Suwannee (CVE 27) - Naval Cruise Book

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Iztll, French forces in Casablanca the Way back to Bermuda, my Medical oflicially went into commission by of its first major surgery . . . a success- ny in a 59 knot gale! How I did l Once I rolled to 27 degrees. .Right pI'0I1'1ptly the Navy decided 1 Should in the Pacific. I nosed through the Panama Canal II and I2 December 1942. There, my yardarm got tangled up with a control tower, whereupon my C8zR Department went into commission. . On January 4, 1943 battlescarred veterans of the South Pacific Force looked with total be- wilderment as I steamed into Noumea, New Caledonia with officers and crew at quarters all dolled up in whites. In spite of having been sunk several times, there, peacefully at anchor, sat my old aunt SARA. Space will not permit telling you about all the operations in which I have participated. Each operation is a separate story. Suffice that I list them. After Casablanca, there came Guadal- canal, Russel Islands, the Gilberts Qincluding Tarawaj, Apemama, Kwajalein, E n i w e to k, Palau, Aitape, Hollandia, Saipan, Tinian, Guam, Morotai, battle of Leyte Gulf, Okinawa and Borneo. After japan surrendered, I operated with lN'Iine Sweepers off the Coast of Kyushu. At Leyte, in October 1944, when Airgroup 60 was aboard, I had the dubious honor of being the subject for a Japanese experiment . . . having bombs come through my flight deck with Jap pilots attached. One smashed me October 25th. I had a great many casualties. On October 26, another one roared into my for- ward elevator. The enemy was glad to have me out of way, my men and Airgroup 60 had been delivering lots of punishment. But the Suiciders did it to me and it was all very bad. I do not like to think about all the things that happened during those two days. Gallant men fought like demons to save me from fire. Lots of them were hurt .... I saw lots of them die. They were good men. Under my own power I steamed to Bremerton where swarms of workmen hammered, welded and patched. In January 1945 I was pronounced ready for combat duty again. At San Francisco I picked up some work-horses Airgroup 40., The Golden Gate bridge disappeared in the haze on February 9th. I couldn't quite make Iwo Jima, so I was excused from that one. But at Okinawa I made up for lost time! There, my, men were subjected to the acid test of human endurance when I operated continuously from March 27th . . . when I left Ulithi . . . until June 21st . . . when I arrived in Leyte. In the interim I steamed 25,062 miles around and across, back and forth in wind and calms while I launched planes, landed planes, launched planes and landed them again. It was a grind- ing, grueling operation. At Okinawa my Airgroup 40 flew 3,273 sorties while amassing more than 10,000 hours in the air! 990,000 pounds of bombs were dropped . . . almost a million! 6,176 rockets were launched. My planes splashed 9 .laps 5 Sonias, 3 Vals and 1 llyrt, the latter only I2 miles ahead of me carrying a bomb. A team of my fighters led by Lt. Comdr. Longino got it just in time. With but one exception, Airgroup 40 shot down every Nip they encountered. You see, my main job at Okie, after supporting the initial landings, was the neutralization of Saka-

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THE 5 ANNEE TH K5 I was once a modern oil tanker called the SS MARKAY. I was built in 1-939. VVhen 1941 rolled around, the Navy, as Dart of its expansion program, took me over for a fleet oiler. A0-33 was my designation, RI3' new name was SUVVANNEE. It comes from the southern river celebrated in Stephen Fosters song, THE OLD FOLKS AT I-IOHIE. In the 6 months following my commissioning, July 26, 1941, I steamed 38,000 miles along the Atlantic coast, in the Gulf of Illexico and in making one cruise to Honolulu. I thought I was quite a traveler. February 20, 1942, at Norfolk, I was suddenly decommissioned, moved to Newport News, Va. and there, to my utter amazement, I was con- verted into an aircraft carrier! I was scheduled for completion late in October, IQ42, but some- thing, or someone, caused them to hurry me along so that I could be and was . . . commissioned on 24 September ,42. Air-group 27 and some green 16 me ,i R ,W .,.. H - 1-y --- :rush A-'21 shipls company hands boarded me and after a two Weeks shakedown cruise, I was off to War! I Went right into the thick of the long heralded second front in the vicinity of Casablanca. Carrying 39 planes . . . an unprecendented load for a CVE . . . my men and my Airgroup performed like veterans. D Day was Sunday, November 8, 1942. My planes assisted materi- ally in silencing both heavy shore batteries and the crack French battleship JEAN BART.,' lily seams almost burst with pride when I be- came the first CVE ever to sink a submarine. A flight of TBP' I d g s, e by my Lt. Comdr. Nation, sighted a fully surfaced medium sized Vichy French submarine and with depth charges gave it the works. To the East, General Patton's armored divisions were hammering While U, S. battleships and cruisers were hoisting in big ones from the VVest. SUVVANNEE planes were ox erhead The combination was too much

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shima Gunto airfields. It came to be a dailY routine affair. While other carriers and land based aviators were enjoying tremendous suc- cesses in the turkey shoots over Okinawa, my planes were lugging bombs and rockets to neu- tralize Sakashima and didn't get a chance at the gravy. I noticed, though, that Jap airforces at- tacking Okinawa came not from the Sakashima group, but from the homeland to the North. Six Jap airfields at Sakashima might have been used without the Hproper treatment. SUWANNEE men did an important job. lVIany Jap planes were destroyed on the ground. ALL THIS AND MOROTAI TOO just two years ago today 5 at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Co. in Newport News, Virginia, Rear Admiral O. L. Cox accepted the U.S.S. SUXVANNEE for the Navy, and the ship was placed in full commission under the command of Captain sl. J. Clark. Originally scheduled for commissioning a month later, the ship was rushed to completion in order to be available for impending operations. On October I she left pier 9 at the Newport News Shipyard and headed out for what was later laughingly called a' shakedown cruise. During the next two weeks we depermed, ran the degaussing range, .calibrated the compass and R. D. F., fired several gunnery practices, landed planes aboard and had our first TBF go into the catwalk, took aboard ammunition and provisions and, after an inspection by R111 Gates, the Assistant SecNav for Air, reported ready for sea. On October 17, we left N.O.B. Norfolk and entered the high seas for the first time, bound for Bermuda, B.W.I. A Soon after anchoring in lVIurray's Anchorage off Hamilton, Bermuda, it became apparent that we were to participate in an assault operation, Rumors of a strike at Dakar ran rife but soon after setting sail again an announcement was made that we were to participate in the long heralded second front in the vicinity of Casa- blanca. The carrier force consisting of the SUWANNEE, RANGER, SANGAMON and SANTEE was scheduled to support amphibious landings until an airfield was secured and 70 P-40,8 from the CHENANGO could be cata- pulted and sent ashore. We carried 39 planes, an unprecendented load for a CVE, and success- ful operation was problematical sincethe cata- pult had been decommissioned, and there was no assurance that wind conditions would be favor- able. We soon rendezvoused with the greatest amphibious force in history. The voyage to Africa was completed successfully and the convoy arrived on schedule after running through the German U-Boat picket line along the coast' of Africa witho ut loss. D Day, Sunday, November 8, was much similar to the numerous D Days that we have since participated in. Psychologically, however, the first is always the worst, and it was with much relief that the end of the day found us relatively unscathed. 'The landings had been successful and SUWANNEE bombers had assisted in silencing heavy shore batteries and the French battleship JEAN BART.'f Two French 'submarines in Casablanca Harbor were sunk by aerial attack and French cruisers and destroyers which attempted to clear the harbor to fight were mortally wounded by gunfire from our ships assisted by SUWAN N EE TBF's. Shortly thereafter, we struck the key- note for the successful war against the German U-Boat menace by becoming the first CVE to sink a submarine. A Hight of TBF's of VGS-27 led by Lt. Comdr. Nation sighted a fully sur- .A