Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 28 June 1945 — Page 5

THURSDAY, JUNE 25, 1945

Wounded in Suicide Attack on A

373 Die, 264

: (Continued From Page One)

staff, three officers and 11 men of Mitscher’s staff were killed and 20 were wounded or overcome - by smoke. ; Every man on the port side of | the flag bridge outside the . “flag | plot” where Mitscher stood was] killed. But he survived to transfer | his flag to another craft and carry on. I "Thus far in this war, Mitscher has.been bombed off two flagships. The name of the other one may not | now be revealed.

\ : $i gic lL OTe

career was interrupted, the Bunker can.” @ Hill shot down 169 Japanese planes. | Helping the Bunker Hill in her In just two big days off Okinawa need were the cruiser Wilkes Barre her fighters downed 67 enemy air- and the destroyers English, Stembel] craft. And in the same area her|and Charles 8. Sperry. The Wilkes anti-aircraft guns blasted 14 Japa-| Barre pushed her bow against the nese planes out of the sky. |carrier’s starboard quarter and kept But in a space of 30 seconds the her hoses aboard. ” morning of May 11, two Japanese| So great a volume of water was suicide planes got through—catch-| pumped into the stricken craft that ing _34- of thé Bunker Hill's craft she began to list and settle. ready to take off—and transformed| The tons of water pouring upon the mighty ship into a hell of fire|the seas of flaming gasoline and and +xplosions. The blasts riddled oj] were forcing fire fighters back

From March 14 .to the day her t “They died as only brave men

The navigator coached the helmsman: : 7 “Come right very, very carefully,” he said. “Don’t use more than two Watch

and a half degrees rudder. me.” f With the Wilkes Barre clinging to| her. side, the big carrier turned 70 degrees. . This Is What Happened | The navy described what hap-|

pened: | “Gradually at first, then with a |

roar, tons of’ water, burning gaso- |

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES”

dm. Mitscher's Flagship

wy .

But he quickly organized fire-| fighting ‘parties and tore into the work of sluicing the burning gaso- | line over the side of the ship. He labored uritil the danger was over:| nly then did he submit to medical treatment. . Decks Warped and Twisted

Even: those trapped by walls of fire and forced to jump into the sea kept command “of themselves. As one sailor poised to leap, he called to those behind: “Watch this next step—it's a bad | one.”

Repaired at Puget Sound | blasted her sides. , The Bunker Hill—her decks and | Of the carrier's planes, only 10 island and gun galleries a shambles that were in the air survived. | -ig being repaired at the Puget Seventy were reduced to molten Sound navy yard, Bremerton, Wash. | puddles. ) | This -is the yard where the Sara-| In the'six hours that’ followed the toga recently was made whole two suicide hits, Mitscher and his| again. surviving staff members were re-|

The Saratoga suffered greatly moved by breeches buoy to the de-|

her decks and bulkheads, and against the bulkhead. line and oil on the hanger deck| As Burke said, “It was a taut Then Came the Maneuver sloshed away from the firefighters ship; everyone did a beautiful job." Then came the maneuver—only| and poured over the edges of the| The fire burned from 10 a. m. to 60 miles from Kikai, one of the|deck into the sea. {4 pp m. When they were at last strongest staging points for suicide] “In turning, she shifted the load under control and the Bunker Hill planes on Okinawa—that might|of water across the ship from star-| was starting home under her own have meant final disaster had it|board to port. She literally dumped power, her decks were warped and | failed. the heart of the roaring inferno on | twisted. With Seitz on the bridge were the | her hangar deck into the sea. The gun galleries amidships on

Meanwhile, the Bunker Hill's navigator, Cmdr. J.

“Men with lips toc burned to

when seven enemy planes scored [stroyer English, hits on her off Iwo Jima. Bunker Hill's

still-living officers | Oden’hal, Arlington, Va., and Lt,

cheer rushed forward with their hose. Fresh aid whipped across the

the port side were practically de- | stroyed. The Wilkes Barre in coming close |

DECORATOR

But only the Franklin—now un- and men braved death to fight fires, [John J. Hasburgh, Kansas City, der a at the Brooklyn, N. Y. jettison ammunition and gasoline, | Mo, senior watch officer. Reports feck “ihe » on ing pi Say Ded Soames Sthers on We navy yard—has taken more punish- [and rescue the wounded and |kept coming in: es y them Deck a Shambl | "ment than the Bunker Hill and! trapped. “She's listing six degrees to star- Bay om : Wing on’ the bli eh a es survived. | So many erstwhile ordinary hu- board, Captain.” ; oy er le ag An elevator, melted almost in Few P. 8. naval craft of any kind | man beings were transformed into] “The men in the forward fire- ep rs ° ol —~ it breath ot | WO dangled crazily in the black- | have as fine a war record as the heroes that the ship's skipper, Capt. rooms are dying, Captain.” bo ip “h t some miracle had| ened hangar deck. The gallery Bunker Hill. | George A. Seitz, Cojonado, Cal, has| “We're on a course of zero-six-| Ch LO LAY SO ""\deck was demolished. The fight] Since her arrival in the Pacific in recommended 280 of his crew, for zero, Captain, We're © heading rr ship was in its greatest | deck was a chaos of wood and — the fall of 1943, she has sunk 162.- awards, including three navy straight for Kikai” agony no one lost his head. reared toward the sky. 000 tons of enemy shipping and Crosses. : | The Captain Said, ‘Very Well’ . With planes exploding like giant| Before leaving the ship, Mitscher shot down 475 Japanese planes. In| Many Acts of Heroism | Seitz instructed Hasburgh to tell| firecrackers and fires spreading in| tersely inquired about the organiza- | addition she has probably sunk! “There were so many acts of .the Wilkes Barre to get ready for a the twinkling of an eye, men did! tion of fire control. His only com- | 253,975 tons of enemy vessels and heroism,” he said, “that it would be turn and the destroyers to stand! the things they had been trained fp! ment on what had happened to his damaged 454,075 tons. impossible to praise any one over clear. do. | flagship was, “It's too bad.” In 58 consecutive days and nights another.” He asked the navigator what! The carrier's executive offiger,)! That night the destroyer EngWith Task Force 58 before she was: And of the men who died at their course he recommended, Oden’hal| Cmdr. H. J. Dyson, Coronado,Cal.,| lish, in honor ot Adm. Mitscher, its hit. her planes had struck at Iwo posts to keep the boilers going and [said “One-three-zero true.” - The was painfully injured whenyhne of | distinguished guest. showed motion Jima. Tokyo, the inland sea, Kyu- the pressure in the fire mains, he captain said, “Very well, make it the enemy bombs went gff/only 50 pictures. They depicted the. burn#hu, and Okinawa. added: Sah 50.” ‘feet from where he w tanding. | ing of the UI. § S Franklin ; : qe ay yyy mt i i — - : : a i] ing Rooms or Bed-

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