Lunga Point (CVE 94) - Naval Cruise Book

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Third Kamikaze, after being shot down by our AA guns, bursts into flames just before flitting after part of island structure. . fter leaving starboard wing and wheel behind, third Ka bounds blazing over port rail into the sea. apparently misjudged our speed. We on the guns felt mighty lonely for a while as we stood by, contemplating what a narrow escape we had had, but that loneliness was soon dispelled by the voice of the Old Man speaking to all hands over the Bull Horn, telling them to keep up the good work. We were no longer alone; we were again reminded that we had support from the bridge to the engine rooms. ' Ws, throughout the ship, e ' ery man was on his toes and doing the job assigned him in the man- ner in which he was supposed to. While all this was going on, a sad sight came to our eyes. The Bismarck Sea (C VE qj), one of our Sister ships, was hit by a Kamikaze, just 2000 yards on our starboard quarter and she was burning rapidly. We soon learned that Captain Pratt had wisely given the order to abandon ship, but, seeing that blazing inferno and the explosions that followed, we knew that, though total casualties might be comparatively light, some of us would almost undoubtedly lose a friend on board her. We had started out together and had been together so much that we dare say there is not a man on board the Lunga Point who didn ' t have at least one close friend on that fine ship that was gradually settling beneath the surface of the Pacific. It was a strange feeling, but it made us want to fight all the harder to avenge the loss of the men in the Bismarck Sea. Jap planes were still attacking other ships in our Task Force, and the sky was so full of shell bursts that it looked like a mammoth Fourth of July celebration. We had gone to General Quarters at i 708, and it was well after 2 1 00 Our flight deck was ablaze that night, but ■ fire parties quickly extinguished the fires.

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air base in the front yard of tlu- Japanese Em- pire. Here, also, the Lunga Point was distinguished; Three Jap planes out of four she extinguished. As, all at once, they dropped their torped oes; They came so close they gare us the jitters. But, nevertheless, our Ensign does fly O ' er In ' o Jima so bright in the sky. Our narrowest escape of the war — a real scrap and a tough one— took place during this operation. Knowing that Jap planes were nearby at the time, we were, of course, at Gen- eral Quarters, waiting. All hands seemed to ha e a premonition that we were about to undergo a severe attack, because there was a tenseness throughout the ship that kept every- one on the extreme alert. Every man was de- termined to do his job the best he knew how, contributing all he had to the success of our battle, whether he was in the Engine Rooms or standing by in the Wardroom. Yes, the Steward ' s Mates, the Cooks and Bakers, the Radiomen, the Pharmacist ' s Mates and the Mess Cooks all had their jobs to do just as much as the men on the guns. Even though the men below decks might have been expecting a tor- pedo to come bursting through the skin of the ship at any moment, they never wavered in their duties. The Repair Parties down there were also tense with alertness as they stood by, ready to effect quick repairs. We will never know the emotions of those men at the time, or the thoughts going through their heads. All we will e er really know about them, in that re- spect, we knew already. They were prepared to meet any eventuality in- their determination to sail the Lunga Point victoriously back to the .States. The certain knowledge of this backing was more than a help to the men on the gun.s and on the bridge. It was all they meded to keep th in lighting with all ihcy had. IHREE MORE JAP FLAGS Just at dusk wc were subjected to a night aerial torpedo attack by Kamikaze BomlxTs, and the planes could not even be seen until just within range of our guns. Four torpedo planes. Hying at flight deck level, came at us from abeam to starboard. We shot the (irst one down, and he fell in (lames on our star- board ciuarter, about 200 feet from the ship. He is now enjoying his bowl of rice with his Honcjrable . ncestors, but we dare say he has an acute attack of indigestion. The second plane, undoubtedly hit by our withering gun fire, turned and Hew low over our stern and out of sight, and we have serious doubts that he ever returned to the Empire. Wc had hardly had time to re-load our guns when the third and fourth planes came at us. We .shot them both down in llames, one landing in the water about 300 feet from the ship, and the other boundin g across our flight deck, after shearing off his starboard wing and landing wheel as he hit the after part of the bridge and leaving them in the Flag Bag Sponson. He sprayed gasoline all about, set fire to the fiight deck, and bounded into the sea and exploded on our port beam, but not without burning several men on our port gun batteries. The fire on our flight deck was quickly extinguished by our Fire Parties without doing any appreciable damage. Meanwhile, the Japs had dropped three ■fish, ' all of which missed us by inches, they having

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Explo BiMtiarck Sra following Kamikaze hit. when we secured, and it was a tired and vvear -, yet grateful group of men that crawled in their bunks that night. We had hardly crawled in. however, when the Captain talked to us over the general announcing system, at which time he highly commended all hands for their con- duct during the terrific attack. He went on to say that he was proud to feel that every man on the ship had done his job well, thereby contrib- uting just that much more to our success. He expressed the sentiments of all hands, in re- ferring to the gun crews, when he simply said. They were magnificent. Once again, we had met the test; we had come through another crisis with colors flying. Once again, too, we were thankful that we had been put through such a rigid period of training in prep- aration for just such emergencies as this. It was nut. however, with a feeling f f cockiness that we stood around tlic loud-speak Ts listen- ing to the (Captain. True, we had suflicient conlidence in ourselves to meet any emergency, but it was. rather, with a feeling of profoimd humility and gratitude U .Mmighty (Jod that we had been spared to fighi on to rotnplelc and l(jtal victory. Heroism Off Iwd Jima li was during this operation that one of the most exciting, one of the most thrilling, and one of the most heroic incidences of our first year occurred. Lt. Bud Foster had accompanied other planes on a direct support hop o er Iwo Jima in his Wildcat fighter, and a part of his mission was to drop a Xapalm (fire) bomb on his tar- get. When he go t over his target, however, it develojjed that the bomb relea.sc was faulty and he could not relea.sc his bomb. . fter completing the remainder of his mis- sion he returned to our operating area and called the C aptain and told him of his plight, requesting instructions as to whether to bail out or attempt a landing on the ship. The Skipper had Lt. (jg) Max Palcna. our avia- tion ordnance officer, report to the bridge where the ' went into a detailed discussion of Captain and .A.CJ.I. officer inspect wing section of Kamikaze k on our flight deck after hitting after part of island structure.