Lunga Point (CVE 94) - Naval Cruise Book

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■it 7»A.Oncol,,u Company of: hrlow: Group o warning sign at squadron — Ship ' s Saipan Officer ' s Club; center and ranged for a VC 98 — CVE 94 Dance at the Saipan Officers ' Club on Sunday evening 26 August. A dance is not much fun without female partners; so we set to work to invite a number of Armv and Naw nurses and Red Top and center: Dance at Saipan Officers Club; below: Tango, PhoMic, goes tangoing at Red Cross dance at Saipan. Cross workers based on Saipan. While there were hundreds of them there, there are still about five hundred men to one of the fairer sex; so we sent a number of our younger officers on a round of the hospitals and Red Cross

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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-

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chaplain William Right HoLLLNGSWORTH. U.S. Xa V L ' ..S.. .. . C:ia.ss of 1926 ( :omma nd i ng Officer centers to extend the invitation. Tiie supply simply would not meet the demand, and the result was that our bufTet supper and dance was graced by the presence of only eight girls for the approximately 100 ofHccrs. They were a very attractive group, however, and they would have gotten a rush an -way. As it was, though, they were simply rushed off their feet. In any event, a good time was had by all, and when we weighed anchor on i .September for Okinawa, we did feel that we had at least had a taste of civilization. UNCONornoN.xL Sirrf.nder Our cruise up to Okinawa this time was momentous in that during this cruise, on 2 September, Japanese representatives came aboard the U.S.S. Missouri, anchored in Tokyo Bay, and signed our unconditional surrender terms in the presence of various representatives of the Allied Powers. Naturally, we were more than happy to know that the war was over and that we would all soon be seeing our loved ones after so man)- months at sea ; howe er, we were faced with the realization that we would not all be going home right away, because it was only reasonable to assume that there was work yet to be done in Japanese waters. There were POW ' s to evacuate; there were American military personnel to bring home and there was a certain amount of necessary- policing to do in this theatre to insure ourselves against any successful Jap treachery. We reached Buckner Bay this time on 5 .Sep- tember, but we did not stay long. On the 7th we received orders to disembark ' C-g8 to make more room for passengers, and on the gth we set our course for Wakanoura Wan, Honshu. Japan, sans X ' C ' -gS, to assist in the repatriation of . llied Prisoners-of-War. This trip was also momentous in that we sailed with our running lights for the first time since we had been in commission, and it was quite a treat to stroll up to the flight deck after dinner at night just to look at the beautiful lights on our ship as well 220