Lunga Point (CVE 94) - Naval Cruise Book

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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

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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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who came Mlio.ird for the pn-scnt.ition of awards. ) Ai ' s San ' L ' nci.i. On l ' ii(l.i . lo Aui ust, while ridiiit; at an- chor in BiK kntr Hay. wi- were overjoyed to re- reive word at alxnit ■jtr o that the Japs had all hut said, Unele, by sending word to the Allied Powers through neutral sources that ihiy would accept the terms of the Potsdam Ulti- matum pro ided they were permitted to retain their Kmperor. This, by no means, meant the end of the war, but it did very deliniteK mean that the Japs had just about reached the end of their rope and actual surrender could be ex- pected momentarily. That same night, while all hands were avidly picking up all the news they could through the radio .shack, that gong sounded at 2 122 sending us to general ciuarters. On reaching our battle stations topside a great pyrotechnic dis- play greeted our eyes: shore batteries were liring in all directions all around the bay. ' et (iun Oontrol told us there was not a Bogey on the .screen. Ve couldn ' t understand it. .SOP. must have had some reason to send us tcj general cjuarters. .Suddenly it dawned upon us that maybe the Army was prematurely cele- brating our X ' ictory. .Sure enough, that later turned out to be just w hat was happening, and the firing continued on the beach until -Ad- miral Oldendorffin the California assumed com- mand and ordered the firing to cease. It was quite a dangerous celebration, and it ' s a won- der there were no casualties on our ship. We learned the next day that several were killed and many wounded during this wild celebra- tion on Okinawa. We continued to maintain the same Con- dition of Readiness as in the past because we were all too familiar with Japanese treachery, and there was no telling what they ' were up to. On Sunday, 12 August, at 2045, we heard a dull thud, which turned out to be a torpedo or mine hitting the U.S.S. Pennsylvania which was anchored about 1000 yards from us. It has not yet been determined what hit the Pennsyl- vania; whether it was an aerial torpedo, a tor- pedo fired from a midget submarine or a float- ing mine. In any event, when we passed the Pennsylvania on our ay out of the harbor the next morning en route to .Saipan she was down by the stern, evidently ha ing been damaged well aft. Negotiations between the Japanese Govern- ment and the Allied Powers continued as we steamed toward Saipan. From what we had gathered from the radio then- was little doubt in our minds but that the Japs would meet our terms of imconditional surrender. Finally, on I -, .August, shortly after oMoo, Claptain Holl- ingsworth announced to us o ' er the general announcing system that President I ' ruman had announced the acceptance of unconditional surrender cjf the Japanese Ciovernment at 2300 GMT 14 August (0800 15 August our time), and that the Empn-ror was to order immediate cessaticjn of hcjstilities. .Several hundrc-d mem- bers of the ship ' s company were gathc-rc-d on the llight deck to hear the announcement, they ha ing known pretty well what the announce- ment was to be. It was quite- significant to us that, in contrast with the hilaricjus celebrations in the .States, the men of the Lunga Point ac- cepted the news without even a single shout. When the C aptain finished, they just walked quietly away and went about their business. They were happy enough, but it was a happi- ness based cjn a job well done and the knowl- edge that their chances of not getting home wc-re now ery remote as compared to what they had been a few weeks previously. Meanwhile, both our own and the Japanese Government ordered cessation of offensive hostilities pending actual signing of surrender terms. General MacArthur was designated .Supreme C ommander for Allied Powers, and he promptly announced that the surrender would take place aboard the U.S.S. Missouri in Ibkyo Bay at a time to be announced later. We were, therefore, operating in a state of armed truce so to speak, and, except for the danger of floating mines that continued to plague us, we could actually feel that the war was over. Saipan We arrived at Saipan for a few days avail- ability on 18 August at which time our engines were overhauled, our ship painted and minor general repairs were made. All hands were ery tired from our many months of combat duty and it was a great pleasure to us to find that Saipan had such nice recreational facili- ties. There were clubs there for officers, chief petty officers and enlisted personnel, and we made ample use of them. We had ne er had an opportunity for the officers of VC 98 and the ship ' s company to get together for a party since the Squadron had reported aboard in Guam in May: so we ar-