Randolph (CVS 15) - Naval Cruise Book

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and only 60 from the llonshu coast. Flying weather was had. including rain and snow squalls. but the various air groups scorcdlicavily on the japanese airficlds. and managed to shoot down a major portion of the scattered cneniy fighter units which rose to do coinhat. Aboard Ramlolph. a retaliatory attack was expected from the japanese: the ship reniained at General Quarters all day. with personnel inan- ning stations in full hattle dress - gloves, eye shields. helmets. anti-flash creanr. etc. None came. nor did one the following day, as CVC-12 pilots were striking the Tacliikawa Engine Plant and other targets in the Tokyo area. February 18: CY-15's planes launched a strike against Chichi Jima. and after the carrier received gaso- line and replacement aircraft the next day, her Air Group returned to action, flying three days of strikes in support ofthe Iwo lima occupation campaign. Roaring in over Mt. Suribachi. the pilots daringly fired rockets against thejapanese- held caves in an effort to ease the burden of our ground troops struggling on the island. Two at- tacks were also rnade on Haha lima during this period. All operations remained offensive in natureg the new flattop had still not undergone any hostile attack. T he .shalfeclowii traiiiiizg period was not without its aeeicleiits, as the pilots aizfl airmen of Air Group 87 ana' Randolplfs crew alike gained vitalpre- combat experience. The crew ofSB2C is a.Ssz'steclp'oiiz their daiizagedplaize as men with re 6'A'fZ'71g7lI'Sll67'S Qforegroundj and hose Qrearj prepare to battle a possible blaze. ,Note the planets dam- aged wiizgtzp and bent propeller. wfw-gg, in J'-

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1 . ' . . 1 liberty before steaming north again for S811 Francisco. Realizing the time was fast-approach- ing when they would be playing for keeps, the men attacked the intensive drills and long periods of flight operations with a new vigor. The ship arrived in the Golden Gate City on New Yearls Eve, and Spent the next seventeen days at the Naval Drydocks, Hunter's Point. Leave was taken by those who could, and every- one appreciated the liberty time, but of course this was not the reason for the stop. During this hectic period Randoloh had starboard 40mm gun mounts installed, while those ,20mm's and 40mm's on the port side were being rearranged. The carrier moved to Pier One as NAS Ala- meda on january 18, and received Air Group 12, replacing CVG-87. Stores and ammunition were loaded aboard frantically in the hours that fol- lowed, and on january 20 the ship passed under the Golden Gate Bridge, heading out to sea and the war in the Pacific. january 26-29 was spent at Pearl Harbor, where additional supplies were taken aboard - plus twenty mail bags of war plans and intelli- gence material. Steaming in company with Saratoga, Randolph crossed the International Date Line February 1, and continued toward the western Pacific. Training and drills - gunnery, damage control, air operations, et al - reached an even higher pitch than the rugged schedule the men had been enduring previouslyg attitudes became more serious with each mile steamed towards the combat area. A Still, life was different aboard the aircraft car- rier than on other ships in, or heading into, combat. As LCDR Bryan, III said in his book Aircrak Carner: . . .when youire in a carrier, you're in the fighting Navy. Your ship is being run by and for abunch of barn-storm- ing youngsters who donit tie their shoes at all, if they don't feel like it, and who would just as soon address Admiral King as 'Ernief unless it meant he'd ground them and keep them out of the next scrapf' The next port was Ulithi, a favorite Navy war- time stopover in the Western Caroline Islands, Described as 'inothing but a ring of flat little coral islands, covered with palmsf' it was, when Randolph arrived, a vast fleet anchorage. De- stroyers, cruisers, new battleships, service vessels ftankers, freighters, repair shipsj, countless land- ing craft and at least eight Essex-class carriers were on hand - ready for something ! February 10, only four months and one day after commissioning fa record Q, CV-15 departed Ulithi' and headed into combat. Steaming with USS Yorktown as a part of Task Group 58.4 under Rear Admiral Radford, Randonbh was a part of Vice Admiral Mitscher's famed Task Force 58. Admiral Spruance was Fifth Fleet Commander, having relieved Admiral Halsey in Ulithi january 26. An interesting sidelight in the latter stages of the Pacific War was the changes in designation of the U. S. Pacific Fleet. When Spruance was in command, it wa-s the Fifth Fleet, under Halsey it was the Third Fleet. This reportedly confused the japanese, who thought the U. S. Navy had two complete fleets of equal strength, when in reality it was only one. The initial assignment of Randolph and her Air Group was scarcely a routine warm-upg it was a strike against the Tokyo area - the first carrier strike against japan proper since the famous Doolittle raid in 1942. As Navalhistori- an Samuel Eliot Morison described it in his Victory in the Paczfc, 1945, this strike . .was regarded with some apprehension by Task Force 58, as almost half the air groups would be on their first combat mission. To meet expected counterattacks, especially those from the Kami- kaze Corps, each air group on a big carrier now comprised at least 73 fighter planes QCorsa.irs and Hellcatsj, leaving only 30 units to bedivided between dive- and torpedo-bombersf, Actually, these Tokyo raids were undertaken for two reasons: one, as a shield for the Iwo Jima operations, and second, to destroy enemy planes and airfields on the home islands. The carriers of TF-58 made a high speed run towards japan during the night of Februarv 15. arriving at the launching point undetected early the next morning - 125 miles southeast ofTokyo

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i'?i '-il-.Q.5T.i ' On February 21 an enemy aircraft finally did attempt to close the carrier, only to be driven off by gunfire before an attack could be launched. No more threats occurred in the ensuing period, however, as Randofblz received fuel herself, re- fueled her destroyer escorts in turn, and then returned to a position from which Air Group 12 could launch strikes on Hachijo Jima and air- fields in the Tokyo area on the 25th. TG 58.4 was then detached from the Task Force, and on March 1 entered Ulithi once again for ten days of rest and replenishment. March 11, the fortunes of war suddenly changed for her. 'GAt seven minutes past eight, according to the ship's own account, ua twin- engine japanese bomber, of atype called Frances, which had slipped past the radar net and inter- ceptor patrols, roared out ofthe night and crash- ed, loaded with bombs, at the edge ofthe flight deck, starboard side, aft. At this moment one showing of the movie QA Song to Remember- being screened arnidships on the hangar deckj was just over and the other was about to begin. Men were getting up from their seats and others were moving in. The explosion was terrific. A T . F great hole was torn in the flight deck, A column of flame shot into the night air. Smoke billowed. Hot ammunition began to detonate. Planes burned like torches. Wounded, bleeding men lay on the hangar deck. We had never faced an emergency like this before, but somehow we proved equal to it. The fires were put out, the wounded men carried to sick bay. Our casualties that night were 26 killed, 3 missing and 105 wounded. Kamikaze, or suicide plane attacks, had been occurring against allied naval forces since Octo- ber, 1944, with single engine aircraft generally being employed. The Kamikaze CHDivine Windwj Special Attack Corps - who took their name from typhoons that, in 1273 and 1279, saved Japan by scattering Kubli Khangs inva- sion fleets - had proved a dangerous weapon against our ships. In the initial three months of their use, 424 suicide planes had sortied from their Philippine bases to attack the Seventh Fleetg at least fifty U. S. vessels were damaged by them in that period, including two aircraft carriers which were sunk. When the smoke cleared aboard CV-15, it was