of which a Dinah, vsas splashed at 28.000 feet on 6 July by the LCl.AP from one of our other carriers. None came w ithin range of our ships ' guns during this period; however, night fighters splashed cjuite a number in our area. The increasing number of surfaced mines did make it necessary for us to post extra lookouts. .Xevertheless. enemy resistance definitely ap- p-ared U be weakening. On I -; July we left the minesweepers to re- fuel at sea south of Okinawa, and on the 17th we anchored in Buckner Bay, Okinawa, for re- plenishment, at 0749. but suddenly got under- way at 1430 the same day to ride (jut a typhoon which was heading our way. Our sudden de- parture made it necessary for us to leave several (jfficers and men behind, but they were re- turned to us by a destroyer the next morning. While we encountered heavy seas and high w inds we did not hit the center of the typhoon, and we safely rode it out. returning to Buck- ner Bay on 2 1 July to continue with our loading of stores and ammunition. .- t 0128 on 22 July the U..S..S. Marathon (. P,- 200). on our port beam, had a mysterious underwater ex- plosion, following which we went to general quarters, but. although Bogies came within 8 miles of us, it never was definitely determined whether it was a mine, an aerial torpedo or a torpedo from a midget submarine that hit the Marathon. Later the same day we left for the mine- sweeping area, and on the 23rd, the LC.- P from one of the other carriers splashed a Dinah and a Judy before they could get in close enough to do any damage to our unit. . fter providing air cover for the mine- sweepers for se eral days we found ourselves in the East China Sea, 70 miles off the mouth of the Yangtse River, from which point our Squadron was providing air cover for a cruiser 216

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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.

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group that was making night attacics on enemy shipping while the Squadron itself made the attacks during the day. Neither the cruisers nor our Squadron were able to locate any enemy shipping of consequence, however. While our Squadron sank or damaged a num- ber of very small Japanese craft in the Yangtse Ri er, there seemed to be absolutely no ship- ping getting through to the Empire. The blockade seemed to us to be just about lOo per cent cfiecti c. During this period we were either covering the minesweepers or the cruiser group or mak- ing direct attacks against enemy shipping, and on 31 July we again anchored in Buckner Bay for replenishment and left on 1 August for our operating area of! Shanghai, C ' hina, to con- tinue our attacks against enemy shipping. The day we left Okinawa we encountered another typhoon, with rolls up to 25°, but, de- spite the pitch and roll of the ship, flight opera- tions continued uninterrupted. ' C. 98 .Spi.. .shes a Jap Bogies continued to send us to general quarters, and on 4 August, the LCAP from the U.S.S. Cape Ghuceskr (CVE 109) splashed a Tabby, and on the 5th, the LCAP from the U.S.S. Makm Island (CVE 93) and the U.S.S. Cape Gloucester (CVE 109) each splashed a Francis. That afternoon Lt. Beckwith, as- sisted by Lt. (jg) Cox and Lt. (jg) Peebles of our Squadron splashed a Francis 13 miles from us, and another Jap flag was painted on our bridue. On 7 August we again anchored in Buckner Bay and that night we went to general quarters twice, but the Bogies failed to close in on us. It had been some time then since we had ac- tually been attacked by the enemy. Their offense seemed to have been reduced to the point of waging a war of nerves, because they .seemed to be content with simply sending us to general quarters at night, thereby causing us the loss of much-needed sleep. While the pur- pose of our visit was to take on stores and ammunition, we were honored on the 8th by a visit from Rear Admirals Durgin and Kendall - ■■M • ii ■ junk bccii bv t:-g8 pU ' ( ; . rrial view of minr.fwi-epfis swprpinR C:hina .Sc-i. being exploded in ri ht background; btlow: .Anoiher aerial view of mine sweepers in China Sea. 217