Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 18 May 1945 — Page 3

sf Mantial cDaniél, is

n, son of -|-

|B Ohio , when he h division He is now ippines. , attended d was As- . B. Grant the secvice een overs

we, son of rowe, 1518 1 April 26 oma time, h armored dier was on Jan, 8

roximately 2 graduate

80 in serve pdrowe, in Tedrowe, ian prison of; and L$, it now ata

* was aloft at the time, spotted the

oa

REAGHES PORT! ;

More Than 1072 C 1072 Casualties, One of Greatest Disasters. | (Continued From ‘Page One)"

when the lone Jap plane dumped two 550-pound bombs squarely” on the plane-jammed deck. On April 268 she Brooklyn naval yard, a devastated hulk which had navigated 12,000 wiles after being lett as sunk by Be Japs, As she cleared New York harbor the mavy disclosed that she had sustained more damage than any ship ever able to enter the harbor ander her own power, Big Ben’s story can be told now because she came back. Unrecognizably seared and battered and mangled, the: ship will be made whole again at Brooklyn naval yard. The Japanese bomber, its ap-| proach undetected, caught the car-| rier at the moment of greatest vul~| nerability when its planes were be-| ing launched, its gasoline lines were | full and flowing, and its bomb and rocket stores exposed. : Own Bombs Blew Up From the time the enemy's ar-mor-piercing bombs. found their marks until the agony was over, Big Ben took enough punishment to kill ‘a hundred ships, enough to wreck a city. In the hours of her ordeal, 200,000 pounds of the carrier's own bombs, rockets and ammunition blew up, and an estimated 12,000 gallons of high octane aviation gasoline either burned in .cascades of flame ot exploded in volcanic eruptions. Of the ship's complement of more than 2500 sailors and men of ‘air group 13, many scores died in a flash. Other hundreds were blown into the sea, where many drowned. Fires, fumes and smoke trapped and killed still others below decks. 7068 Survived But at least 706 of the crew survived to- sail the carrier from the scene of disaster, and other hundreds of sailors and airmen were removed and kept in the Pagfic. The Jap, ese reported Big Ben

sunk, and the nayy admits that|

“she should by all accounts have gone to the bottom.” For seven hours she lay dead in the .water. For nine hours she had no communications, no electricity, no drinkable water, For 15 hours fires burned: Before Big Ben came to life again and shook off the tow lines of friendly ships, she had drifted within 38 miles of the Japanese home island of Shikoku. ‘At one time, a time of hoor for men trapped below decks, she listed 20 degrees Sud $561d 1 be on the verge of capsizing. Bwt Big Ben refused to die—because her skipper, 47-year-old Capt. Leslie E. Gehres, Coronado, Cal, said “I won't abandon this ship.” Another réason Big Ben lived is that she had a friend standing by, the gallant light cruiser Santa Fe. With the crippled carrier listing ominously, Capt. H. C. Fitz slammed the Santa Fe alongside to take off wounded and survivors, n so doing, the Santa Fe shared the Big Ben's mortal danger because, as the carrier's captain reported later, “we were still blowing up in all directions.” But Fitz “sized us up,” Gehres related, “and then came in at 25 knots, at a wide angle. He slammed her in against us and held her with the engines. With the list and roll, our deck edge was slamming into his main deck.” Once the Santa Fe had to back away, but she came back. She got hoses over and into the carrier, and her crewmen joined in fighting the fires. Said Gehres, “It was the most daring piece of seamanship 1 ever saw.” Shot Down 17 Jap Planes

On the morning of March 19, Big Ben wag a carrier division flagship, flying the flag of Rear Adm. Ralph A. Davison, Also aboard, as an observer, was - Rear Adm. Gerald Bogan. In strikes the day before, Big Ben's planes had shot, down 17 Japanese aircraft, destroyed seven on the ground, and damaged 12 others, She had lost four planes and three pilots. Now Big Ben was ‘launching her war planes again. Eight Corsair fighters and eight or nine Helldivers had roared into the air. Then precisely at 7:08 a. m., the Japanese dive-bomber streaked out of the clouds. Hit at Worst Time

Alvin 8. McCoy of the Kansas City Star, the only war correspond. ent aboard, witnessed and described what happened next. His exclusive stories were made available to the ‘combined American press. The enemy launched his bombs, McCoy said, “at the precise moment when they would cause the most destruction.” . “It never has happened before .and probably never will happen gain,” McCoy reported. Cmdr, E. B. Parker, air group lommander aboard the Franklin,

Jap, and shot him down. But the damage was done. Gasoline, bomks and ammunition began to explode, Scores Drowned “Men were blown off the flight deck nto the sea, burned to a crisp in a searing white-hot flash of flame that swept the hangar deck, or trappéd in compartments below and suffocated by smoke: McCoy wrote. “Scores drowned in the sea. Other scores’ were torn by jagged chunks of shrapnel.” k The crew was not at. battle sta-tlons-at the time, Many men were

limped into] :

at breakfast, Others, dog-tired, were

Debris is hurled into the air as the Franklin shudders under an

fighting detail falls back to avoid

in their bunks. A long line of enlisted men was moving slowly through a hatch to the mess hall below.

Planes Exploded

“Presumably all were killed instantly when the white-hot flash swept the deck,” McCoy said. “Their bodies remained in the area for hours, many with their clothing burned off and -even dog tags melted.”

Planes massed on the after deck burned and exploded. Rockets were set off and whizzed waist high along the deck or soared over the ship's island, The fire and explosions continued. At 11 a. m., four hours after the attack, a gigantic explosion in the stern rocked the whole ship, The Santa Fe and the heavy cruiser Pittsburgh helped to tow the Big Ben until her own engines were working again. The destroyer Hunt and Marshall rescued more than 600 of the Franklin's crew, and the Hickox and Miller saved others. Warding off two other passes by single Japanese planes, the carrier

STRAUSS SAYS: --

missiles swirling through the air.

finally headed for home on March 22, at 23 knots under her own power. At Pearl Harbor, United Press War Correspondent Richard W Johnston visited the ship and interviewed her skipper, Capt. Gehres. According to Gehres, the No. 1 hero of the ordeal, “the bravest man I ever saw,” was Lt. Cmdr, Joseph T. O'Callahan, Boston, Catholic, chaplain aboard the carrier, O'Callahan, a black-haired,. blueeyed Jesuit scholar, had boarded the carrier only 17 days before her trial. He administered last rites to the dying, aided the wounded, and led fire-fighting parties repeatedly ‘into the smoke. He risked his life a dozen times. Once he led two other men into a glowing five-inch shell Jnagazine and wet it down, thus keeping it from exploding and destroying the ship.

Knocked Down

“He's one of the bravest men I've ever seen,” Gehres said. Gehres, himself recommended by Adm. Davison for the navy cross, has turned in recommendations in

explosion. To the right a fire-

behalf of others for two medals of honor, a dozen navy crosses, 2C silver stars, 150 bronze stars, and for everyone else left aboard the ship by nightfall of the first day a letter of commendation. Gehres and most of the other officers were knocked down by the first blast. There were times when it didn’t seem possible the ship could live. At one of those times, an enlisted man below got word to the captain that he could transfer 13,000 gallons of oil and ‘water to correct the list. “I said ‘do it, for God's sake’!" Gehres told Johnston. “He did it, for the list straightened out—otherwise we might have gone down. But I've never heen able to find out who he was.” The disaster left Big Ben a rocket-riddled, bomb-blasted wreck. When she arrived at Pearl Harbor, three weeks and 6000 miles after the battle, her flight deck “still looked like a half-eaten, toasted shredded wheat biscuit.” “Her hangar deck still was a chaos of looped and twisted metal,

YiC TORY M ARCHES

»

Chief Pharmacist’s Mate Nor: | | man E. Titus was saved by his in- | stinct and good memory from the

flaming Franklin,

of giant beams festooned around

lumps of melted steel, of gashed and

torn sponsons where anti-aircraft

guns had been.”

She still looked that way when

she arrived in New York. The navy says Big Ben is no “hero ship”; rather she is “typical.” Other stories involving “ships which were saved by their heroic crews cto return to battle” after sustaining damage must in many cases,” the navy said, “remain cloaked by security for some time.” Hero ship or not, Big Ben came to her.time of. supreme trial with a proud record behind her. She went to war, from Pearl Harbor, on June 16, 1944, four and a half months after being commissioned. Since then she had fought in two invasions and six carrier strikes. She

had been hit once -before, late last

October in the battle of Leyte gulf. She was “repaired at Bremerton, Wash., and returned* to service.

Stilt Afloat

Before the March battle, Big Ben

had destroyed 199 planes, 148,500 tons of enemy warships, 275,000 tons of merchant vessels, and for extra measure three Japanese destroyers and four cargo craft. The thing reporters wanted to know when Big Ben reached Pearl Harbor Aprii 9 was whether Gehres ever considered abandoning the ship. “Well,” he said, “I had an order that authorized me to ‘prepare to abandon ship.’ But F didn't pay any attention to that. Hell, we were still afloat.”

EA

This being the middle of May a man may have the urge to buy a Summer Suit and he won't let the cold and rain dampen that urge.) Being a logical citizen and 2 selective one---he will go quite naturally, to the Man's Store---mainly to be Sure of Quality, Taste, Newness, Fit and the utmost in VALUES!

Particularly you should see the

WRINKLE FREE Suits — the remarkable SPRINGWEAVE by GOODALL ...

They're 29.75

L. STRAUSS & CO,

THE

This picture was taken for Lt. Cmdr. Fuelling while he served aboard the Franklin. Left to right are his two daughters, Elaine and

June Ann, and his wife, Ruth. o #

Nightmare Is Still 'Too Close’ For Cmdr. Fuelling to Discuss

The Indianapolis hero of the Big Ben, Lt. Cmdr. Fuelling, today reports for duty at the Bunker Hill naval air base ‘after a brief leave with his wife and family here, ~ He doesn’t want to talk about the nightmare aboard ship; it's still “too close.” He's doing what he dreamed of in 15 months at sea, playing with. his pet daschund “Gee Gee” (an abbreviation of. “Golden Girl”) ; getting acquainted with his 18-month-old daughter, June Ann; talking over old times with a 4-year-old daughter, Elaine.

The fwo admirals and hundreds

of the wounded were taken off the

Big Ben in the first hours after the attack. Among those who carried stretchers and fought fires were members of the ship's band, directed by Musician 1-c¢ Saxie Dowell, Raleigh, N. C. After the fire was out, Dowall,

$ T—IT'S ONE

4 |

4

van

SAVED HIM, TITUS SAYS

Inflated Belt, Dropped in Sea, Aided Injured Men.

' Instinct and his memory of the way rescue work -looked in the.

j training films made Chief Pharmae

|cist’s Mate Norman-E. Titus, of Ine dianapolis, one of the survivors of |the Franklin tragedy.

Chief Titus found himself in the

{water after a mad race up to deck land a five-story drop into the ocean

The 31-year-old surgeon practiced -medicine in Newburgh, Ind. before entering service. He is a graduate of Indiana university and the son of Mr. and Mrs. Louis Fuelling, near Ft. Wayne, Wounded in one of the Big Ben's other scrapes, he also holds four battle stars. In service four years, he" was stationed at Pearl Harbor before the outbreak of war. He and his wife, Ruth, and two daugh- | ters sailed from Peasl Harbor on] Friday, Dec: 5, before the Japanese sneak attack Dec. T.

who wrote “Three Little Fishes,” conscripted all the instruments he could find, improvised drums from tubs, and organized concerts for the bomb-shocked survivors. As the Franklin steamed home, Dowell's boys were playing: “The old Big Ben ‘ain't what she used to be.”

DAY NEAR

before he discovered he had somewhere along the line instinctively inflated his life belt. He doesn’t remember doing it, | but it was lucky, he admitted, since he can’t swim. : In Blast Criss-Cross “I remembered how they showed it in rescue films—waved, splashed my hands ahead of me to attrack attention,” he said. “And sure enough, it worked.” The Indianapolis sailor was edt= ing breakfast when the bombs struck. Heading for his battle sti tion, he reached the fantail through

{an escape hatch, only to be trapped

between criss-cross explosions of rockets and ammunition. “Pinally I swung over the side and hung on to a gun blister, which helped shield me from exe plosions until I dropped into the sea.” Picked up out of the flaming sea by the U. 8. S. Hunt he volunteered to go back on the Franklin on March 21 with 300 men who had been rescued. Graduate of Tech

Chief Titus is the husband of Mrs. Mildred Titus, 2125 Wynedale rd, and the son of Mr. and Mrs, Clyde E.. Titus, 736 Middle dr, Woodruff Place. Veteran of 18 months of action and holder of the

‘|purple heart he is now back in the

States and expects to receive a leave next month. A graduate of Technical high school and DePauw ‘university, he entered the navy in October, 1941, and trained at Great Lakes, Ill, Before entering the navy he wes associated with his father as 3 mortician at Hisey & Titus funeral

ER PEACH