Shangri La (CV 38) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 40 text:

,v7f:f,g: .gh E2IE'EI5Y:5?Z f-I E'I '?fE Q: ,.., W If , A x N as .-5 RV A V 9 4 . 4 I 4 M, , N . 4 iff , , s . ff 11.1 f. Q Q' I, , . ,. , ,xc-C' g 5 8 1 4 A J 5 M V , J X nz. si' 60' gf vi., of ,I 4. f 4, fa ?f I 7 4 M2 We E E X. 31 1 -Aw-, . , 3:4as,,:,:: , 3? 4 51,121.3 Qs-wa, ,. Q? fm: yn X: W s 4:KEj'f , ..,s,,. -:mi I 331 . x.,,,,. Y, 42:25:- W ,J :gg 2 o,.,'5.s73.-5 mi :Vv T222 Q my 4 X 4.1 Invasion of Okinawa - April I, 1945.

Page 39 text:

4 ,,- f I Plane-s Crush Invasion Fleet. all pilots returned. In addition to target strikes, the carrier also furnished a CAP CCombat Air Patrol jfor Task Group 58.4. A plane from the night CAP made the 7,000th landing shortly after dark on the Shangrz'-La's iirst strike day. For three days her planes hit enemy installations on southern Okinawa, sup- porting troops of the XXIV Army Corps, entrenched on the northern banks of the Asa River. After securing the northern sector around Motobu Peninsula, the First Marine Division moved southward to the XXIV Army Corps' Western flank, as carrier planes continued to attack enemy caves and gun emplacements with heavy bombs and rockets. Shcmgri-Lal planes divided their attention between Tokuno airy

Page 41 text:

v 1 1 field and southern Okinawa until Kamikaze attacks on the hospital ship Comfort, and her escorts, on the 29th, necessitated diversion. Flying night CAP over the task force, Ensign John S. Patton was vectored out to intercept a bogey picked up on shipboard radar fifty miles from the formation. Silhouetted in the morning twilight, the Jap Betty fell to the Hghter , pilot's flaming guns at 0233, April 29th, 1945-the Shangri-La's first flag on the island scoreboard. Enemy planes heckled the task force throughout the day as carrier planes raided Kikai Shima to the north of Okinawa. Intense antiaircraft fire accounted for three Sharzgri-Lal planes in seventy sorties flown over Wan Airield, Kikai Invasion fleet south of Yontan Field.