13 JUN 44
Throughout June 12th, with brief interruptions to turn into the wind, Princeton and TG 58.3 edged ever closer to the islands that make up the Marianas chain. In darkness, and with the Task Force blacked-out to avoid detection, ships navigated through and around the exposed tops of the volcanic mountain range that defines the archipelago. By the time combat operations were scheduled to commence on the morning of the 13th, The P's bridge team noted in the Diary that they had "sighted SAIPAN Island, bearing 155˚, distant 55 miles."
At 0730 all carriers of TG 58.3 (Lexington, Enterprise, San Jacinto & Princeton) began launching aircraft for strike missions against Saipan Island. The P's contribution comprised 9 Avengers and 8 Hellcats.
The amount of naval power present — five American Task Groups, four centered around aircraft carriers and TG 58.7, the "Battle Line" centered around 6 battleships — all hitting the enemy in relatively close proximity, made the situation dynamic and certainly memorable.
"At 1030 Task Group 58.2 reported having picked up approximately 100 Japanese survivors northwest of SAIPAN Island."
Shortly after 1042 "Observed battleship units conducting shore bombardment of SAIPAN Island; observed fires and smoke on the horizon."
"At 1056 passed through numberous[sic] empty oil drums floating on the water."
"A destroyer from Task Group 58.2 joined the formation to deliver a sample of Japanese prisoners of war to USS LEXINGTON."
Princeton began launching a second strike, 8 bombers and 12 fighters at 1113, again targeting Japanese installations on Saipan.
"At 1250 sighted man in water dead astern of this vessel, distance about 500 yards. ... At 1258 passed a Japanese survivor abeam to starboard, distant about 300 yards, and at 1301 two more, distant 500 yards. ... At 1419 USS COTTEN reported recovery of four Japanese survivors. ... At 1510 USS COTTEN picked up three more Japanese survivors, reporting that one was military personnel, and six were laborers, three of who carried United States identification papers dated March, 1935, from Guam Naval Base."
"At 1449 the ASP from USS SAN JACINTO reported sighting 6 small Japanese fishing vessels bearing 195˚, distant 25 miles from the formation."
"At 1520 USS SAN JACINTO CAP reported having attacked the Japanese fishing vessels...and that four of them are now burning."
1600 saw 12 more fighters and 8 bombers launch for further pounding of Saipan. This cycle was recovered successfully at 1817 and the bridge team noted observing "a column of smoke fo the northern tip of SAIPAN ISLAND."
"At 1850 USS LEXINGTON reported a man overboard; this man was picked up by the USS INGERSOLL at 1925 and found to be a Japanese aviator who had been shot down previously."
The War Diary's last comment of the day noted that TG 58.7, plus USS Indianapolis, flagship of Commander, Central Pacific Force Admiral Spruance, rejoined the formation and reported for duty with TG 58.3. The execution of the rejoin may have left something to be desired:
"The original plan had been for Task Group 58.7 to rejoin the following morning, and this might have been a better arrangement, for it was considered hazardous to be steaming at 15 knots, not zigzagging, for a period of four hours while the battleships maneuvered through the formation from astern to take their proper stations."
Roughly a year later Indianapolis would suffer among the most horrific disasters in American naval history, and one which many armchair naval tacticians, but not the commander of the Japanese sub which sank her, blamed on failure zigzag.
Sea Story: One of the especially satisfying things about life as an aviator is that you get to experience things that are so unique as to be nearly impossible to describe to someone who has not been a part of the life. In my almost 40 years of slipping the surly bonds I have maybe a half dozen — perhaps a few more — particularly vivid memories indexed in my hippocampus. Many of these are instances which were not more than a few seconds in duration.
In the Google Maps screenshot above you will see, to the east of Princeton's position, an island named Farallon de Medinilla. "FDM" — in the military we acronymized everything — was technically an island but in reality is just an uninhabited portion of a volcanic rim that happens to be a bit above mean sea level.
Farallon de Medinilla. The brown area in the upper right is the range's aimpoint
Which makes it a great bombing range.
In 1995 I was stationed at NAF Atsugi, Japan on the staff of Carrier Air Wing Five and was fortunate enough to fly on a regular basis with VA-115, the Intruder squadron attached to the Air Wing.
And so it was that one day I found myself flying a training mission to go drop some bombs on FDM.
Now you might be surprised at the number of ways in which an inanimate object can be hurled from an aircraft into the ether and whose fate is then immediately surrendered to the forces of gravity and the whims of wind and weather.
Straight and level.
From 25,000 feet or 100'.
In a dive.
In a bank.
On the front side of a loop.
On the backside of a loop.
At 500, or 50, knots over the ground.
There was a time, in fact, when you could deliver bombs by hand.
One thing we did an awful lot of in Naval Aviation was formation flying. It was a relative rarity to fly without a wingman and on this day I was flying on the wing of my good friend "Hadji." We would each be carrying six Mark 82, 500 pound bombs. With a low overcast cloud layer, and because it would be fun, Hadji decided it would be a great day to loft our explosives from high speed and low altitude. Tactically this delivery would allow an aircraft to stay low and fast while ingressing to a target, theoretically hiding from the enemy until, at a range determined by airspeed and environmental conditions (wind, temperature, humidity, etc) we would pull the jet into a climb and loose the hounds, whereupon they would scribe a geometrically perfect arc to their, and hopefully the target's, ruin.
One thing we did not do an awful lot in Naval Aviation was fly formation on pilotless objects. And herein lies the memory that is imprinted, for all time, in my noggin.
Hadji briefed that we would conduct individual bombing runs, with him and his BN (Bombardier-Navigator) dropping first. They would pull up, release their bombs and break away to port. I would be in formation on his right wing and after the bombs left his jet, I would turn slightly to starboard and, while maintaining safe distance from the target, spot his hits. After impact I would rejoin and Hadji would do the same for my bomb run.
As we closed on the target at full power and around 480 knots, I said to myself: "Self, wouldn't it be cool to fly formation on Hadji's bombs after they come off his jet?"
And that is exactly what I did. I will never forget flying along with six bombs just a few dozen feet away, watching them wobble slightly as their fixed tailfins stabilized each bomb's path in the airstream.
In my mind's eye I followed them to their apogee, which would have been perhaps 15 to 20 seconds. In reality, I likely broke away after 5 to 10. Even now, almost 30 years on, it makes me sweat a little as it was probably not the smartest thing I've ever done.
But it was pretty cool.
Photo credit: Lifted from Pinterest. Looks to me like a loft delivery of five Mark 83, 1000 pound bombs. Awesome.
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