Carrier War: Task Force 58 and the Pacific Sea Battles

Transcription

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PAC!T'IC CARRfE.R... ACTI NS
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Still occupied byJaps
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1\lfan:u s raid, Sept. 1,1943
2 · Wake raid, Oct . 5, 1943
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5 Buka-Bonis and llaboul raids. NiJV. 1g45
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5 Mar.shalls inrasion~ Jan . /944
6 First Truk raid, Feb. 16, 1944
7 Marian.:zs raid, Feb. 22,/944
8 Palau, Yap, Wolca i raids,Mar.J9./4
9 Hollandia invasion, ~"~P"·t- 22.1944
10 Second Truk raid, April 29, 1944
! 1 Marianas invasion and s ra bottk cfthc
Eastcm Philipp ines, June 1944
12 Palau Invasion , S ep t . /9 4 4
IJ R.yuk.yu Is lands t·aid, Oct . 9, 1944
!4 Formosa raid, Oct. /3, /944
15 Philippines invasion and srabattles,
October 1944
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CARRIER WAR
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by
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Lieu t enant O l iver Jen se n , USNR
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Publis hed with th e appro,·al of th e Co un cil o n
Boob in '\Va rtim e a nd in s upplement to the
Battle Repor t se ri e;; of th e U nited S ta te» Na ,·y
Pocket BOOKS, In c., New York 20, N.Y. , 1945
II
COPYRIGHT 1945 BY LIEUTENANT OLIVER JENSEN, USNR
The opinions expressed in this book are those of the author and
do not necessarily reflect the views of the Navy Department.
THIS IS A WARTIME BOOK
THIS EDITION IS PRODUCED IN FULL
COMPLIANCE WITH THE GOVERNMENT'S
REGULATIONS FOR CONSERVING PAPER
AND OTHER ESSE NTIAL MATERIALS
PRINT ED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
FOREWORD
The proud story of America's new big carriers brings profound sa tisfaction to the Navy.
This is an excellent account of their achievements in the Pacific and of the sights and sounds
of battle as they actually exis t. We welcome it to the list of authoritative battle reports written
by naval officers and published with the cooperation of the Council on Books in Wartime.
Our job of administration has been to procure and train the men and provide them with
weapons, and it would be idle to pretend that it has been easy. After the heavy losses suffered
in the first months of war the situation in the Pacific for a time seemed very dark. It. is n o
longer any secret that we were for months hard-pressed to keep even one aircraft carrier in
operation against Japan. The enemy expanded and held extensive conquests in the Pacific
which constituted a real threat to our national existence.
Yet all the while a new carrier fleet was building, we never lost faith in the event ual victor y
or in the instrument of naval air power. Now, two years later, our confidence has been justified.
As of the end of August 1944 the Navy possessed roughly 100 aircraft carriers either in or nearing action and 47,276 Navy and Marine fliers; at the end of the first half of 1944 it had 34,071
aircraft. For the past several years we h ave been delivering these men, planes and ships in
increasing numbers to the able hands of the Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Fleet, Admiral
Nimitz. This book recounts in detail some of the prodigious miracles they have accomplished
in spearheading the seizure of new h oldin gs as deep in former Japanese waters as the Marianas
and the Philippines.
Americans, in and out of military service, have done their jobs well. Industry and labor
broke all records for speed and quality in producing ships and planes; naval and civilian engineers reached new highs in technical excellence . The men of the fleet planned well and fought
wi th unexcelled courage and skill. Teamwork in th e air kept the enemy's losses so high that
many of our officers could scarcely believe the figur es until they had gone to sea themselves and
seen that, if anything, the reports have always been too conservative. And our own losses,
irreparable as each personal tragedy is, have been happily less than we anticipated.
Of course, Task Force 58 is only a portion, though a sizable one, of the Pacific Fleet. The
swarm of fighting, bombing and torpedo planes which form its striking force are only a part of
naval aviation in the war. We are, nevertheless, happy to see the idea of the carrier task force
explained in its full, true light. Combining the hard-hitting punch of carrier planes with the
big guns of modern battleships , this new arrangement of naval power has no master on the seas.
The argument about whether the carrier is a capital ship has long since been settled. It is
now apparent that overwhelming air power must accompany any surface force which ventures
to attack a modern enemy fleet or enemy territor y defended by aircraft. Especially in the
Pacific, dotted with hundreds of real or potential island bases, our military control rests upon
this key weapon. Carrier air power must be a cornerstone in the future defens e of the United
States and in the enforceme nt of a lasting peace.
Naval Aviation is deeply grateful to Time In corpora ted for proposing the publication of
this book in this form, a nd to its editors for giving invaluable assistance with the editing and
the illustrations. We are also indebted to the publishers, Po cket Books, In corporated, for
devoting to it many to ns of paper fr om their wartime quota. In making possible its widespread
distribution both companies have rendered a distinct service to the Navy.
ARTEMUS L. GATES
Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Air
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The great majority of pictures in this book are Official Navy Photographs, often taken at considerable hazard by pilots, gunners, radiomen,
official photographers and others in the naval service. The cooperation of
Lhe Bureau of Aeronautics and the Office of Public Relations has been invaluable in selecting them and clearing them for publication. In particular,
roughly half of them are the work of a special photographic unit headed by
the eminent American photographer, Commander Edward J. Steichen,
USNR. This unit, operating under the authority of the Deputy Chief of
Naval Operations for Air, has ably documented all phases of naval aviation
in the war and is represented here in photographs by Commander Steichen;
Lieutenant Commanders Charles Kerlee (who took most of the Yorktown
pictures), C. F. Jacobs and Horace Bristol; Lieutenants Victor Jorgensen,
Dwight Long and W. S. Miller; and Specialist (Photographer) First Class A.
lanelli. Special credit is due to Commander Steichen and Lieutenant W. E.
Mace for many hours of assistance in gathering them together.
I wish to thank the editors of Life magazine for making available certain
of their hitherto unpublished pictures. These include the first two photographs in the chapter on the Gilberts, by John Florea, and two groups by
J. R. Eyerman: his color pictures of the Hollandia operation and his coverage of Admiral Mitscher's flagship in action at the Marianas and in the
First Battle of the Philippine Sea.
Further acknowledgement should also be made to the fliers and other
officers and men of the fleet, especially aboard the Yorktown, who patiently
told me their own first-hand stories. I am grateful to Rear Admiral Arthur
W. Radford, until recently acting Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for
Air, who furnished me with excellent accounts of the June actions off
Saipan prepared by Lieutenan-t Howard L. Roberts and Lieutenant Gg) Ken
Clayton. Others have lent valued aid in many ways, particularly Vice
Admirals P. N. L. Bellinger and J. H. Towers; Captains J. F. Bolger, W. R.
Hollingsworth, R. E. Jennings and B. W. Wright; Commanders Walter
Karig, F. W. Wead and R. A. Winston; Lieutenants James Sutton and
E. S. Magowan.
OLIVER JENSEN
Lieutenant, USNR
TO THE NAVY FLIERS
CONTENTS
3
I.
THE NEW YORKTOWN GOES TO HOLLANDIA
II.
CITADEL AT SEA
21
III.
THE REBIRTH OF AMERICAN SEA POWER
35
IV.
REVEILLE FOR MARCUS
47
v.
ORDEAL IN THE GILBERTS
67
VI.
THE NEAR-PERFECT CONQUEST OF KW AJALEIN
85
VII.
TRUK, END OF A BOGEY
97
VIII. "INDIAN COUNTRY": SAIPAN AND PALAU
115
IX.
THE CARRIERS COME BACK TO TRUK
131
X.
THE BATTLES OF THE PHILIPPINE SEA
147
THE COVER: Fires burn on enemy-held Wake Island following the attack by Navy carrier planes, October 5 and 6, 1943.
I. THE NEW YORI(TOWN HITS HOLLAND lA
" This," sa id th e executi ve offi cer, ca refull y rem oving his cigar to vent his feelin gs, " is th e b. gges t,
God-damned es t thing I ever sa w. " The exec uti ve officer, a big man who looks s urpri sin gly lik e Wall ace
Beery, was watch in g Task Force 58 of th e U.S. Pa cific Fleet as it steamed maj es ti ca lly out of a lagoon in
the Marshall Islands, h eading for another strik e a t th e
t otteri ng defen ses of Japan. Even after ma ny month s
with this sam e force, h e co uld s till make this r emark
every m ormn g.
Th e tim e was ll :00, Thursday m orning, April
13, 1944. Slowly, on e after an oth er in co lu mn , th e
m an y long, en orm ous aircraft carriers of Task Force
58 were slippin g down a narrow cha nn el fringed with
flat, palm- cover ed islands and beach es almost too
bright to look a t. Th e da y was h ot and a stea dy, warm,
n or theas t trad e wind whipped out th e ensigns and vertical r ows of fla pping signal fl ags. This was th e grea tes t assemblage of n aval mi ght in the world .
In th e distan ce we co uld make out th e battleships already outsid e th e lagoon a nd try to identify
th em by th e va ria tion s in th e mass ive pyramids of
th eir bridge stru ctures . Patrolling around th em were
a score or m ore of n ew fas t cruisers - all of thi s the
escort, th e protection and th e added anti-aircraft
power for th e main s triking for ce of li ghtl y armored
carri ers. Farth es t away of all, often visibl e only
through binoculars, wer e scor es of rolling, pit chin g
des troyers, busy scouring th e seas for chan ce submarines and waiting for th e big ships to form " disp ositi on X-Ray," or wh ateYer crui sin g formation was
plann ed. On th e dec ks of th e ca rri ers th emselves th e
planes stood q ui et and still , th eir wings fold ed like
sleep in g bird s, but o,·e rh ead was th e ceaseless, monot0 nous buzz of protectiv e naval air craft from th e
atoll" s airstrip.
"Nearl y eve ry ship h er e has been bui lt sin ce
P ea rl Ha rbor," murmured a sq uad ron co mm and er
ad miringly. He s tood bes ide me on the littl e bridge
platform call ed primary Hy, jutting hi gh over th e
Yorktown's fli ght deck, and loo ked them over. "Ever y
one of th em ca n make over th irty knots," h e continu ed. ' Th er e's not a lame du ck in the crowd. We
can defend o urselves against all comers, air or
surface."
" Talk abo ut ' ruling the waves,'" interj ected th e
exec uti,,e offi ce r, jerkin g hi s thumb at a big carrier
farth er up th e chann el, " th ese babies ca n go an ywh er e he pl eases and the Japs can ' t do a damn ed
thin g about it! "
" He,· ' of co ur ~e, was Vice Ad miral Marc An drew
lVIitsche r, command er of Tas k Fo rce 58. Up ahea d
hi s three-s tarred burgee Hag Hew fr om its halyard on
th e ne"· carr ier L exington. He has bossed the big roving pack of fa st ca rri ers thr ough m os t of th is
tr emend o us Central P aci fi c offensive, fr om th e takin g
of Kwaj alein in la te January and early February
thro ugh a ll th e mom entous ba ttl es of 1944 . .Mits ch er
is slight to th e po int of bein g skinn y. Hi s ruddy face
was wrinkl ed to a well-lined leather by long duty in
th e Solomons Lefor e he took thi s comm and; eyes as
blu e as hi s Pa cific are se t be nea th bu shy eyebrows
3
The million-odd tons of naval might in this picture is only a
portion of Task Force 58. Besides scores of cruisers, destroy-
ers and supply ships, nine carriers and a do:::en battleships
show here. B ehind the light Independe nce-class ca rri ~.: r
whi ch the s un has faded from reddish brown to yel low. OYer th em is usuall y perched a lo ng-Yizored basehall cap, the badge of th e a\·ia ti on trade, whi ch h e preft~r s to th e heaYi ly gild ed h eadgear of his rank . He
Kears horn-rimm ed dark glasses and a n open-n ec k
khaki shirt. Genera lly he can be fo und on a highbacked stool se t up on the port 11·ing of the flag bridge,
from which, craning his long neck from side to side,hc can keep personal watch owr operations. (Admiral ~, it s hould be nott'd , an' ra llPd " flag nff1cer< '
beca use they arc entitled to fly their uwn special blw·
flags with white stars corresponding in number tc•
their rank: th eir flag bridge is one lc,-el below tbe
pi lot housE'.)
P eop le who tra,-el o n "Mitsch er's Grey Ghost ," a,:
Tokyo Rose n amed hi s flagship, soon noti ce that thi,astounding. gnomish man who has taken OYer most:
of the P acific for hi s private duck pond rare ly loob
where he io; go ing. Ins tead he faces aft. Regular!~- .
people <1'-k him why anrl arP ao; regularly to ld, " Only a
4
in the left foreground are a South Dakota .class battleship
(35,000 tons) and one of the Iowa class (52,000 tons), At
ccn ter are four Essex-class carriers (25,000 tons) , contrasting
their bulk to two lO,OOO.ton Liberty ships steaming past.
damn fool fa ces into th e wind." Mitsch er is laconic
but pithy and as a res ult Mitscherisms are collected
mu ch like the rare utteran ces of the late President
Coolidge . On e favorit e is th e message h e se nt to th e
other ships as hi s ca rri ers approa ched Saipan : " I cann ot tell a lie; D-Da y is Washington' s birthda y." He
is a modes t man in sp ite of many accomplishm ents.
Few r emember that h e pil oted th e NC-1 on the Navy 's
famou s tran satlanti c flight. In other cloth es he might
be taken for a co untry doct or, although he once star-
tied all hands by appearing from his cabin during a
night action a ttired in pajamas th e color of pimento
and green cheese. He grad uated fr om Annapolis in
1910, and while serving on cruisers and des troyers,
r ead a book about fl ying. Res ult: he became Naval
Aviator No . 32 in 1915.
Mits cher is th e fli ers' favorite admiral. They admire his daring and his canny knowledge of aviation.
For th e pas t week , everybody knew, Mitscher and the
powers th a t be at CINCPAC in P earl Harbor had been
Captain Ralph E. Jennings of the York to 1m 1core a simple aviator's cap on his bridge. Once he teas skipper of an escort carrier
planning the final details of the operation jus t beginning. The signs were all there : th e messages fl yin g
back and forth; the small boatloads of staff officers
rushing from ship to ship; the haggard hue to th e
faces of Captains Burke and Hedding of Mitscher's
staff. Even Mitscher's adYenturous, carefree operations officer, famous Gus Widhelm, s talked the ship's
offices clutching wads of official paper in his hand s,
distinctly out of character.
Just before anchors were weighed a fat-paged
operations plan and its countless annexes, rewritten
for the last time, had been distributed by ultra-secret
officer "guard mail," and now on each of th e hundred
and more ships in the force intelligence officers,
communicators, and others in the kn ow were s tudying the provisions which applied to them. On the
Yorkto wn yeomen started typing copies of the air
annexes for each squadron. The seni or communi cations officer checked over th e radio frequen cies \\-hi ch
had to be guarded (that is, lis tened to constantly)
and started assigning watches to his men. The
ACIO 's (air combat intelligence offi ce rs-the Quonset mas ter minds) began deh ·ing for charts of th e target, high and low-level reconnai ssan ce photos ''"hi clt
had been rushed to the ship fr om other P ac ific com mands. Highly trained photo interpreters 11·ere going
over the pictures minutely with s tereoscopes, pickin g
out ships, hanga rs, pillboxes, gun positions, all th e
things commentators lump toge ther eas ily as "groun d
ins tallations." A new! y arr iv ed spec ialis t, Ensign
Gibson, began building from clay and plaster an exact
replica of th e target as it would look from any angle
to our approaching planes . Rumor was rife aboard
s hip, but still nobody had what aviators call " the
11·ord." The rank and fil e didn 't know where they
were going.
Ship's routine se t in easily, without effort, as it
had dozens of times after getting under way. Chow
went dmm at ll :30, sea details were secured, the
watch changed at n oon. But then, after lunch, there
was an interruption . All over the ship, on the
" wea th er " (that is, exposed) decks and in the hundreds of co mpartments below, th e blaring voice of the
loudspeaker sys tem cut loose, drowning out even the
plane engin es which mechs were testing on the hanga r dec k.
" This is the ca ptain speaking," began Captain
Ralph Jennings, clearing his throat apologetically.
'"Our targe t is Hollandia on the n orth coast of Dutch
'ew Guin ea. This ~~-ill be very much like the Truk and
Palau raids except that this time we are coopera tin g
with th e Arm y. With Hollandia occupied, our fr on t
will rn oYe hundreds of miles forward , isolating th ousa nd s of .Taps behind our lin es . Places like Rabaul will
be wiped right off the front pages ."
On th is Thursday afternoon the men who were
go ing to ,,-ipe Rabaul off th e front pages presented a
rath er sca ttered, languid appea ran ce. The head wiper,
Lieutenant Commander Edgar E. Stebbins, commander of Air Group Fi ve, was draped over the chart des k
6
in the air-conditioned air intelligence office, passing
the time of day. Steb is dark-haired and slight, with
a gap between his front teeth which gives his grin a
quizzical, supercilious look. His subject, naturally
enough, was the flier's invariable topi c : Dying. Aviation absorbs its practitioners more than any other
trade. They eat it, they sleep it. If a flier and his girl
meet another flier and his girl, th ey will adjourn to the
bar on the roof of San Francisco's Mark Hopkins
Hotel and start talking about it. If a fli er goes home on
leave and pretends to be interes ted in the crops and
the neighborhood boys who've been drafted, he is still
thinking about flying. Those who greet their hero's
homecoming with the remark that "He's the same old
Joe, isn't he?" are being absurd.
Over in the corner an ACIO and his yeoman
were busy tallying Air Group Five's records up to
date. At the moment they were the best in the fleetthe most bombs dropped, the most sorties (i.e., individual flights) flown, the most planes destroyed. The
producers of this impressive Nipponese necrology
were excellent, although they had a time advantage.
The air group had been out fighting this campaign the
longest, from the very start last fall. Its pilots had
been afforded plenty of opportunity to star. Now they
were due for leave, and someone pointed out to Steb
that the reporters soon would be swarming around for
interviews.
"All I can think of to tell them," said Steb, " is
that crack the guy makes in this book I've been reading, Shore Leave: 'It was nothing, really. Any man
with a genius for flying and unlimited courage could
have done as well.' "
Steb, who used to be a bomber pilot, is a veteran
of the old carriers as well as the new. He 1vas exec
of old Scouting Eight when Gus Widhelm was its
skipper. At the Battle of Midway, when their companion squadron, Torpedo Eight, was speeding to annihilation and glory, Steb was raining destruction on
a Jap battleship and cruiser. In a single flight at th e
Battle of Santa Cruz he scored a 1,000-pound hit on a
cruiser, then on his way home shot down a .Tap
fighter and a torpedo plane, which, in an SBD or any
other bomber, is something.
"How the hell did you ever get to be air group
commander, Stebbins?" asked another pilot, implying
that no worse choice could have been made.
"I dunno," he replied. "After Charlie Cromme-
lin got wounded, 'Jocko' [the Yorktown's old skipper,
now Rear Admiral I. I. Clark] called me and said,
'Stebbins, can you fly a Hellcat?' and I said, 'Negative,' and .Tocko said, 'O.K., you take off in one this
afternoon.' And that, children, is how your Uncle
Edgar won the war."
Since then Steb has shot down three more .Tap
planes-in a Hellcat and by what he calls the " hose"
method.
What was that, I asked him.
" I knew I couldn't hit anything unless I got up
close enough to spray it with a garden hose," he explained.
The course led south and west, skirted the Solomon Islands chain and the coas t of New Ireland,
passed an island with the fabulous name of Kapingamarangi. The limerick writers s truggled hard to find
a rhyme for it and gave up in defeat. Each morning,
before dawn , the ship would go to battle stations and
everyone would stand by, sleepy but ready, in case of
attack in the crucial half-light of early morning. The
zigzagging formation crossed th e equator several
times, but there was no ceremony-Neptune had
come aboard the Yorktown before to perform his extravagant offices and there weren't any pollywogs left
to persecute. Although the actual International Date
Line lay many hundreds of miles behind, only on
April 15 did the ship take official notice of that fact.
At midnight on the fifteenth a whole day was skipped
and the time was suddenly 0001, which means one
minute after midnight in the Navy's twenty-four-hour
style of timekeeping,* Aprill7. Th e sixteenth simply
disappeared, a disturbing matter personally since it
happened to be my birthday.
One odd thing about this fleet was quickly noticeable. In the movies it would have moved along with
its ships all packed close together, like a toy Spanish
Armada. Actually, most of it was usually out of sight
beyond the horizon, and often many miles lay between
the task groups. Our own flag was Rear Admiral Alfred
E. Montgomery, on board an adjoining Essex-class carrier, the Bunker Hill.
Now and then our group would change course, an
impressive sight to watch. Suddenly signal flags would
run up the yardarm of the Hagship, and answering,
similar signals would appear one by one on other ships.
One sign of high-calibre signalmen and officers of the
*Thus l :00 a.m. is 0100, 12 noon is 1200, 1 :00 p.m. is 1300, etc.
7
8
--
dec k is th eir quickn ess at spotting and answering th ese
h oists . " Course change to 210 degrees tru e!" th e flags
would say. When all ships had answered, the fl agship
hoist would be snapped cl o'm hard, mea nin g "Execute
th e change!" All ships would turn sharply in unison,
and all the flag h ois ts would come do'm smar tly.
Then the Yorktown' s turn wo uld co me to launch
the daily combat air patrol-Hell cat fighters to circle
endlessly around the formation, ready at all times to
intercept sudden air attack, to search out and bring
do,1·n sn oopers sent out by th e enemy t o find us.
Swiftly the ship would swing and steam into the wind
until , churning up twenty-fi,-e knots or more with her
po"·erful turbines, she had eno ugh wind whippin g
clown h er broad fli ght deck to permit her planes to
take off.
On the morning of th e eightee nth th e ship 's plan
of the clay carried a warning from the exec utiYe offtcer:
" I've noticed a slackening of effort and an attitude that this operati on is practi call y in the bag. I can
tell yo u right n ow· that it isn' t. "
Sun-bathing was called off. Sleens were r olled
clown, shirts buttoned agains t flash burn s. Th ere woul Ll
be no more movies . Th e Yorkton-n \ra ~ pass ing so uth
of Truk, close enough t o wonder \1-het her sea rch
planes from that on ce-dreaded Jap base \\·ould cliscoYer
h er-or any other part of the task for ce.
The afternoon of April 19 Li · utenant .Tames
Sutton, a slender yo ung la\1-yer fr om Philadelphia ,
gaye a tacti cal lecture in the wid e, lo\1·-ce ilin gecl wardro om. Several hundred crowded in to h ear th e details
of th e Hollanclia landing.
This was to be joint operations on th e bigges t
scale yet attempted in th e Pacifi c, \1-e lea rn ed. ~ Ia n y
th ousands of lVIacArthur 's tro ops were app roaching by
a Lliffer ent route in a large force of transpo rts, guarded
by U.S. and British surface ships plus a number of
U.S. " baby flat -tops" -the small er esco rt-type of carrier, used to hunt subs in th e Atlan t ic and to furnis h
close air supp ort in amph ibi ous land ings . D-Day was
set for April 22, eas t longitude elate. Th ere were to
be three separa te landings, a t Tanahmerah Ba y, Humboldt Bay and Aitape. Aitape was mil es awa y to th e
eas t. The two bays enclosed a sh ort, mou nta inous
s trip of coas tline behind which were three kn own Jap
air bases, Hollanclia, Cyclops, Sentani. There were
o lher Jap bases farther we.s t and up the New Guinea
r oast, at th e \Vakcle Islands, in G~ e h· ink Bav, and nn
Vice Admiral Marc A. Mitscher commanded Task Force 58.
Co mm nnda Edgm· F:. Stebbin s. sl.-ippcr o( Air (;roup FiL·r•.
9

Carrier War: Task Force 58 and the Pacific Sea Battles

Transcription

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