Suwannee (CVE 27) - Naval Cruise Book

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HISTIIHY ' 1 Date of 'launching Qas SS MARKAYQ: 22 May 1939- Date of commissioning Cas USS SUVVANNEED: 24 September 1942. Commanding Officers: 1. Captain Joseph J. Clark, USN, of Chelsea, Oklahoma-24 September 1942 to 2I january 1943- 2. Captain Frederick W. McMahon, USN, of Washington, D. C.-21 january 1943 to 30 December 1943. A Captain William D. johnson, USN, of Mont- gomery, Alabama-30 December 1943 to 8 December I944. 3. Captain Delbert S. Cornwell, USN, of Philippi, West Virginia-8 December 19.4.4 to 2 Septem- 4. ber 1945. Task Forces and Task Groups to which attached: T.F. 34 and T.G. 34.2-25 October to 21 No- vember 1942. T.F. 32-6 December to I2 December 1942. T.F. 18114 December to 2 February 1943. T.F. 69 and T.G. 69.5-2 February to IO February 1943- T.F, I8-I0 February to 26 August 1943. T.F. 50 and T.G. 50.1-20 October to I4 No- vember 1943. T.F. 53 and T.G. 53.6-14 November to 14 December 1943. T.U. 19.9.9-15 December to 21 December 1943. T.F. 53 and T.G. 53.7-1 January to 3 January 1944- T.F. 53113 January to 31 January 1944. T.F. 53 and T.G. 53.6-31 january to I5 February 1944. T.F. SI and T.G. 51.11-IS February to 18 Febru- ary 1944. T.F. SI and T.G. 51.18-18 February to 3 March 19.44. - A T.F. 58 anrl T.G. 58.7-15 March to 26 March I944. Y 3 3 PART I-CHRONOLOGY A T.F. 50 and T.G. 50.15-26 March to 4 April 1944. T.F. 58 and T.G. 58.7-4 April to II April 1944.. T.F. 78 and T.G. 78.1-11 April to 21 May 1944. T.F. S3 and T.G. 53.7-21 May to 21 june 1944. T.F. S2 and T.G. 52.14-21 June to 4 July 1944. T.F. 53 and T.G. 53.7-4 July to 9 August 1944. T.F. 57 and T.G. 57.19-9 August to II September 19.14. I T.F. 77 and T.G. 77.1-10 September to I2 October 1944. T.F. 77 and T.G. 77.4-12 October to 9 No- vember 1944. T.G. 16.19--9 November to I9 November 1944. T G 19.12-20 November to 26 November 1944. T.U. 06.12--9 February to 16 February 1945. T U. 12.5.08-23 February to 4 March 1945, v T.U. 5I.ll.3'-4 March to 31 March 1945. '1'.G, 52.1 and T.F. 52.1.3-1 April to 28 May 1945- I 'I' G. 32.1 and TV. 32.1.3-28 May to 16 june 1945- T F, 78 and T.G. 78.4-26 june to 6 July 1945. T .F. 95 and T.G. 95.7-3 August to IO August I945- T.F. 95 and T.G, 95.3110 August to 2 September 1945- Signifcant change.: in functions: November 1942-Air Support and General Combat Operations. january-February 1943-Escort Duties. june 1943-September 1945-Air Support and General Combat Operatiofns. Physical mo-'vement.v: T942 , I7 October-departed Norfolk, Virginia for Ber- muda. ' 19-25 October-Bermuda.

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-'f my-rs-as-1 -- :Q .gi-Sf-s,,NQ5.,.-.. 4 -K K The past year has seen the fall, in rapid succession, of Jap garrisons at Tarawa, Ape- mama, Kwajalein, Eniwetok, Aitape, Hollandia, Saipan, Tinian, Guam, lVIorotai and Csoonb Peleliu. The SUWANNEE and her sister ships have the unique distinction of having parti- cipated in every major amphibious operation in the Pacific except the present one at Peleliu. We have proven ourselves to be invaluable support for these operations and we have success- fully completed operations of such length and intensity that they taxed the endurance of all hands. The squadrons have outflown and out- lasted all other carrier based squadrons in the fieet and in doing so have established operating records that should warm the hearts of every strong advocate of a carrier Navy. Statistics give a fair idea of the relative intensity of our operations during the past year as compared to the first year. XVhen Air Group 60 came aboard, the SUXVANNEE had something les.: than 2,000 landings. Lt. Comdr. Feilbach made the 2,000tl1 and noxv the figure stands at 6,369 X-Vhen wc arrived in San Francisco September 10, 1943, we had logged slightly more than 40,000 nautical miles. Wie now have I2I,200l Twelve ofiicers and 313 men who were aboard for the commissioning ceremony Cplank-oxvnersj M ustering . . . ,-,.,, i v are still aboard Cnow considerably saltierlj Our longest cruise, during the Gilberts operation, took II days, 21 hours and 24 minutes and covered 10,812.16 non stop miles. Cn that trip We also crossed the equator 27 times. Our equator cross- ings now total 54 with 9 crossings of the 180th Nleridian. Air-craft o p e r a t i n g from the SUWANNEE have dropped approximately 500,000 pounds of bombs and fired 350,000 rounds of 50 calibre ammunition. The signal force has handled about 18,000 messages by blinker and semaphore. About the same number of radio messages have been Written up While IO times that number have been copied. The officers and men have consumed some 4,000,000 pounds of food. Thesquadrons of Air Group 60 had Hown 16,000 hours at the end of the lllarianas Campaign and had an average of 420 carrier hours per pilot. One hundred and forty- one combat missions had been flown up to that time with an additional S30 sorties. In summary, it is now evident that the SUVVANNEE, starting as a stop-gap and an experiment, has become an unqualified success in spite of the claim our rivals make, namely that the only thing we've ever sunk Was the tug at the deperming lock in San Francisco! Change of Command i in MQ' iv - 1 f., , ,la A ss 5 X , Z V, ' . X - .X - U . 5 ,.a, , kb XX X X bf - Q ' - 14462, ,. ' f , , K ,, ' if 1 s X ss 'I - , vf, f k . f X sq ss st - 7. 12, ,, ,V 1, 4, NV f- - f ,. -ffm ' .avi .2

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25 October 21 November to North Africa and return 2I 22 November Bermuda 24 November 5 December Norfolk, Virginia II I2 December Panama Canal 1948 4 I5 January Great Roads Anchorage New 16 January 2 February Havanna Harbor, Efate 2 I2 February to Guadalcanal and return I2 27 February Havannah Harbor Efate 28 February-5 March to New Caledonia and return 6 March 4 August Havannah Harbor Efate 5 26 August Espirxtu Santo 7 ro july Enxwetok Atoll IO July 4 August v1c1n1ty Guam fand enroutel 4 9 August Emwetok Atoll I3 August IO September Seeadler Harbor Manus Island IO 29 September v1c1n1ty Morotal Island Qand enroutej Island I2 28 October v1c1n1ty Leyte Samar fand en- routej 28 October 1 November Kessol Roads Palau 4 9 November Seeadler Harbor, Manus Island I9 20 November Pearl Harbor 26 November 1944 31 january 1945-PSNY Bre- merton WaSh1Hgt0D I I .V Caledonia, 29 September-12 October-Seealler Harbor, Manus . 1 , . ' IO September 16 October Alameda, California. 18-19 October-San Diego, California. 5-13 November-Espiritu Santo. I3 November-14 December-Gilbert Island Opera- tion then to Pearl Harbor. 14-15 December-Pearl Harbor. 21 December 1943-13 January 1944--Sill! Diego, California. 19.42 13-21 january-to Lahaina Roads, Maui, T. H. 2I-22 January-Lahaina Roads, Maui, T. H, 1-15 February-Kwajalein Atoll. 15-24 February-Eniwetok Atoll. 3-15 March--Pearl Harbor. 30 MHfCh-I April-vicinity Palau Islands. 7-11 April-Espiritu Santo 13-16 April-Port Purvis, Florida Island. 24-26 April-Seeadler Harbor, Manus Iisland. 26 April-5 May-to New Guinea fAitape, Hol- landiaj and return. 5-7 May-Seeadler Harbor, Manus Island. 12-21 May-Espiritu Santo. 26-27 May-Tulagi Harbor, Florida Island, ' 29 May-2 June-Espiritu Santo 8-12 June-Kwajalein Atoll. I2 June-7 July--vicinity Saipan fand enroutel. IOAC 3-9 February-Hunter's Point, San Francisco, Cali- fornia. 9 February-departed Alameda, California. 16-23 February-Pearl Harbor. 4-14 March-Tulagi Harbor, Florida Island. 21-27 March-Ulithi Atoll. 1 April-16 June-vicinity Okinawa. 19-26 June-San Pedro Bay, Leyte Gulf, P.I. 30 June-3 July-Makassar Strait, vicinity Balik- papan, Borneo, NE.I. 6 July-3 August-San Pedro Bay, Leyte Gulf, P.I. 6 August-2 September-Buckner Bay, Okinawa. Actions in -which engaged: 1. North Africa, initial landings-8-11 November 1942. 2. Guadalcanal, capture and defense-30 January- 8 February 1943. I 3. New Georgia, Rendova, Vangunu, occupation -20 June-4 August 1943. 4. Gilbert Island CTarawa Atolll, occupation- I3 Nov.-8 Dec, 1943. 5. Kwajalein and Enivvetok Atolls, occupation- 31. jan.-24 Feb. 1944. 6. Palau, carrier strike-30 March-1 April 1944. 7. Aitape and Hollandia, initial landings-22 April-4 May 1944. 9