Saratoga (CV 3) - Naval Cruise Book

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famwvfwfff AND THE FIRST FIGHTER FLIES AWAY

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THE PLANES TAXI FORWARD

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5- ..'. ., . ,.,..I'7 z s, 5 +3 i - S I 84 ln the invasion of lwo lima, airborne Marine observers were launched from Sara to direct surface shelling of the beaches. Two days later, February 2lst, Saratwas detached from Admiral Mitscher's force to go to the aid of the air-support forces under Admiral Rich- ard K. Turner. Steaming between task forces, escorted by three destroyers, she was forced to fight for her life. At l700 against a grey sky, lapanese planes attacked The Old Lady with the most concentrated assault of the war against a warship. For several hours she fought for her life as the attacks con- tinued against her by the lapanese suicide pilots of the Kamikaze Corps. Although the ship's gunners fought heroically and sent six lap planes flam- ing into the sea, many hits were scored by the l5 to 20 planes which conducted the raid. Five Kamikaze pilots crashed into Sara with violent explosions, and seven bombs found their mark. She guivered from stem to stern as her flight deck and hull absorbed the beating, but never hesitated. ln fact, she gained speed as she frantically fought off and fled her attackers. Simultaneous attacks were carried out on other fleet units in the near vicin- ity and the black night was filled with bursting ack-ack, explosions of planes hit in the air, and long tongues of flame reaching skyward from the ships dam- aged and on fire. The Bismark Sea-an escort carrier-was seen to blow up and sink off Sara's port beam at the height of the raid. To starboard gleamed the lights of Mount Suribachi, captured that day, as well as the flashes of artil- lery being exchanged in the death struggle for lwo lima. lt is doubtful if any other carrier could have absorbed the beating Sara took and remain afloat. Badly crippled, she headed south for Eniwetok as raging fires were fought on her flight and hangar decks. Stories of heroism were numerous later, but many of the tales will never be known. There was simply too much bravery that night to warrant the singling out of any one of the 3,000 men, livin-g and dead, who fought their ship in the face of the most diabolical weapon the enemy had yet conceived. Some of our fighter planes were still in the air when the three-hour attack was over. Flight deck fires were extin- guished and charred planes on the flight deck jettisoned over the fantail, so the remaining pilots in the air could be taken aboard. lt is almost mpos- sible to understand or visualize--if 3:34 weren't there-how this was acccri- plished, but many of the planes if-:ere successfully brought aboard. Sur.: made water landings and other landed on escort carriers Sara had been lucky until ther.. E: ,X not on that black night off lwo lima. tc TE hundred twenty-three dead or sin.: was the official total after the vicicus at- tack and the casualty total ran ti: over three hundred. Earlier Sara successes were teri- pered somewhat by the horrors ., - Tfllii night and the charred timbers -cz the ruptured flight deck, the black .cavern of the gutted hangar deck, the fd . N. 4 ,M .Can steel plates, and bulkheads grctesaue- ly caved in. There was also the stink and mess after the battle, the .igie -ss forms of white-shrouded comrcn-ss ing on the flight deck before the :tif burial ceremony which committed their bodies to the sea. Those ugly scenes will never be forgotten. Those whc were left were solemn and grim. We had seen the war--we knew that we were fighting. . .iv