Criteria The National Defense Service Medal is awarded for honorable active service as a member of the Armed Forces during the Korean War, Vietnam War, the war against Iraq in the Persian Gulf, and for service... The National Defense Service Medal is awarded for honorable active service as a member of the Armed Forces during the Korean War, Vietnam War, the war against Iraq in the Persian Gulf, and for service during the current War on Terrorism. In addition, all members of the National Guard and Reserve who were part of the Selected Reserve in good standing between August 2, 1990, to November 30, 1995, are eligible for the National Defense Service Medal. In the case of Navy personnel, Midshipment attending the Naval Academy during the qualifying periods are eligible for this award, and Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC) Midshipmen ae only eligible if they participated in a summer cruise that was in an area which qualified for a campaign medal. MoreHide
Description
The National Defense Service Medal was awarded for honorable active service for any period between 27 June 1950 and 27 July 1954.
Other Memories
Sprague was named deputy chief, then chief, of the Bureau of Naval Personnel in 1946 serving until his promotion to Vice Admiral in August 1949.
Criteria The Navy Distinguished Service Medal is awarded to members of the Armed Forces who, while serving in any capacity with the Navy or Marine Corps, distinguish themselves by exceptionally meritorious ser... The Navy Distinguished Service Medal is awarded to members of the Armed Forces who, while serving in any capacity with the Navy or Marine Corps, distinguish themselves by exceptionally meritorious service to the Government in a duty of great responsibility. MoreHide
Comments The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Distinguished Service Medal to Rear Admiral Thomas Lamison Sprague (NS... The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Distinguished Service Medal to Rear Admiral Thomas Lamison Sprague (NSN: 0-17057/1310), United States Navy, for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished service in a position of great responsibility to the Government of the United States as Commander, Task Group THIRTY-EIGHT POINT ONE (TG-38.1), from 1 July to 2 September 1945. Utilizing the maximum striking power of the forces under his command, Rear Admiral Sprague pressed home devastating attacks on the homeland of Japan in coordination with other task groups, directing destructive strikes against aircraft and supporting industries, installations and transportation facilities and concentrations of naval vessels at Yokosuka, Kure and Kobe. Under repeated aerial attacks delivered by the desperate Japanese, he maintained a high standard of fighting efficiency in all his gallant ships and employed brilliant defensive tactics in repulsing the fanatic enemy. Rear Admiral Sprague's fearless leadership and his expert tactical control of the carriers, battleships, cruisers and destroyers in Task Group THIRTY-EIGHT POINT ONE were vital factors in the infliction of extensive damage on the enemy and in the completion of hazardous missions without damage to his own ships. By his outstanding professional skill, great personal courage and steadfast devotion to duty under fire, he contributed to the successful prosecution of the war and upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service. MoreHide
Criteria The Legion of Merit is awarded to members of the Armed Forces of the United States without degree for exceptionally outstanding conduct in the performance of meritorious service to the United States. ... The Legion of Merit is awarded to members of the Armed Forces of the United States without degree for exceptionally outstanding conduct in the performance of meritorious service to the United States. The performance must merit recognition by individuals in a key position which was performed in a clearly exceptional manner. MoreHide
Comments Admiral Thomas Lamison Sprague (NSN: 0-17057/1310), United States Navy, was awarded a Gold Star in lieu of a Second Award of the Legion of Merit for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performanc... Admiral Thomas Lamison Sprague (NSN: 0-17057/1310), United States Navy, was awarded a Gold Star in lieu of a Second Award of the Legion of Merit for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services to the Government of the United States. MoreHide
Criteria The Navy Unit Commendation may be awarded by the Secretary of the Navy to any unit of the Navy or Marine Corps that distinguishes itself by outstanding heroism in action against an enemy (but not suff... The Navy Unit Commendation may be awarded by the Secretary of the Navy to any unit of the Navy or Marine Corps that distinguishes itself by outstanding heroism in action against an enemy (but not sufficiently to justify the award of the Presidential Unit Citation). It may also be awarded to a unit that distinguishes itself by extremely meritorious service not involving combat (but in support of military operations), which renders that unit outstanding when compared to other units performing similar service. MoreHide
Criteria The Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal was awarded for for qualifying service within the Asiatic-Pacific Theater of Operations between December 7, 1941, and March 2, 1946, under any of the following condi... The Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal was awarded for for qualifying service within the Asiatic-Pacific Theater of Operations between December 7, 1941, and March 2, 1946, under any of the following conditions: On permanent assignment within the Asiatic-Pacific Theater; or, For service in a passenger status or on temporary duty for 30 consecutive days or 60 non-consecutive days; or, For service in active combat in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater of Operations against the enemy and awarded a combat decoration or furnished a certificate by the commanding general of a corps, higher unit, or independent force that the individual actually participated in combat. MoreHide
Criteria The Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal was awarded for for qualifying service within the Asiatic-Pacific Theater of Operations between December 7, 1941, and March 2, 1946, under any of the following condi... The Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal was awarded for for qualifying service within the Asiatic-Pacific Theater of Operations between December 7, 1941, and March 2, 1946, under any of the following conditions: On permanent assignment within the Asiatic-Pacific Theater; or, For service in a passenger status or on temporary duty for 30 consecutive days or 60 non-consecutive days; or, For service in active combat in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater of Operations against the enemy and awarded a combat decoration or furnished a certificate by the commanding general of a corps, higher unit, or independent force that the individual actually participated in combat. MoreHide
Criteria The Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal was awarded for for qualifying service within the Asiatic-Pacific Theater of Operations between December 7, 1941, and March 2, 1946, under any of the following condi... The Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal was awarded for for qualifying service within the Asiatic-Pacific Theater of Operations between December 7, 1941, and March 2, 1946, under any of the following conditions: On permanent assignment within the Asiatic-Pacific Theater; or, For service in a passenger status or on temporary duty for 30 consecutive days or 60 non-consecutive days; or, For service in active combat in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater of Operations against the enemy and awarded a combat decoration or furnished a certificate by the commanding general of a corps, higher unit, or independent force that the individual actually participated in combat. MoreHide
Criteria Occupation duty in the European-African-Middle Eastern area may be credited to organizations for duty performed on and subsequent to May 8, 1945. Terminal dates for eligibility periods and occupation ... Occupation duty in the European-African-Middle Eastern area may be credited to organizations for duty performed on and subsequent to May 8, 1945. Terminal dates for eligibility periods and occupation territories in this area are as follows: Italy: November 8, 1945 to December 15, 1947, Trieste: May 9, 1945 to October 25, 1954, Germany (exclusive of Berlin): May 9, 1945 to May 5, 1955, Berlin: May 9, 1945 to October 2, 1990, Austria: May 9, 1945 to October 25, 1955, Asiatic-Pacific Area: September 2, 1945 to April 27, 1952. Units performing service in the Korean area during the period of June 27, 1950 to April 27, 1952, inclusive, and which are eligible for the Korean Service Medal, will not be credited with eligibility for the Navy Occupation Service Medal for the same period. MoreHide
Criteria The Philippine Liberation Medal was awarded for service in the liberation of the Philippines from October 17, 1944, to September 2, 1945. In order to qualify, one of the following provisions must be m... The Philippine Liberation Medal was awarded for service in the liberation of the Philippines from October 17, 1944, to September 2, 1945. In order to qualify, one of the following provisions must be met: Participation in the initial landing operation of Leyte and adjoining islands from October 7-20, 1944; or, Participation in any engagement against the enemy during the Philippine Liberation Campaign; or, Service in the Philippine Islands or in ships in Philippine wates for not less than 30 days during the period of October 17, 1944 to September 2, 1945. MoreHide
Criteria The Philippine Liberation Medal was awarded for service in the liberation of the Philippines from October 17, 1944, to September 2, 1945. In order to qualify, one of the following provisions must be m... The Philippine Liberation Medal was awarded for service in the liberation of the Philippines from October 17, 1944, to September 2, 1945. In order to qualify, one of the following provisions must be met: Participation in the initial landing operation of Leyte and adjoining islands from October 7-20, 1944; or, Participation in any engagement against the enemy during the Philippine Liberation Campaign; or, Service in the Philippine Islands or in ships in Philippine wates for not less than 30 days during the period of October 17, 1944 to September 2, 1945. MoreHide
Criteria The Philippine Presidential Unit Citation is a unit decoration of the Republic of the Philippines. It has been awarded to certain units of the United States military for actions both during and subseq... The Philippine Presidential Unit Citation is a unit decoration of the Republic of the Philippines. It has been awarded to certain units of the United States military for actions both during and subsequent to the Second World War. MoreHide
Description The Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg. was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War of World War II. The 82-day-long battle lastedThe Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg. was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War of World War II. The 82-day-long battle lasted from early April until mid-June 1945. After a long campaign of island hopping, the Allies were approaching Japan, and planned to use Okinawa, a large island only 340 mi (550 km) away from mainland Japan, as a base for air operations on the planned invasion of Japanese mainland (coded Operation Downfall). Four divisions of the U.S. 10th Army (the 7th, 27th, 77th, and 96th) and two Marine Divisions (the 1st and 6th) fought on the island. Their invasion was supported by naval, amphibious, and tactical air forces.
The battle has been referred to as the "typhoon of steel" in English, and tetsu no ame ("rain of steel") or ("violent wind of steel") in Japanese. The nicknames refer to the ferocity of the fighting, the intensity of kamikaze attacks from the Japanese defenders, and to the sheer numbers of Allied ships and armored vehicles that assaulted the island. The battle resulted in the highest number of casualties in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Based on Okinawan government sources, mainland Japan lost 77,166 soldiers, who were either killed or committed suicide, and the Allies suffered 14,009 deaths (with an estimated total of more than 65,000 casualties of all kinds). Simultaneously, 42,000–150,000 local civilians were killed or committed suicide, a significant proportion of the local population. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki together with the Soviet invasion of Manchuria caused Japan to surrender less than two months after the end of the fighting on Okinawa.... More
Memories
Led Carrier Division 3 off Okinawa from April-June 1945.
Chain of Command
Task Unit 77.4.1 (Taffy I) RADM Thomas L. Sprague
COMCARDIV 22 RADM Thomas L. Sprague
Escort Carriers USS SANGAMON (CVE 26) (Flagship) CAPT M.E. Browder
Air Group 37 LCDR S.E. Hindman
VF-37 16 F6F-3 & 5 F6F-5 LCDR S.E. Hindmman
VT-37 9 TBM-1C LCDR P.G. Farley
USS SUWANEE (CVE 27) CAPT W.D. Johnson
Air Group 60 LCDR H.O. Feilbach
VF-60 22 F6F-3 LCDR H.O. Feilbach
VT-60 9 TBM-1C LCDR W.C. Vincent
USS CHENANGO (CVE 28) CAPT G. van Deurs
Air Group 35 LCDR F.T. Moore
VF-35 22 F6F-3 LCDR F.T. Moore
VT-35 9 TBM-1C LCDR C.F. Morgan
USS SANTEE (CVE 29) CAPT R.E. Blick
Air Group 26 LCDR H.N. Funk
VF-26 24 FM-2 LCDR H.N. Funk
VT-26 6 TBF-1C & 3 TBM-1C LCDR T.M. Bennett
COMCARDIV 28 RADM George R. Henderson
USS SAGINAW BAY (CVE 82) (Flagship) CAPT F.C. Sutton
VC-78 15 FM-2 & 12 TBM-1C LCDR J.L. Hyde Jr.
USS PETROF BAY (CVE 80) CAPT J.L. Kane
VC-76 16 FM-2 & 12 TBM-1C CDR J.W. McCauley
Destroyers Screen Commander - CAPT I.H. Nunn
USS MCCORD (DD 534) CDR F.D. Michael
USS TRATHEN (DD 530) CDR J.R. Millett
USS HAZELWOOD (DD 531) CDR V.P. Douw
Destroyer Escorts USS EDMONDS (DE ) LCDR J.S. Burrows
USS RICHARD S. BULL (DE 402) LCDR A.W. Gardes
USS RICHARD M. ROWELL (DE 403) CDR H.A. Barnard
USS EVERSOLE (DE 404) LCDR G.E. Marix
USS COOLBAUGH (DE 217) LCDR S.T. Hotchkiss
Other Memories
Sprague had his flag in USS Sangamon (CVE-26) as CTG 77.4 and CTU 77.4.1 during the Leyte Gulf operations and the Battle Off Samar.
The second USS Sangamon (CVE-26) was an escort aircraft carrier, converted from an oiler. She was one of twelve Cimarron class oilers built on a joint Navy-Maritime Commission design later duplicated by the T3-S2-A1 type, was laid down as Esso Trenton (MC hull 7) on 13 March 1939 by the Federal Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, Kearny, New Jersey; launched on 4 November 1939, sponsored by Mrs. Clara Esselborn; operated by the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey on runs from gulf coast ports to the east coast; and acquired by the United States Navy on 22 October 1940. Renamed Sangamon and designated a fleet oiler, AO-28, she was commissioned on 23 October 1940, with Commander J. R. Duncan in command.
Fleet oiler After service off the west coast and in Hawaiian waters, Sangamon shifted to the Atlantic Fleet in the spring of 1941; and, through the Neutrality Patrol period, carried fuel from the gulf coast oil ports to bases on the east coast, in Canada, and in Iceland. On 7 December, when the United States entered World War II, she was at NS Argentia, Newfoundland, offloading her liquid cargo. Within the week, she started south again to renew her schedule on a tighter time frame.
Conversion to escort carrier In early 1942 she was designated for conversion to an auxiliary aircraft carrier. On 11 February, she arrived in Hampton Roads. Three days later, she was reclassified AVG-26; and, on February 25, she was decommissioned and conversion was begun at the Norfolk Navy Yard.
During the spring and summer, the need for auxiliary carriers, later called escort carriers, increased. Work on Sangamon, three other Cimarron class oilers, and twenty C-3 merchant hulls was continued and sped up. In August, Sangamon, the first of her class of escort aircraft carriers, was ready. Her conversion had added a flight deck 502 feet long and 81 feet wide, elevators, a hangar deck, a catapult, sonar gear, aircraft ordnance magazines, work shops, and stowage space for aviation spares. Her accommodations had been enlarged to house her increased complement and embarked aviation personnel, and her armament had been changed to 2 × 5 inch, 8 × 40 millimeter, and 12 × 20 millimeter guns to increase her anti-aircraft defense. On 20 August, she was redesignated ACV-26; and, five days later, she was recommissioned, with Captain C. W. Wieber in command.
Operation Torch Shakedown in Chesapeake Bay and off Bermuda followed a return to the yard for repair and improvements to her ventilation system; and, on 25 October, she sailed east with Task Force 34 to provide air cover for Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa. Assigned to the Northern Support Force, she arrived off Port Lyautey on 8 November. Prior to and during the landings, and subsequent action, her air group, Composite Squadron 26 (VC-26) flew combat air patrol (CAP), antisubmarine patrol (ASP), and ground support missions. At mid month, she got underway to return to Norfolk, whence, after repairs, she sailed for Panama and the Pacific.
Pacific
1943 By mid-January 1943, Sangamon had arrived at Éfaté, New Hebrides. As a unit of Carrier Division 22 (CarDiv 22), she operated in the New Caledonia?New Hebrides?Solomons area for the next eight months. With Suwannee (CVE-27) and Chenango (CVE-28), she provided protection for resupply convoys en route to Guadalcanal and for the assault forces moving on the Russells.
Redesignated CVE-26 on 15 July 1943, Sangamon shifted her base of operations from Efate to Espiritu Santo in August, and, in September, she returned to the United States for an overhaul at Mare Island. There she received more modern equipment for her flight deck and a Combat information center.
On 19 October, she departed San Diego with VC-37 embarked and sailed for Espiritu Santo. She got underway from the latter on 13 November; rendezvoused with Task Force 53 (TF 53) the next day; and on October 20, arrived in the Gilberts to support the assault on Tarawa. During the first two days of this operation, her planes struck enemy positions on the island. Then, through 6 December, they were sent out on CAP and ASP missions to protect the escort carrier group and the target area.
1944 The escort carrier then set course to return to San Diago. During early January 1944, she trained off southern California, and on 13 January, sailed west. Steaming via Pearl Harbor, she pushed on toward her next amphibious operation, the assault on Kwajalein in the Marshalls. At 16:51, on 25 January, during routine flight operations, a returning fighter failed to hook a wire on landing; broke through the barriers, and crashed into parked planes on the forward flight deck. Its belly tank, torn loose, skidded forward, spewing flaming fuel. Fire soon spread among the planes.
It raged along the flight deck and flames beat up over the bridge, making ship control extremely difficult. The former oiler was turned out of the wind, so that the fire could be fought. By 16:59, it was under control. Seven of the crew died in those 8 minutes. Seven others were seriously injured, and of the 15 who jumped over the side to escape the flames, 13 were picked up, two were missing.
Palaus Temporary repairs were made at sea, and, from 31 January until mid-February, Sangamon supported the assault and occupation of Kwajalein. She then moved on to Enewetak, where her planes covered the landing forces from February 17 to February 24. On the latter date, she departed the Marshalls and headed back to Pearl Harbor to complete repairs.
On 15 March, the CVE got underway again. Departing Hawaii, she rendezvoused with Task Group 50.15 (TG 50.15), the fast carrier force support group, on March 26. For the remainder of the month and into April she escorted that group as it operated north of the Admiralties to refuel and resupply the fast carrier force after it had conducted strikes on the Palaus. In early April, Sangamon retired to Espiritu Santo and at mid-month, sailed for New Guinea. Briefly attached to the United States 7th Fleet, she covered the landing at Aitape from April 22 to April 24; retired to Manus for two days; then returned to the Aitape area where she conducted patrols until 5 May.
Sangamon then returned to Espiritu Santo, whence she departed on 19 May. Rehearsals for the Marianas campaign followed; and on 2 June, she sailed for the Marshalls. Rendezvousing with TF 53 en route, she covered that force to Kwajalein, then to the Mariana Islands. From June 17 to June 20, she guarded the force as it steamed to the east of Saipan as a backup force for TF 52, which was then engaged in the assault on, and the occupation of, the island.
After the Battle of the Philippine Sea, Sangamon was detached from TF 53. On June 21, she joined TF 52 and, into July, conducted operations in support of the occupation of Saipan. On 4 July, she steamed for Eniwetok; arrived on July 7, and sortied again on July 10. From 13 July to 1 August, she covered the bombardment groups engaged in the capture of Guam. On 4 August, she returned to Eniwetok, whence, on August 9, she proceeded to Manus where she was anchored for almost a month.
On 9 September 1944, Sangamon departed Seeadler Harbor and steamed for Morotai. There, from September 15 to September 27, she again covered Allied assault forces. After the initial waves had landed, her planes shifted from combat support to bombing and strafing missions to destroy Japanese airfields on nearby Halmahera.
Philippines The CVE again anchored in Seeadler Harbor on 1 October. Twelve days later, she sortied with TG 77.4, the escort carrier group of the Leyte invasion force. That group, comprised of 18 CVEs was broken down into Task Units 77.4.1, 77.4.2, and 77.4.3, and referred to as "Taffy" 1, 2, and 3, respectively. During the operation, they would steam to the east of Leyte Gulf: "Taffy 1", including Sangamon, was off northern Mindanao, "Taffy 2" off the entrance to Leyte Gulf; and "Taffy 3" off Samar.
Prior to 20 October landings on Leyte, Sangamon launched regular flights in support of the advance units of the invasion force and sent strikes against Leyte and Visayan airfields. On the 20th, her planes covered the landing forces and the ships in the transport areas. That day, she also came under enemy air attack and took a hit at the main deck level. The bomb, dropped by a Zeke, tore a two by six foot section of plating loose, then fell into the sea and exploded some 300 yards away from the "jeep" carrier.
Enemy airfields again became Sangamon's primary targets in the days immediately following the landings. On October 24, however, her planes fought off waves of Japanese aircraft over the landing area. Early on October 25, two flights took off: one toward the Mindanao Sea to locate and finish off Japanese survivors of the Battle of Surigao Strait, the other toward Leyte for CAP missions. About an hour later, Sangamon received word that "Taffy 3", 120 miles to the north, had been attacked by the Japanese Center Force which had transited San Bernardino Strait during the night.
Within a half hour, Sangamon's CAP flight had been diverted to Samar and she had launched another smaller, group to further aid the attacked unit. Soon thereafter, however, at about 07:40, as "Taffy 1" planes were being recovered, rearmed, and launched, the unit became the target of the first strike of the Kamikaze Corps.
Santee (CVE-29) took the first hit, and as her flight and hangar decks blazed, Suwannee was attacked. Antiaircraft fire from that CVE scored on the planes, which then dived toward Sangamon. A 5 inch shell from Suwannee finished one plane only 50 yards from Sangamon. By 07:55, a Japanese submarine, I-56, had joined the fight, and, as Santee's crew brought her fires under control, sent a torpedo into that luckless CVE. Minutes later, Suwannee was crashed by a Zeke forward of the after elevator.
During the intense fighting, several of Sangamon's crew were injured and one was killed by strafing fire. Later in the morning, as the attacks fell off, she sent medical personnel to assist casualties of the damaged ships; then began bringing them aboard for treatment. At mid-day, she suffered malfunctions in her steering gear, generators, and catapult, but repairs were completed in time for her to launch afternoon strikes as scheduled. Those flights gave chase to the retreating Japanese Center Force.
On October 26, Sangamon recovered her scattered planes and again launched CAP flights. At 1215, however, enemy planes were reported coming in from the north. Several broke through the air defenses, and Suwanee suffered another kamikaze hit. On October 29, the escort carriers retired.
1945
Ryukyus Sangamon anchored in Seeadler Harbor on 3 November. Six days later, she headed back to the United States for a shipyard overhaul at Bremerton, Washington. From 30 November 1944 to 24 January 1945, the yard installed rocket stowage racks, a second catapult, improved radar gear, new 40 millimeter mounts, a bomb elevator, and additional fire fighting equipment. In mid February, the CVE arrived in Hawaiian waters to train a new squadron, VC-33, which included night fighters. On 5 March, she continued westward, and, on March 16, she arrived at Ulithi. There she was temporarily detached from her division to join Task Unit 52.1.1 (TU 52.1.1), one of the escort carrier groups assigned to the initial assault phase of Operation Iceberg, the invasion of the Ryukyus.
On March 21, Sangamon departed Ulithi with other ships assigned to the Kerama Retto assault force. Covering the force en route, she operated to the south of Okinawa and launched planes for CAP and landing force support as Kerama Retto was secured. On 1 April, as the landings on the Hagushi beaches of Okinawa were taking place, she shifted to TU 52.1.3, thus rejoining her division, CarDiv 22. Through April 8, however, she continued to launch supporting strikes and patrol groups from an area some 50 miles south of Okinawa.
On April 9, she moved, with her unit, into an area 70 miles east of Sakishima Gunto. From there, her planes raided airfields on Miyako and Ishigaki. Detached on April 12, she again provided air support for the forces fighting on Okinawa; then covered the occupation of Ie-shima. On April 18, she returned to Sakishima. Dawn and dusk strikes were launched daily, and heckler flights were sent over the fields at night. On April 22, eight fighters and four bombers of a dusk strike caught 25 to 30 enemy planes warming up on Nobara Field, central Miyako. Seven Oscars attempted to intercept Sangamon's planes, but the attack was pressed home. After delivering their loads, the bombers were sent back to the CVE, while the fighters engaged the Oscars and downed five. Night fighters from Sangamon were diverted to the area and arrived as four more enemy planes joined the fight. The latter, also Oscars, were engaged, and two of the four were shot down before the fight was over.
Kamikaze Through the end of the month, Sangamon continued to launch her planes to neutralize Japanese airfields. On 4 May, she put into Kerama Retto to rearm. Loading, frequently interrupted by the presence of bogies in the area, was not completed until evening. At 18:30, the CVE got underway. Japanese attackers, however, were soon reported only some 29 miles off. Landbased fighters were vectored out to intercept the enemy planes and shot down nine. One got through and, at about 19:00, began circling toward a position on Sangamon's port quarter. The CVE went into a hard left turn to avoid the enemy and to maneuver into a launching position. She then opened fire and was joined by her escorts. The enemy crashed into the water some 25 feet off the starboard beam.
Other bogies followed the first. At 19:25, another broke through the interceptor screen, ran into clouds to avoid antiaircraft fire, then came out and, with increased speed, headed for Sangamon. At 19:33, the kamikaze dropped his bomb and crashed into the center of the flight deck. The bomb and parts of the plane penetrated that deck and exploded below--hurling flames and shrapnel in all directions. Initial damage was extensive, fires broke out on the flight deck, the hangar deck, and in the fuel deck, communications from the bridge were lost within 15 minutes; and the ship was soon out of control.
The action of Sangamon swinging through the wind caused the flames and smoke to change direction, spreading the fires. By 20:15, however, after steering had established steering control and brought the ship back to a course which helped the crew fight the myriad fires scattered over the CVE. But water pressure was low; the firemain and risers had ruptured. Carbon dioxide bottles were brought into action. Nearby ships came alongside to assist. By 22:30, all fires were under control. Communication with other units had been regained; at first through Fullam's (DD-474) radios then by using a VHF channel in the sole remaining plane. At 23:20, Sangamon with 11 dead, 25 missing, and 21 seriously wounded, got underway to return to Kerama Retto for temporary repairs.
Retirement and awards From Kerama Retto, Sangamon proceeded on to Ulithi, thence headed for Pearl Harbor and the United States. On 12 June, she arrived at Norfolk, Virginia, and commenced repairs. Work was suspended with the cessation of hostilities in mid-August; and, in September, she was ordered inactivated. Decommissioned on 24 October 1945, Sangamon was struck from the Navy list on 1 November of that year.
She was subsequently sold to Hillcone Steamship Company, San Francisco, and was delivered to that company's representative at Norfolk on 11 February 1948. She passed through multiple owners through the 1950s, and ultimately was scrapped in Osaka, Japan starting in August 1960.
Sangamon earned 8 battle stars during World War II. Her three air groups were each awarded the Presidential Unit Citation.
Escort Carriers USS SANGAMON (CVE 26) (Flagship) CAPT M.E. Browder
Air Group 37 LCDR S.E. Hindman
VF-37 16 F6F-3 & 5 F6F-5 LCDR S.E. Hindmman
VT-37 9 TBM-1C LCDR P.G. Farley
USS SUWANEE (CVE 27) CAPT W.D. Johnson
Air Group 60 LCDR H.O. Feilbach
VF-60 22 F6F-3 LCDR H.O. Feilbach
VT-60 9 TBM-1C LCDR W.C. Vincent
USS CHENANGO (CVE 28) CAPT G. van Deurs
Air Group 35 LCDR F.T. Moore
VF-35 22 F6F-3 LCDR F.T. Moore
VT-35 9 TBM-1C LCDR C.F. Morgan
USS SANTEE (CVE 29) CAPT R.E. Blick
Air Group 26 LCDR H.N. Funk
VF-26 24 FM-2 LCDR H.N. Funk
VT-26 6 TBF-1C & 3 TBM-1C LCDR T.M. Bennett
Chain of Command
Promoted to Rear Admiral in June, Sprague commanded carrier Division 22 which covered the assault on Guam from July-August and Morotai in September.
Chain of Command
RADM Thomas L. Sprague, USN, Commander Task Group 77.4
Task Unit 77.4.1 (Taffy I) RADM Thomas L. Sprague
COMCARDIV 22 RADM Thomas L. Sprague USS SANGAMON (CVE 26) (Flagship) CAPT M.E. Browder Air Group 37 LCDR S.E. Hindman VF-37 16 F6F-3 & 5 F6F-5 LCDR S.E. Hindmman VT-37 9 TBM-1C LCDR P.G. Farley USS SUWANEE (CVE 27) CAPT W.D. Johnson Air Group 60 LCDR H.O. Feilbach VF-60 22 F6F-3 LCDR H.O. Feilbach VT-60 9 TBM-1C LCDR W.C. Vincent USS CHENANGO (CVE 28) CAPT G. van Deurs Air Group 35 LCDR F.T. Moore VF-35 22 F6F-3 LCDR F.T. Moore VT-35 9 TBM-1C LCDR C.F. Morgan USS SANTEE (CVE 29) CAPT R.E. Blick Air Group 26 LCDR H.N. Funk VF-26 24 FM-2 LCDR H.N. Funk VT-26 6 TBF-1C & 3 TBM-1C LCDR T.M. Bennett
COMCARDIV 28 RADM George R. Henderson *USS SAGINAW BAY (CVE 82) (Flagship) CAPT F.C. Sutton VC-78 15 FM-2 & 12 TBM-1C LCDR J.L. Hyde Jr. *USS PETROF BAY (CVE 80) CAPT J.L. Kane VC-76 16 FM-2 & 12 TBM-1C CDR J.W. McCauley
* = Detached 1645, 24 October 1944
Task Unit 77.4.2 (Taffy II) RADM Felix B. Stump
COMCARDIV 24 RADM Felix B. Stump USS NATOMA BAY (CVE 62) (Flagship) CAPT A.K. Morehouse VC-81 16 FM-2 & 12 TBM-1C LCDR R.C. Barnes USS MANILA BAY (CVE 61) CAPT Fitzhugh Lee VC-80 16 FM-2 & 12 TBM-1C LCDR H.K. Stubbs
COMCARDIV 27 RADM William D. Sample USS MARCUS ISLAND (CVE 77) (Flagship) CAPT C.F. Greber VC-21 17 FM-2 & 12 TBM-1C LCDR T.O. Murray USS KADASHAN BAY (CVE 76) CAPT R.N. Hunter VC-20 15 FM-2 & 11 TBM-1C LCDR J.R. Dale USS SAVO ISLAND (CVE 78) CAPT C.E. Ekstrom VC-27 17 FM-2 & 12 TBM-1C LCDR P.W. Jackson USS OMMANEY BAY (CVE 79) CAPT H.L. Young VC-75 16 FM-2 & 11 TBM-1C LT A.W. Smith Jr.
Task Unit 77.4.3 (Taffy III) RADM Clifton A.F. Sprague
COMCARDIV 25 RADM Clifton A.F. Sprague USS FANSHAW BAY (CVE 70) (Flagship) CAPT D.P. Johnson VC-68 16 FM-2 & 12 TBM-1C LCDR R.S. Rogers USS ST LO (CVE 63) CAPT F.J. McKenna VC-65 17 FM-2 & 12 TBM-1C LCDR R.M. Jones USS WHITE PLAINS (CVE 66) CAPT D.J. Sullivan VC-4 16 FM-2 & 12 TBM-1C LT E.R. Fickenscher USS KALININ BAY (CVE 68) CAPT T.B. Williamson VC-3 14 F-2, 1 TBF-1C & 11 TBM-1C LCDR W.H. Keighley
COMCARDIV 26 RADM Ralph A. Ofstie USS KITKUN BAY (CVE 71) (Flagship) CAPT J.P. Whitney VC-5 14 FM-2 & 12 TBM-1C CDR R.L. Fowler USS GAMBIER BAY (CVE 73) CAPT W.V.R. Vieweg VC-10 18 FM-2 & 12 TBM-1C LCDR E.J. Huxtable
Criteria The Navy Cross may be awarded to any person who, while serving with the Navy or Marine Corps, distinguishes himself in action by extraordinary heroism not justifying an award of the Medal of Honor.... The Navy Cross may be awarded to any person who, while serving with the Navy or Marine Corps, distinguishes himself in action by extraordinary heroism not justifying an award of the Medal of Honor. MoreHide
Comments The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Rear Admiral Thomas Lamison Sprague (NSN: 0-17057/1310), United States Navy, for extraordinary heroism and ... The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Rear Admiral Thomas Lamison Sprague (NSN: 0-17057/1310), United States Navy, for extraordinary heroism and distinguished service in the line of his profession as Commander Task Group SEVENTY-SEVEN POINT FOUR (TG-77.4), with his Flag in the U.S.S. SANGAMON (ACV-26), in action against a major Task Force of the Japanese Fleet during the Battle off Samar, on 25 October 1944. When, shortly after daybreak, one of his three groups of escort carriers was attacked by the Japanese Central Force composed of four battleships, five cruisers, and eleven destroyers which had steamed unobserved through San Bernardino Strait during the night, Rear Admiral Sprague gallantly met the challenge of the enemy's superior fire power and gave battle with every resource at his command. While the unit under direct attack fought a running surface engagement with the ships of the Japanese Central Force, he launched all-out assaults with his air groups. Despite hostile close-range bombardment, torpedo attacks and suicide dive-bombing attacks on lightly armed carriers, the units under Rear Admiral Sprague's command succeeded in halting the enemy onslaught after two and one half hours of furious fighting. By his forceful leadership, courage and skill in turning potential defeat into a brilliant victory, Rear Admiral Sprague sustained and enhanced the finest traditions of the United States Naval Service. MoreHide
Criteria The Legion of Merit is awarded to members of the Armed Forces of the United States without degree for exceptionally outstanding conduct in the performance of meritorious service to the United States. ... The Legion of Merit is awarded to members of the Armed Forces of the United States without degree for exceptionally outstanding conduct in the performance of meritorious service to the United States. The performance must merit recognition by individuals in a key position which was performed in a clearly exceptional manner. MoreHide
Comments United States Navy, was awarded the Legion of Merit with Combat "V" for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services to the Government of the United States.... United States Navy, was awarded the Legion of Merit with Combat "V" for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services to the Government of the United States. MoreHide
Criteria The Navy Unit Commendation may be awarded by the Secretary of the Navy to any unit of the Navy or Marine Corps that distinguishes itself by outstanding heroism in action against an enemy (but not suff... The Navy Unit Commendation may be awarded by the Secretary of the Navy to any unit of the Navy or Marine Corps that distinguishes itself by outstanding heroism in action against an enemy (but not sufficiently to justify the award of the Presidential Unit Citation). It may also be awarded to a unit that distinguishes itself by extremely meritorious service not involving combat (but in support of military operations), which renders that unit outstanding when compared to other units performing similar service. MoreHide
Criteria The Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal was awarded for for qualifying service within the Asiatic-Pacific Theater of Operations between December 7, 1941, and March 2, 1946, under any of the following condi... The Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal was awarded for for qualifying service within the Asiatic-Pacific Theater of Operations between December 7, 1941, and March 2, 1946, under any of the following conditions: On permanent assignment within the Asiatic-Pacific Theater; or, For service in a passenger status or on temporary duty for 30 consecutive days or 60 non-consecutive days; or, For service in active combat in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater of Operations against the enemy and awarded a combat decoration or furnished a certificate by the commanding general of a corps, higher unit, or independent force that the individual actually participated in combat. MoreHide
Criteria The Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal was awarded for for qualifying service within the Asiatic-Pacific Theater of Operations between December 7, 1941, and March 2, 1946, under any of the following condi... The Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal was awarded for for qualifying service within the Asiatic-Pacific Theater of Operations between December 7, 1941, and March 2, 1946, under any of the following conditions: On permanent assignment within the Asiatic-Pacific Theater; or, For service in a passenger status or on temporary duty for 30 consecutive days or 60 non-consecutive days; or, For service in active combat in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater of Operations against the enemy and awarded a combat decoration or furnished a certificate by the commanding general of a corps, higher unit, or independent force that the individual actually participated in combat. MoreHide
Criteria The Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal was awarded for for qualifying service within the Asiatic-Pacific Theater of Operations between December 7, 1941, and March 2, 1946, under any of the following condi... The Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal was awarded for for qualifying service within the Asiatic-Pacific Theater of Operations between December 7, 1941, and March 2, 1946, under any of the following conditions: On permanent assignment within the Asiatic-Pacific Theater; or, For service in a passenger status or on temporary duty for 30 consecutive days or 60 non-consecutive days; or, For service in active combat in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater of Operations against the enemy and awarded a combat decoration or furnished a certificate by the commanding general of a corps, higher unit, or independent force that the individual actually participated in combat. MoreHide
Criteria The Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal was awarded for for qualifying service within the Asiatic-Pacific Theater of Operations between December 7, 1941, and March 2, 1946, under any of the following condi... The Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal was awarded for for qualifying service within the Asiatic-Pacific Theater of Operations between December 7, 1941, and March 2, 1946, under any of the following conditions: On permanent assignment within the Asiatic-Pacific Theater; or, For service in a passenger status or on temporary duty for 30 consecutive days or 60 non-consecutive days; or, For service in active combat in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater of Operations against the enemy and awarded a combat decoration or furnished a certificate by the commanding general of a corps, higher unit, or independent force that the individual actually participated in combat. MoreHide
Criteria The Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal was awarded for for qualifying service within the Asiatic-Pacific Theater of Operations between December 7, 1941, and March 2, 1946, under any of the following condi... The Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal was awarded for for qualifying service within the Asiatic-Pacific Theater of Operations between December 7, 1941, and March 2, 1946, under any of the following conditions: On permanent assignment within the Asiatic-Pacific Theater; or, For service in a passenger status or on temporary duty for 30 consecutive days or 60 non-consecutive days; or, For service in active combat in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater of Operations against the enemy and awarded a combat decoration or furnished a certificate by the commanding general of a corps, higher unit, or independent force that the individual actually participated in combat. MoreHide
Criteria The Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal was awarded for for qualifying service within the Asiatic-Pacific Theater of Operations between December 7, 1941, and March 2, 1946, under any of the following condi... The Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal was awarded for for qualifying service within the Asiatic-Pacific Theater of Operations between December 7, 1941, and March 2, 1946, under any of the following conditions: On permanent assignment within the Asiatic-Pacific Theater; or, For service in a passenger status or on temporary duty for 30 consecutive days or 60 non-consecutive days; or, For service in active combat in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater of Operations against the enemy and awarded a combat decoration or furnished a certificate by the commanding general of a corps, higher unit, or independent force that the individual actually participated in combat. MoreHide
Criteria The Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal was awarded for for qualifying service within the Asiatic-Pacific Theater of Operations between December 7, 1941, and March 2, 1946, under any of the following condi... The Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal was awarded for for qualifying service within the Asiatic-Pacific Theater of Operations between December 7, 1941, and March 2, 1946, under any of the following conditions: On permanent assignment within the Asiatic-Pacific Theater; or, For service in a passenger status or on temporary duty for 30 consecutive days or 60 non-consecutive days; or, For service in active combat in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater of Operations against the enemy and awarded a combat decoration or furnished a certificate by the commanding general of a corps, higher unit, or independent force that the individual actually participated in combat. MoreHide
Criteria The Philippine Liberation Medal was awarded for service in the liberation of the Philippines from October 17, 1944, to September 2, 1945. In order to qualify, one of the following provisions must be m... The Philippine Liberation Medal was awarded for service in the liberation of the Philippines from October 17, 1944, to September 2, 1945. In order to qualify, one of the following provisions must be met: Participation in the initial landing operation of Leyte and adjoining islands from October 7-20, 1944; or, Participation in any engagement against the enemy during the Philippine Liberation Campaign; or, Service in the Philippine Islands or in ships in Philippine wates for not less than 30 days during the period of October 17, 1944 to September 2, 1945. MoreHide
Description The Mariana and Palau Islands campaign, also known as Operation Forager, was an offensive launched by United States forces against Imperial Japanese forces in the Mariana Islands and Palau in the PaciThe Mariana and Palau Islands campaign, also known as Operation Forager, was an offensive launched by United States forces against Imperial Japanese forces in the Mariana Islands and Palau in the Pacific Ocean between June and November, 1944 during the Pacific War. The United States offensive, under the overall command of Chester Nimitz, followed the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign and was intended to neutralize Japanese bases in the central Pacific, support the Allied drive to retake the Philippines, and provide bases for a strategic bombing campaign against Japan.
Beginning the offensive, United States Marine Corps and United States Army forces, with support from the United States Navy, executed landings on Saipan in June, 1944. In response, the Imperial Japanese Navy's combined fleet sortied to attack the U.S. Navy fleet supporting the landings. In the resulting aircraft carrier Battle of the Philippine Sea (the so-called “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot”) on 19–20 June, the Japanese naval forces were decisively defeated with heavy and irreplaceable losses to their carrier-borne and land-based aircraft.
Thereafter, U.S. forces executed landings on Guam and Tinian in July, 1944. After heavy fighting, Saipan was secured in July and Guam and Tinian in August, 1944. The U.S. then constructed airfields on Saipan and Tinian where B-29s were based to conduct strategic bombing missions against the Japanese mainland until the end of World War II, including the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
In the meantime, in order to secure the flank for U.S. forces preparing to attack Japanese forces in the Philippines, in September, 1944, U.S. Marine and Army forces landed on the islands of Peleliu and Angaur in Palau. After heavy and intense combat on Peleliu, the island was finally secured by U.S. forces in November, 1944.
Following their landings in the Mariana and Palau Islands, Allied forces continued their ultimately successful campaign against Japan by landing in the Philippines in October, 1944 and the Volcano and Ryukyu Islands beginning in January, 1945.... More
Memories
Sprague commanded carrier Division 22 which covered the assault on Guam from July-August 1944.
Description The Battle of Morotai, part of the Pacific War, began on 15 September 1944, and continued until the end of the war in August 1945. The fighting started when United States and Australian forces landed The Battle of Morotai, part of the Pacific War, began on 15 September 1944, and continued until the end of the war in August 1945. The fighting started when United States and Australian forces landed on the southwest corner of Morotai, a small island in the Netherlands East Indies (NEI), which the Allies needed as a base to support the liberation of the Philippines later that year. The invading forces greatly outnumbered the island's Japanese defenders and secured their objectives in two weeks. Japanese reinforcements landed on the island between September and November, but lacked the supplies needed to effectively attack the Allied defensive perimeter. Intermittent fighting continued until the end of the war, with the Japanese troops suffering heavy loss of life from disease and starvation.
Morotai's development into an Allied base began shortly after the landing, and two major airfields were ready for use in October. These and other base facilities played an important role in the liberation of the Philippines during 1944 and 1945. Torpedo boats and aircraft based at Morotai also harassed Japanese positions in the NEI. The island's base facilities were further expanded in 1945 to support the Australian-led Borneo Campaign, and Morotai remained an important logistical hub and command center until the Dutch reestablished their colonial rule in the NEI. ... More
Memories
Sprague commanded carrier Division 22 which covered the assault on Morotai in September 1944.
Description The Battle of Samar (25 October 1944) was the nearest the Japanese came to success during the battle of Leyte Gulf and saw a powerful Japanese battleship force come close to destroying a force of AmerThe Battle of Samar (25 October 1944) was the nearest the Japanese came to success during the battle of Leyte Gulf and saw a powerful Japanese battleship force come close to destroying a force of American escort carriers.
The Japanese realised that an American invasion of the Philippines or of Formosa would cut their Empire in half and prevent vital supplies reaching the Home Islands from the south part of the empire. They decided to try and fight the 'decisive battle' of the war wherever the Americans attacked next. If the Americans attacked the Philippines then the Japanese hoped to use the scattered elements of their fleet in a coordinated attack that might allow them to get at the vulnerable invasion fleet. In the final version of the plan Admiral Ozawa's carriers, coming from Japan, were to drag the US 3rd Fleet away from the invasion beaches in Leyte Gulf, allowing three other Japanese fleets to advance through the central Philippines to attack the invasion fleets.
The most important of these three fleets was Admiral Kurita's I Striking Force. Admiral Kurita began the battle of Leyte Gulf with a powerful fleet, containing five battleships, twelve cruisers and fifteen destroyers. Amongst the battleships were the Musashi and the Yamato, the biggest and most powerful battleships in the world. He also had the older battleships Kongo, Haruna and Nagato, twelve cruisers and fifteen destroyers. This force suffered grievous losses before reaching Samar. In the two day battle of the Sibuyan Sea (23-24 October 1944) the Musashi was sunk by American aircraft, two cruisers were sunk by two American subs and a third crippled. Kurita started the battle of Samar with four battleships, six cruisers and ten destroyers.
On the American side the bulk of the battle was fought by Admiral Sprague's Taffy Three, with six escort carriers, three destroyers and four destroyer escorts. The escort carriers carried modern aircraft, but these were armed for ground attack and so didn't have many of the armour piercing bombs needed against battleships. Twelve more escort carriers in two groups were in the area, but the 7th Fleet's six old battleships were away to the south defending the Surigao Strait. The powerful modern carriers and fast battleships of the 3rd Fleet had been lured away to the north to try and intercept Ozawa's carriers (Battle of Cape Engano). Admiral Kinkaid, commander of the 7th Fleet, believed that Halsey had left a powerful task force (Task Force 34, Admiral Lee) to watch Kurita, but in fact this force had accompanied the 3rd Fleet north.
On the night of 24-25 October Kurita passed through the San Bernardino Straits, turned south and headed for Leyte Gulf. Soon after this, at about 5.30, he learnt that Admiral Nishimura's force had been destroyed and Admiral Shima was retreating (battle of the Surigao Strait). He probably never received the messages Ozawa sent out announcing that the 3rd Fleet was chasing him. Kurita could justifiably believe that the main parts of both the US 3rd and 7th Fleets were somewhere in or close to Leyte Gulf.
At about dawn (6.30) Kurita found Admiral Sprague's Taffy 3, a task force made up of six escort carriers and seven escorts. Kurita believed that he had found a 'gigantic enemy task force' containing large carriers, cruisers, destroyers and possibly battleships. He decided to abandon the charge into Leyte Gulf and turned to attack Sprague's force. At 6.58 the Yamato's main guns opened fire on a surface target for the first time.
Sprague realised that he was in trouble. At 7.01 he issued a call for help in the clear, ordered his aircraft into the air and headed for a nearby rain squall. Under cover of the rain he decided to try and reach the support of Taffy 2, thirty miles to the south. His destroyers were ordered to attack the Japanese fleet while the carriers made their best speed south.
Sprague's aircraft had a limited potential to do serious damage to the Japanese battleships. The escort carriers didn't have enough storage space to carry both fragmentation bombs for ground support and a significant number of armour piercing bombs. The Japanese had no way to know that, and the American aircraft were able to force the Japanese heavy ships into frantic manoeuvres, slowing their pursuit of the carriers. The torpedo firing destroyers were equally effective.
Just after 7.20am the cruiser Kumano was hit by a torpedo from the US destroyer Johnston DD-557. Her speed was reduced, and at 9.45 she was detached from the main fleet and ordered back through the San Bernardino Strait. This brought her into range of aircraft from the US 3rd Fleet and at around 9.45 she was attacked by SB2C dive-bombers and TBM torpedo bombers from TF 38. They only managed to score one near miss. A second attack early on 26 October managed three bomb hits, but the cruiser could still make 10kts. The Kumano managed to reach safety at Manila where she underwent repairs before leaving for Japan on 5 November. Her luck now turned - her convoy was attacked by four American submarines and the cruiser was hit twice. She remained afloat and reached Dasol Bay on the Luzon coast, but on 25 November she was sunk by American aircraft.
This first destroyer attack cost the Americans dearly. The Johnston was hit by three 14in and three 6in shells and the Hoel by shells that disabled her main engine. The Hoel remained in the fight until she was unable to move and at about 8.30 her crew abandoned ship.
A little further south the escort carriers came under fire from the Japanese battleships. Kalinin Bay and Gambier Bay were both hit but managed to main their position until the Gambier Bay was hit in the forward engine room. The destroyer Johnston attempted to distract attention from the stricken carrier but without success and the Gambier Bay sank at around 8.45am. The Johnston then managed to break up a light cruiser attack on the carriers, but in the process she became their main target and was sunk. Only 141 of her 327 crewmen survived.
The cruiser Chikuma was hit by a torpedo at around 8.54. It was a sign that Sprague's men were getting closer to help that this torpedo was probably launched by an aircraft from Admiral Felix B. Stump's Task Group 77.4.2. The engine rooms flooded, and the ship came to a halt. She was unable to respond when Kurita decided to withdraw from battle, and was left alone. She sank during the day with the loss of most of her crew. Another 100 were rescued by the destroyer Nowaki, but that ship was lost on the night of 25-26 October with the loss of all hands.
The cruiser Chokai was hit by 500lb bombs at around 9.05am. The bombs caused heavy fires and damaged the forward engine room. The cruiser came to a halt, and couldn't be rescued. At around 10.30 the crippled cruiser was sunk by a spread of torpedoes from the destroyer Fujinami.
By this time Kurita was rather losing his grip on the battle. The Yamato was some way behind his cruisers and visibility was poor. He wasn't aware of the damage to three of his cruisers, and had lost sight of the carriers. At 9.11, believing that he had won a major victory over a squadron of fleet carriers, Kurita ordered his surviving ships to withdraw from the battle.
At about 10.50 the cruiser Suzuya suffered a near miss that detonated the torpedoes in the starboard forward torpedo tubes. This set off a fire made worse when more of her torpedoes exploded at around 11.00. Damage control measures failed and at about 12 noon a series of ammunition explosions began. The ship was abandoned at 1pm and sank twenty minutes later.
Taffy 3's ordeal wasn't yet over. At 10.50, just as the Suzuya was being attacked, nine kamikaze aircraft attacked the task group, in one of the first organised suicide attacks of the war. Most were destroyed or missed, but one hit the escort carrier St Lô, triggering explosions that sank her. A second kamikaze attack twenty minutes later did more damage but failed to sink anything.
It took Kurita about two hours to regroup. He then turned south with his remaining fifteen ships in an attempt to reach Leyte Gulf, the original target of his operation. At 11.40 one of his lookouts reported sighting a battleship and destroyers. The fleet turned aside to chase this phantom before turning south again. At around 12.30, when only forty five miles from Leyte Gulf, Kurita decided that it wasn't worth risking the destruction of his fleet just to sink empty transport ships. He had also received reports that an American carrier task force had been sighted 113 miles north of the gulf, and he now decided to turn north to deal with this
In fact Halsey's carriers were still far to the north. All morning he had been receiving urgent calls for help, but had refused to turn back. In the resulting battle of Cape Engano Halsey sank all four of Ozawa's carriers. At around 11 he ordered one of his carrier groups to turn south, and his fourth carrier group, which was some way to the east, was also directed towards Kurita. This fourth task group was first to come into range and during the afternoon it launched two attacks on Kurita's fleet. After spending all afternoon looking for the American carriers Kurita retired to the eastern end of the San Bernardino Strait at 6pm. He was under orders to wait for dark and try and fight a night battle, but at 9.25, with fuel short, he decided to retreat west through the straits. He would suffer further air attack on 26 October, but the main fighting in Leyte Gulf was over.
Kurita has since been blamed for his decisions to withdraw from combat at 9.11 and to turn back from Leyte Gulf at 12.30. Both can be defended using the information available to Kurita at the time, but he later believed the second decision to have been a mistake. If Kurita had advanced into Leyte Gulf then his fleet would almost certainly have been destroyed - if not by Kinkaid's escort carriers and old battleships then by the 3rd Fleet. All he could have achieved was the destruction of empty transport ships, and perhaps a damaging bombardment of the US troops on Leyte, but neither would have altered the eventual course of the fighting in the Philippines.
http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_samar.html... More
Memories
Commander of Task Group 77.4 and Task Unit 77.4.1.
Other Memories
After serving staff duty from January to June 1943, Sprague commissioned the USS Intrepid (CV-11) in August, and commanded the aircraft carrier in raids against the Truk and Marshall Islands during the first two months of 1944.
The fourth USS Intrepid (CV/CVA/CVS-11) is an Essex-class aircraft carrier of the United States Navy. Intrepid participated in the Pacific Theater of Operations of World War II, most notably the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Later she recovered spacecraft of the Mercury and Gemini programs and served in the Vietnam War. Since 1982, Intrepid has been a museum ship in New York City called the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum. Because of her prominent role in battle, she was nicknamed "the Fighting I", while her often ill luck earned her the nickname "the Evil I".
Launch and commissioning The USS Intrepid was launched on April 26, 1943 by Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co., Newport News, Virginia, the third Essex-class aircraft carrier to be launched. She was sponsored by the wife of Vice Admiral John H. Hoover. On August 16, 1943 she was commissioned with Captain Thomas L. Sprague in command before heading to the Caribbean for shake-down and training. The Intrepid's motto upon setting sail was "In Mare In Caelo", which means "In the Sea In Heaven".
World War II The Intrepid has one of the most distinguished service records of any Navy ship, seeing active service in the Pacific Theatre including the Marshall Islands, Truk, Leyte Gulf, and Okinawa. At war's end, she was in Enewetak and soon supported occupation forces providing air support and supply services before heading back to California.
Marshalls, January. ? February. 1944 3 December 1943: Intrepid sailed from Naval Station Norfolk for San Francisco, then to Hawaii. 10 January: She arrived at Pearl Harbor and prepared for the invasion of the Marshall Islands, the next objective in the Navy's massive island-hopping campaign. 16 January: She left Pearl Harbor with carriers Cabot and Essex. 29 January - 2 February 1944: She raided islands at the northeastern corner of Kwajalein Atoll and pressed the attack until the last opposition had vanished. 31 January: By then the raids destroyed all of the 83 Japanese aircraft based on Roi-Namur. The first landings were made on adjacent islets. That morning Intrepid's aircraft strafed Ennuebing Island until 10 minutes before the first marines reached the beaches. Half an hour later that islet, which protected Roi's southwestern flank and controlled the North Pass into Kwajalein Lagoon, was secured, enabling marines to set up artillery to support their assault on Roi. 2 February 1944: Her work in the capture of the Marshall Islands was now finished. Intrepid headed for Truk, the tough Japanese base in the center of Micronesia. 17 February: Three fast carrier groups arrived undetected at daybreak. 17 February 1944: That night an aerial torpedo struck Intrepid's starboard quarter, 15 feet below her waterline, flooding several compartments and jamming her rudder hard to port. By running her port engines and stopping her starboard engines, Captain Sprague kept her on course. 17 February?18 February: The 3 carrier groups sank two Japanese destroyers and 200,000 tons of merchant shipping in 2 days of almost continuous attacks in Operation Hailstone. The carrier raid demonstrated Truk's vulnerability and thereby greatly curtailed its usefulness to the Japanese as a base. 19 February: Strong winds swung her back and forth and tended to weathercock her with her bow pointed toward Tokyo. Sprague later confessed: "Right then I wasn't interested in going in that direction." At this point the crew made a jury-rig sail of hatch covers and scrap canvas which swung Intrepid about and held her on course. 24 February 1944: Decorated by her crazy-quilt sail, Intrepid reached Pearl Harbor. 16 March: After temporary repairs, Intrepid sailed for the West Coast. 22 March: She arrived at Hunter's Point, California.
June 1944: She was back in fighting trim and departed for 2 months of operations out of Pearl Harbor, then to the Marshalls.
Palaus and Philippines, September - November. 1944 6 September and 7 September 1944: Intrepid's aircraft struck Japanese positions in the Palaus concentrating on airfields and artillery emplacements on Peleliu. 8 September: Her fast carrier task force steamed west toward the southern Philippines. 9 September and 10 September: She struck airfields on Mindanao. 12 through 14 September: She raided bases in the Visayan Sea. 17 September: She returned to the Palaus to support marines in overcoming opposition from hillside caves and mangrove swamps on Peleliu. When the struggle settled down to rooting Japanese defenders out of the ground man-to-man, Intrepid steamed back to the Philippines to prepare the way for liberation. She struck throughout the Philippines, also pounding Okinawa and Formosa to neutralize Japanese air threats to Leyte. 20 October 1944: Intrepid's aircraft flew missions in support of the Leyte landings. Japan's Navy, desperately striving to hold the Philippines, was converging on Leyte Gulf from three directions. 23 October to 26 October 1944: Ships of the U.S. Navy parried thrusts in four major actions collectively known as the Battle of Leyte Gulf. 24 October morning: An Intrepid aircraft spotted Admiral Takeo Kurita's flagship, Yamato. Two hours later, aircraft from Intrepid and Cabot braved intense antiaircraft fire to begin a day-long attack on Center Force. Wave after wave followed until by sunset American carrier-based aircraft had sunk mighty battleship Musashi with her 460 mm (18.1 inch) guns and had damaged her sister ship Yamato along with battleships Nagato and Haruna and heavy cruiser Myōkō forcing the Myōkō to withdraw. That night Admiral William Halsey's 3rd Fleet raced north to intercept Japan's Northern Force which had been spotted of the northeastern tip of Luzon. At daybreak aircraft took off to attack the Japanese ships then off Cape Engaño. One of Intrepid's aircraft got a bomb into light carrier Zuihō. Then American bombers sank her sister ship Chitose, and an aircraft from either Intrepid or San Jacinto scored with a torpedo in large carrier Zuikaku knocking out her communications and hampering her steering. Destroyer Ayitsuki sank and at least 9 of Ozawa's 15 aircraft were shot down. On through the day the attack continued and, after five more strikes, Japan had lost four carriers and a destroyer. The still potent Center Force, after pushing through San Bernardino Strait, had steamed south along the coast of Samar where it was held at bay by a small escort carrier group of six "baby flattops", three destroyers, and four destroyer escorts until help arrived and it went back towards Japan. As Intrepid's aircraft hit Clark Field 30 October a burning kamikaze crashed into one of the carrier's port gun tubs killing 10 men and wounding 6. Soon skillful damage control work enabled the flattop to resume flight operations. Intrepid's aircraft continued to hit airfields and shipping in the Philippines. 25 November shortly after noon: A heavy force of Japanese aircraft struck back at the carriers. Within 5 minutes 2 kamikazes crashed into the carrier killing 6 officers and 5 crew. (Actual report from Air Group 18 states "sixty were dead, fifteen missing, and about one hundred wounded." Intrepid never lost propulsion nor left her station in the task group; and in less than 2 hours, had extinguished the last blaze. 26 November: Intrepid headed for San Francisco. 20 December: She arrived there for repairs.
Okinawa and Japan, March - April 1945 Mid February 1945: Back in fighting trim, the carrier steamed for Ulithi. 13 March She arrived at Ulithi. 14 March 1945: She set off eastward. 18 March: She made powerful strikes against airfields on Kyūshū. That morning a twin-engined Japanese G4M "Betty" broke through a curtain of defensive fire turned toward Intrepid and exploded only 50 feet (15 m) off Intrepid's forward boat crane. A shower of flaming gasoline and aircraft parts started fires on the hangar deck, but damage control teams quickly put them out. Intrepid's aircraft joined attacks on remnants of the Japanese fleet anchored at Kure damaging 18 enemy naval vessels including super battleship Yamato and carrier Amagi.
The carriers turned to Okinawa as L-Day, the start of the most ambitious amphibious assault of the Pacific war, approached. 26 March and 27 March: Their aircraft attacked the Ryūkyūs, softening up enemy defensive works.
1 April 1945: The invasion began 1 April. They flew support missions against targets on Okinawa and made neutralizing raids against Japanese airfields in range of the island.
16 April: During an air raid, a Japanese aircraft dived into Intrepid's flight deck forcing the engine and part of her fuselage right on through, killing 8 men and wounding 21. In less than an hour the flaming gasoline had been extinguished, and only 3 hours after the crash, aircraft were again landing on the carrier.
17 April: Intrepid retired homeward via Ulithi and Pearl Harbor. 19 May: She arrived at San Francisco for repairs. 29 June: Intrepid left San Francisco. 6 August: In passing, her aircraft smashed Japanese on bypassed Wake Island. 7 August: She arrived at Eniwetok. 15 August: At Eniwetok she received word to "cease offensive operations." 21 August: The veteran carrier got under way to support the occupation of Japan. 2 December: She departed Yokosuka. 15 December 1945. She arrived San Pedro, California, .
Post-war service 4 February 1948: Intrepid shifted to San Francisco Bay. 15 August: Her status was reduced to "in commission in reserve". 22 March 1947(?): She was decommissioned and joined the Pacific Reserve Fleet. 9 February 1952: Intrepid recommissioned at San Francisco. 12 March 1952: She got underway for Norfolk. 9 April 1952: She decommissioned in the Norfolk Naval Shipyard for conversion to a modern attack aircraft carrier. 1 October: She was reclassified CVA-11. 18 June 1954: She recommissioned in reserve. 13 October 1954: She became the first American carrier to launch aircraft with steam catapults. 15 October 1954: She went into full commission as a unit of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet.
1955 - 1961 1955: Shakedown out of Guantánamo Bay 28 May 1955: Intrepid departed Mayport, Florida, for the first of two deployments in the Mediterranean with the 6th Fleet. 5 September 1956: She returned to Norfolk from the second of these cruises. 29 September She got under way for a 7-month modernization overhaul in the New York Navy Yard, followed by refresher training out of Guantánamo Bay. September 1957: Now she had a reinforced angled flight deck and a mirror landing system. Intrepid departed the United States for NATO's Operation Strikeback, the largest peacetime naval exercise up to that time in history. December 1957: Operating out of Norfolk in December she conducted Operation Crosswind, a study of the effects of wind on carrier launches. Intrepid proved that carriers can safely conduct flight operations without turning into the wind and even launch aircraft while steaming downwind. 1958 - 1961:Intrepid alternated Mediterranean deployments with operations along the Atlantic coast of the United States and exercises in the Caribbean.
1962 - 1965 December 8, 1961: She was reclassified to an anti-submarine warfare carrier, CVS-11. March 10, 1962: She entered the Norfolk Navy Yard to be overhauled and refitted for her new antisubmarine warfare role. 2 April 1962: She left the shipyard carrying Air Antisubmarine Group 56. After training exercises, Intrepid was selected as the principal ship in the recovery team for astronaut Scott Carpenter and his Project Mercury space capsule. May 24, 1962, shortly before noon: Carpenter splashed down in Aurora 7 several hundred miles from Intrepid. Minutes after he was located by land-based search aircraft, two helicopters from Intrepid, carrying NASA officials, medical experts, Navy frogmen, and photographers, were airborne and headed to the rescue. One of the choppers picked him up over an hour later and flew him to the carrier which safely returned him to the United States. 1962 summer: Training midshipmen at sea. 1962 autumn: A thorough overhaul at Norfolk. January 23, 1963: The carrier departed Hampton Roads for warfare exercises in the Caribbean. Late February 1963: She interrupted these operations to join a sea hunt for the Venezuelan freighter Anzoátegui, whose mutinous second mate had led a group of pro-Castro terrorists in hijacking the vessel. The Communist pirates had surrendered at Rio de Janeiro. March 23, 1963: The carrier returned to Norfolk. Intrepid operated along the Atlantic Coast for the next year from Nova Scotia to the Caribbean perfecting her antisubmarine techniques. June 11, 1964: She left Norfolk carrying midshipmen to the Mediterranean for a hunter-killer at sea training with the 6th Fleet. While in the Mediterranean, Intrepid aided in the surveillance of a Soviet task group. En route home her crew learned that she had won the coveted Battle Efficiency "E" for antisubmarine warfare during the previous fiscal year. 1964 autumn: Intrepid operated along the East Coast. Early September 1964: She entertained 22 NATO statesmen as part of their tour of U.S. military installations. October 18?October 19, 1964: She was at Yorktown for ceremonies commemorating Lord Cornwallis's surrender 183 years before. The French Ambassador attended the ceremony and presented the U.S. with 12 canon cast from molds found in the Bastille, replicas of those brought to our forces by Lafayette. In exchange, the U.S. gave France 12 new F-8 Crusader aircraft. Night of November 21, 1964: During a brief deployment off North Carolina, swift and efficient rescue procedures saved the life of an airman who fell overboard while driving an aircraft towing tractor. Early 1965: Intrepid began preparations for a vital role in NASA's first manned Gemini flight, Gemini 3. March 23, 1965: Lt. Comdr. John Young and Maj. Gus Grissom in Molly Brown splashed down some 50 nautical miles from Intrepid after history's first controlled re-entry into the earth's atmosphere ended the pair's nearly perfect three-orbit flight. A Navy helicopter lifted the astronauts from the spacecraft and flew them to Intrepid for medical examination and debriefing. Later Intrepid retrieved Molly Brown and returned the spaceship and astronauts to Cape Kennedy. After this mission Intrepid entered the Brooklyn Navy Yard in April for a major overhaul to bring her back to peak combat readiness. The shipyard had already been closed and the work force transferred to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. In fairness, it should be noted that for political reasons, Sen. Robert Kennedy had Intrepid sent to Brooklyn, instead of her home yard of Norfolk, for the overhaul. This caused severe dislocation problems for the families of the crew after many long sea periods. however the yard workers profited for they were then paid per diem rates for working away from Philadelphia and living at home in Brooklyn.
1965 - 1974 This was the final Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization (FRAM) job performed by the New York Naval Shipyard, Brooklyn, New York, which was slated to close after more than a century and a half of service to the nation.
September 1965: Intrepid, with her work approximately 75 percent completed, eased down the East River to moor at the Naval Supply Depot at Bayonne, New Jersey, for the completion of her multi-million dollar overhaul. After builder's sea trials and fitting out at Norfolk she sailed to Guantánamo on shakedown.
Mid-1966 found Intrepid with the Pacific Fleet off Vietnam. Nine A-4 Skyhawks and six A-l 'Skyraiders, loaded with bombs and rockets, were catapulted in 7 minutes, with only a 28-second interval between launches. A few days later planes were launched at 26-second Intervals. After 7 months of service with the 7th Fleet off Vietnam, Intrepid returned to Norfolk having earned her Commanding Officer, Captain John W. Fair, the Legion of Merit for combat operations in Southeast Asia.
In June 1967, Intrepid returned to the Western Pacific by way of the Suez Canal just prior to its closing during the Israeli-Arab crisis. There she began another tour with the 7th Fleet.
In 1968 she won the Marjorie Sterrett Battleship Fund Award for the Atlantic Fleet.
mid-1970: Intrepid was home ported at Quonset Point, Rhode Island, relieving Yorktown (CV-10) as the flagship for Commander Carrier Division 16. In fall 1970 the ship was run aground by Captain Horus E. Moore. Between June of 1972, and June of the following year, Intrepid took part in NATO exercises, and made several stops in North Atlantic area ports, including Bergen, Norway; Copenhagen, Denmark; Holy Loch, Scotland; Portsmouth, England and Rotterdam, Holland. She subsequently returned to her homeport to be refitted and then made her final cruise in the Meditterrean, stopping in Barcelona and Malaga Spain; Lisbon, Portugal; Nice, France; Naples, Italy; Palma, Mallorca; and Piraeus, Greece.
15 March 1974: Intrepid was decommissioned for the final time.
After her final decommissioning Following her decommissioning, Intrepid was destined to be scrapped, but a campaign led by real estate developer Zachary Fisher and the Intrepid Museum Foundation saved the carrier, and established it as a museum ship. In August 1982, the ship opened in New York City as the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum. Four years later Intrepid was officially designated as a National Historic Landmark.
Over the years, Intrepid has hosted many special events. On July 4, 1993, Intrepid was the site of the World Wrestling Federation's Yokozuna Bodyslam Challenge. She also annually takes part in New York City's Fleet Week, which celebrates the service of the world's naval forces. In addition to its function as a museum ship, the Intrepid serves as an emergency operations center for city and federal authorities if the need arises. The FBI used it as an operations center after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.[2]
Renovation and restoration In early July 2006, it was announced that the Intrepid will undergo renovations and repairs, along with Pier 86 itself. It closed on October 1, 2006, in preparation for its towing to Bayonne, New Jersey for repairs, and later Staten Island, New York for renovation and temporary docking.[3][4]
On November 6, 2006, an attempt to remove the aircraft carrier from the pier for restoration was temporarily put on hold by the Coast Guard. Despite the use of several tugs with a combined 30,000 horsepower, officials said the ship was stuck in 24 years worth of accumulated silt and would not move.
On November 11, 2006 the United States Navy announced that it would spend $3 million to dredge the mud and silt from under the Intrepid. The effort was led by the United States Navy Supervisor of Salvage and Diving with assistance from the United States Army Corps of Engineers, United States Coast Guard, and contractors. The teams operated for three weeks to clear the site of mud and silt.
Throughout the last several years, the Intrepid museum has operated a fund for the restoration, raising over $60 million to refit the Intrepid, to improve its exhibits for visitors, and improve Pier 86.
On December 5, 2006, after the removal of 39,000 cubic yards of muck from under the ship and around its four giant screws, Intrepid was successfully removed from its pier and was towed to Bayonne.[1] The Intrepid is scheduled to return to Pier 86 in November of 2008.
Description In the Pacific Theater of World War II, the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign, from November 1943 through February 1944, were key strategic operations of the United States Pacific Fleet and MarineIn the Pacific Theater of World War II, the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign, from November 1943 through February 1944, were key strategic operations of the United States Pacific Fleet and Marine Corps in the Central Pacific. The purpose was to establish airfields that would allow land based air support for the upcoming operations across the Central Pacific. The campaign began with a costly three-day battle for the island of Betio at the Tarawa atoll. The campaign was preceded a year earlier by a diversionary raid on Makin Island by U.S. Marines in August, 1942.
About 4,000 kilometers southwest of the Hawaii Islands, the Marshall Islands represented part of the perimeter of the Japanese Pacific empire. The former German colony was given to Japan after the closure of WW1, and had since been an important part of both offensive and defensive plans of the Japanese Navy. By the end of 1943, Admiral Mineichi Koga of the Japanese Combined Fleet knew the Americans were eyeing the islands, but he could not figure out where they would strike. His difficulties were further complicated by the lack of carrier aircraft, as they were taken away from him in an attempt to reinforce land-based squadrons. With his hands tied, all Koga could do was to send his submarines out as forward observers and order the regional commander in Truk Admiral Masashi Kobayashi to reinforce the island garrisons that were most exposed to American attacks. Kobayashi shifted men to the outer islands of Jaluit, Mili, Wotje, and Maloelap. In total, Kobayashi had 28,000 troops available to him in the Marshall Islands. For a garrison that size ground fortifications were sub-par, but that was rather by design at this stage of the war, for that Tokyo had since decided that the Marshall Islands were to serve only as a part of a delay action campaign. The new defensive perimeter was to be established much closer to the home islands.
American intelligence decoded Japanese messages and detected movements for the outer islands, and decided to change the invasion plans. Unbeknownst to the Japanese, the Americans were now bypassing the reinforced outer islands; they were now directly attacking Kwajalein and Eniwetok.... More
Memories Sprague commissioned the USS Intrepid (CV-11) in August, and commanded the aircraft carrier in raidsSprague commissioned the USS Intrepid (CV-11) in August, and commanded the aircraft carrier in raids against the Marshall Islands in early 1944.... More
Description Operation Hailstone was a massive naval air and surface attack launched on February 16–17, 1944, during World War II by the United States Navy against the Japanese naval and air base at Truk in the CaOperation Hailstone was a massive naval air and surface attack launched on February 16–17, 1944, during World War II by the United States Navy against the Japanese naval and air base at Truk in the Caroline Islands, a pre-war Japanese territory.
The U.S. attack involved a combination of airstrikes, surface ship actions, and submarine attacks over two days and appeared to take the Japanese completely by surprise. Several daylight, along with nighttime, airstrikes employed fighters, dive bombers, and torpedo aircraft in attacks on Japanese airfields, aircraft, shore installations, and ships in and around the Truk anchorage. A force of U.S. surface ships and submarines guarded possible exit routes from the island's anchorage to attack any Japanese ships that tried to escape from the airstrikes.
In total the attack sank three Japanese light cruisers (Agano, Katori, and Naka), four destroyers (Oite, Fumizuki, Maikaze, and Tachikaze), three auxiliary cruisers (Akagi Maru, Aikoku Maru, Kiyosumi Maru), two submarine tenders (Heian Maru, Rio de Janeiro Maru), three other smaller warships (including submarine chasers CH-24 and Shonan Maru 15), aircraft transport Fujikawa Maru, and 32 merchant ships. Some of the ships were destroyed in the anchorage and some in the area surrounding Truk lagoon. Many of the merchant ships were loaded with reinforcements and supplies for Japanese garrisons in the central Pacific area. Very few of the troops aboard the sunken ships survived and little of their cargoes were recovered.
Maikaze, along with several support ships, was sunk by U.S. surface ships while trying to escape from the Truk anchorage. On 17 February 1944, while evacuating convoys to Yokosuka from Truk following Allied attack on Truk, Maikaze, the cruiser Katori, and the auxiliary cruiser Akagi Maru were sunk by gunfire from the cruisers Minneapolis, New Orleans, and the battleship New Jersey 40 miles (64 km) northwest of Truk. Maikaze herself was sunk with all hands on board. The survivors of the sunken Japanese ships reportedly refused rescue efforts by the U.S. ships.
The cruiser Agano, a veteran of the Raid on Rabaul and which was already en route to Japan when the attack began, was sunk by a U.S. submarine, Skate. Oite rescued 523 survivors from Agano and returned to Truk lagoon to assist in its defense with her anti-aircraft guns. She was sunk soon after by air attack with the Agano survivors still on board, killing all of them and all but 20 of Oite's crew.
Over 250 Japanese aircraft were destroyed, mostly on the ground. Many of the aircraft were in various states of assembly, having just arrived from Japan in disassembled form aboard cargo ships. Very few of the assembled aircraft were able to take off in response to the U.S. attack. Several Japanese aircraft that did take off were claimed destroyed by U.S. fighters or gunners on the U.S. bombers and torpedo planes.
The U.S. lost twenty-five aircraft, mainly due to the intense anti-aircraft fire from Truk's defenses. About 16 U.S. aircrew were rescued by submarine or amphibious aircraft (several Japanese, whose crew took them prisoner). A nighttime torpedo attack by a Japanese aircraft from either Rabaul or Saipan damaged Intrepid and killed 11 of her crew, forcing her to return to Pearl Harbor and later, San Francisco for repairs. She returned to duty in June, 1944. Another Japanese air attack slightly damaged the battleship Iowa with a bomb hit.
An aerial view of the airstrike at Truk can be seen in the U.S. Navy film The Fighting Lady.
One well-known pilot, U.S. Marine Corps ace Gregory "Pappy" Boyington, survived this raid while being held prisoner on Truk, after being captured at Rabaul.
Aftermath
The attacks for the most part ended Truk as a major threat to Allied operations in the central Pacific; the Japanese garrison on Eniwetok was denied any realistic hope of reinforcement and support during the invasion that began on February 18, 1944, greatly assisting U.S. forces in their conquest of that island.
The Japanese later relocated about 100 of their remaining aircraft from Rabaul to Truk. These aircraft were attacked by U.S. carrier forces in another attack on April 29–30, 1944 which destroyed most of them. The U.S. aircraft dropped 92 bombs over a 29-minute period to destroy the Japanese planes. The April 1944 strikes found no shipping in Truk lagoon and were the last major attacks on Truk during the war.
Truk was isolated by Allied (primarily U.S.) forces as they continued their advance towards Japan by invading other Pacific islands such as Guam, Saipan, Palau, and Iwo Jima. Cut off, the Japanese forces on Truk, like on other central Pacific islands, ran low on food and faced starvation before Japan surrendered in August 1945.... More
Memories Sprague commissioned the USS Intrepid (CV-11) in August 1943, and commanded the aircraft carrier in Sprague commissioned the USS Intrepid (CV-11) in August 1943, and commanded the aircraft carrier in raids against Truk in early 1944.... More
Criteria The Bronze Star Medal may be awarded to individuals who, while serving in any capacity with the Armed Forces of the United States in a combat theater, distinguish themselves by heroism, outstanding ac... The Bronze Star Medal may be awarded to individuals who, while serving in any capacity with the Armed Forces of the United States in a combat theater, distinguish themselves by heroism, outstanding achievement, or by meritorious service not involving aerial flight. MoreHide
Criteria The Combat Action Ribbon is a personal decoration awarded to members of the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard (when operating under the control of the Navy) in the grade of captain (or colonel in th... The Combat Action Ribbon is a personal decoration awarded to members of the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard (when operating under the control of the Navy) in the grade of captain (or colonel in the Marine Corps) and below who have actively participated in ground or surface combat. MoreHide
Criteria The Presidential Unit Citation may be awarded to units of the Armed Forces of the United States and cobelligerent nations for extraordinary heroism in action against an armed enemy occurring on or aft... The Presidential Unit Citation may be awarded to units of the Armed Forces of the United States and cobelligerent nations for extraordinary heroism in action against an armed enemy occurring on or after December 7, 1941. MoreHide
Criteria The American Campaign Medal was awarded for For thirty days service outside the Continental United States but within the American Theater of Operations between December 7, 1941, and March 2, 1946; or,... The American Campaign Medal was awarded for For thirty days service outside the Continental United States but within the American Theater of Operations between December 7, 1941, and March 2, 1946; or, an aggregate service of one year within the Continental United States during the same period under the following circumstances: On permanent assignment outside the continental limits of the United States; or, On permanent assignment as a member of a crew of a vessel sailing ocean waters for a period of 30 consecutive days or 60 non-consecutive days; or, For service outside the continental limits of the United States in a passenger status or on temporary duty for 30 consecutive days or 60 non consecutive days; or, For service in active combat against the enemy and awarded a combat decoration or furnished a certificate by the commanding general of a corps, higher unit, or independent force that the individual actually participated in combat; or, For service within the continental limits of the United States for an aggregate period of one year. MoreHide
Other Memories
Sprague helped commission the escort carrier USS Charger (CVE-30) and commanded the vessel during training missions in the Chesapeake from February to December 1942.
The USS Charger (CVE-30) (originally AVG-4, then AVG-30, then later ACV-30) was launched 1 March 1941 by Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Co., Chester, Pennsylvania; as Rio de la Plata; sponsored by Mrs. F. Espil; commissioned as HMS Charger (D27), Captain George Abel-Smith, RN, in command; transferred to the U.S. Navy 4 October 1941, reclassified AVG-30, 24 January 1942; commissioned 3 March 1942, Captain T. L. Sprague in command; and reported to the Atlantic Fleet.
Listed by the US Navy as the sole ship of the 'Charger Type of 1942 (Class)', it actually had several sister ships in the HMS Avenger, HMS Biter, and HMS Dasher, all with similar construction histories and transferred to the Royal Navy under Lend-Lease.
Charger's area of operations throughout the war was Chesapeake Bay, and her duty the basic task of training pilots and ships' crews in carrier operations. Men trained on her decks played an important role in the successful contest for the Atlantic with hostile submarines carried out by the escort carrier groups. Reclassified ACV-30 on 20 August 1942, and CVE-30 on 15 July 1943, Charger left Chesapeake Bay for two ferry voyages, one to Bermuda in October 1942, and one to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in September 1945.
Charger was decommissioned at New York 15 March 1946, and sold into merchant service 30 January 1947 as Fairsea. The ship was disabled by an engine fire 29 January 1969 and due to a lack of spare parts was sold for scrap in Italy in 1969.
Criteria The American Defense Service Medal was awarded for service in the Armed Forces between September 8, 1939, and December 7, 1941. Army members had to serve 12 months to be eligible, but Navy and Marine ... The American Defense Service Medal was awarded for service in the Armed Forces between September 8, 1939, and December 7, 1941. Army members had to serve 12 months to be eligible, but Navy and Marine Corps members were eligible based on any length of service. MoreHide
Chain of Command
Sprague served as executive officer onboard the USS Ranger (CV-4) on neutrality patrol in the Atlantic for a year.
Other Memories
The sixth USS Ranger (CV-4) was the first ship of the United States Navy to be designed and built from the keel up as an aircraft carrier. Ranger was built to be a smaller ship, closer to Langley in tonnage, and without an island; a small island was added after construction. The Yorktown class aircraft carriers which followed were over 10,000 tons larger and more capable, as were the Essex class aircraft carriers which followed them.
She was laid down 26 September 1931 by Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co., Newport News, Virginia, launched 25 February 1933, sponsored by Lou Henry Hoover (wife of the President of the United States), and commissioned at the Norfolk Navy Yard 4 June 1934, Captain Arthur L. Bristol in command.
1934-1941 Ranger conducted her first air operations off Cape Henry 6 August 1934 and departed Norfolk the 17th for a shakedown training cruise that took her to Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, and Montevideo. She returned to Norfolk 4 October for operations off the Virginia Capes until 28 March 1935, when she sailed for the Pacific. Transiting the Panama Canal on 7 April, she arrived in San Diego on the 15th. For nearly 4 years she participated in fleet problems reaching to Hawaii, and in western seaboard operations that took her as far south as Callao, Peru, and as far north as Seattle, Washington. On 4 January 1939, she departed San Diego for winter fleet operations in the Caribbean out of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. She then steamed north to Norfolk, arriving 18 April.
Ranger cruised along the eastern seaboard out of Norfolk and into the Caribbean Sea. In the fall of 1939, she commenced Neutrality Patrol operations, operating out of Bermuda along the trade routes of the middle Atlantic and up the eastern seaboard up to NS Argentia, Newfoundland.
World War II
1942 In December 1941 She was returning to Norfolk from an ocean patrol extending to Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Arriving Norfolk 8 December, she sailed on the 21st for patrol in the South Atlantic. She then entered the Norfolk Navy Yard for repairs 22 March 1942.
Ranger served as flagship of Rear Admiral A. B. Cook, Commander, Carriers, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, until 6 April 1942, when he was relieved by Rear Adm. Ernest D. McWhorter, who also broke his flag in Ranger.
Steaming to Naval Air Station Quonset Point, Rhode Island, Ranger loaded 68 Army P-40 planes and men of the Army's 33rd Pursuit Squadron, put to sea 22 April, and launched the Army squadron 10 May to land at Accra, on the Gold Coast of Africa. She returned to Quonset Point 28 May 1942, made a patrol to Argentina, then stood out of Newport 1 July with another 72 Army P-40s, which she launched off the coast of Africa for Accra the 19th. Both groups of P-40s were enroute to relieve the Flying Tigers in China. After calling at Trinidad, she returned to Norfolk for local battle practice until 1 October, then based her training at Bermuda in company with four Sangamon-class escort aircraft carriers that had been newly converted from tankers to meet the need for naval air power in the Atlantic.
The only large carrier in the Atlantic Fleet, Ranger led the task force comprising herself and four escort carriers that provided air superiority during the amphibious invasion of Vichy French Morocco on the morning of 8 November 1942.
It was still dark at 0615 that day, when Ranger, stationed 30 miles northwest of Casablanca, began launching her aircraft to support the landings made at three points on the Atlantic coast of North Africa (Operation Torch). Nine of her F4F Wildcats attacked the Rabat and Rabat-Sale aerodromes, headquarters of the French air forces in Morocco. Without loss to themselves, they destroyed seven planes on one field, and 14 bombers on the other. Another flight destroyed seven planes on the Port Lyautey field. Some of Ranger's planes strafed four French destroyers in Casablanca harbor while others strafed and bombed nearby batteries.
The carrier launched 496 combat sorties in the 3-day operation. Her attack aircraft scored two direct bomb hits on the French destroyer leader Albatros, completely wrecking her forward half and causing 300 casualties. They also attacked French cruiser Primauguet as she sortied from Casablanca Harbor, dropped depth charges within lethal distance of two submarines, and knocked out coastal defense and anti-aircraft batteries. They destroyed more than 70 enemy planes on the ground and shot down 15 in aerial combat. But 16 planes from Ranger were lost or damaged beyond repair. It was estimated that 21 light enemy tanks were immobilized and some 86 military vehicles destroyed - most of them troop-carrying trucks.
Casablanca capitulated to the American forces 11 November 1942 and Ranger departed the Moroccan coast 12 November, returning to Norfolk, on the 23rd.
1943 Following training in Chesapeake Bay, the carrier underwent overhaul in the Norfolk Navy Yard from 16 December 1942 to 7 February 1943. She next transported 75 P-40-L Army pursuit planes to Africa, arriving Casablanca on 23 February; then patrolled and trained pilots along the New England coast steaming as far north as Halifax, Nova Scotia. Departing Halifax 11 August, she joined the British Home Fleet at Scapa Flow, Scotland, 19 August, and patrolled the approaches to the British Isles.
Ranger departed Scapa Flow with the Home Fleet 2 October to attack German shipping in Norwegian waters (Operation Leader). The objective of the force was the Norwegian port of Bodø. The task force reached launch position off Vestfjord before dawn 4 October completely undetected. At 0618, Ranger launched 20 SBD Dauntless dive bombers and an escort of eight Wildcat fighters. One division of dive bombers attacked the 8,000-ton freighter LaPlata, while the rest continued north to attack a small German convoy. They severely damaged a 10,000-ton tanker and a smaller troop transport. They also sank two of four small German merchantmen in the Bodö roadstead.
A second Ranger attack group of 10 TBF Avengers and six Wildcats destroyed a German freighter and a small coaster and bombed yet another troop-laden transport. Three Ranger planes were lost to antiaircraft fire. On the afternoon of 4 October, Ranger was finally located by three German aircraft, but her combat air patrol shot down two of the enemy planes and chased off the third.
Ranger returned to Scapa Flow 6 October 1943. She patrolled with the British Second Battle Squadron in waters reaching to Iceland, and then departed Hvalfjord on 26 November, arriving Boston 4 December.
1944 On 3 January 1944, she became a training carrier out of Quonset Point, Rhode Island. This duty was interrupted 20 April when she arrived at Staten Island, New York, to load 76 P-38 Lightning fighter planes together with Army, Navy, and French Naval personnel for transport to Casablanca. Sailing 24 April, she arrived Casablanca 4 May. There she onloaded Army aircraft destined for stateside repairs and embarked military passengers for the return to New York.
Prior to her returning to the States, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Ernest J. King looked very seriously at having Ranger lengthened and given new engines during her overhaul. As Ranger was designed in the late 1920s, she was smaller and slower than the rest of the US carrier fleet and could not carry as many aircraft. In addition her ammunition storage capability was far smaller than the other carriers, and she was not as well armored as the others, which would have been a serious problem had she been needed in the Pacific. King favored having the conversion done, but his staff pointed out that the resources needed to accomplish it would delay the completion and repair of newer, larger and more capable carriers. King therefore dropped the project.
Touching at New York 16 May, Ranger then entered the Norfolk Navy Yard to have her flight deck strengthened and for installation of a new type catapult, radar, and associated gear that provided her with a capacity for night fighter interceptor training. On 11 July 1944 she departed Norfolk transited the Panama Canal 5 days later, and embarked several hundred Army passengers at Balboa for transportation to San Diego, arriving there 25 July.
After embarking the men and aircraft of Night Fighting Squadron 102 and nearly a thousand marines, she sailed for Hawaiian waters 28 July, reaching Pearl Harbor 3 August. During the next 3 months she conducted night carrier training operations out of Pearl Harbor.
Ranger departed Pearl Harbor 18 October to train pilots for combat duty. Operating out of San Diego under Commander, Fleet Air, Alameda, she continued training air groups and squadrons along the California coast throughout the remainder of the war. Ranger was the only carrier in existence prior to the start of the war which never engaged the Japanese in battle.
Final operations Departing San Diego 30 September 1945, she embarked civilian and military passengers at Balboa and then steamed for New Orleans, Louisiana, arriving 18 October. Following Navy Day celebrations there, she sailed 30 October for brief operations at Pensacola, Florida. After calling at Norfolk, she entered the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard 18 November for overhaul. She remained on the eastern seaboard until decommissioned at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard 18 October 1946. Struck from the Naval Vessel Register 29 October 1946, she was sold for scrap to Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, Chester, Pennsylvania, 28 January 1947.
Ranger received two battle stars for World War II service.
Other Memories
The fifth USS Saratoga (CV-3) was the second aircraft carrier of the United States Navy. She was commissioned one month earlier than her sister and class leader, USS Lexington which is the third actually commissioned after USS Langley and Saratoga. As Saratoga was visually identical to Lexington, her funnel was painted with a large black vertical stripe to assist pilots in recognizing her. This identifying mark earned her the nickname "Stripe-Stacked Sara."
She was laid down on 25 September 1920, as the Lexington class Battle Cruiser #3 by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation, a division of the American Brown-Boveri Electric Corporation at Camden, New Jersey; construction cancelled and re-ordered as an aircraft carrier and reclassified CV-3 on 1 July 1922, in accordance with the Washington Naval Treaty limiting naval armaments; launched on 7 April 1925; sponsored by Mrs. Curtis D. Wilbur, wife of the Secretary of the Navy; and commissioned on 16 November 1927, Captain Harry E. Yarnell in command.
1928 - 1940 Saratoga, the first fast carrier in the Navy, quickly proved the value of her type. She sailed from Philadelphia on 6 January 1928, for shakedown, and on 11 January, her air officer, the future World War II hero, Marc A. Mitscher, landed the first aircraft on board. In an experiment on 27 January, the rigid airship Los Angeles moored to Saratoga's stern and took on fuel and stores. The same day, Saratoga sailed for the Pacific via the Panama Canal. She was diverted briefly between 14 February and 16 February to carry Marines to Corinto, Nicaragua, and finally joined the Battle Fleet at San Pedro, California, on 21 February. The rest of the year was spent in training and final machinery shakedown.
On 15 January 1929, Saratoga sailed from San Diego with the Battle Fleet to participate in her first fleet exercise, Fleet Problem IX. In a daring move, Saratoga was detached from the fleet with only a single cruiser as escort to make a wide sweep to the south and "attack" the Panama Canal, which was defended by the Scouting Fleet and Saratoga's sister ship, Lexington. She successfully launched her strike on 26 January and, despite being "sunk" three times later in the day, proved the versatility of a carrier-based fast task force. The idea was incorporated into fleet doctrine and reused the following year in Fleet Problem X in the Caribbean. This time, however, Saratoga and the carrier Langley, were "disabled" by a surprise attack from Lexington, showing how quickly air power could swing the balance in a naval action.
Following the fleet concentration in the Caribbean, Saratoga took part in the Presidential Review at Norfolk, Virginia, in May and returned to San Pedro on 21 June 1930.
During the remaining decade before World War II, Saratoga exercised in the San Diego-San Pedro area, except for the annual fleet problems and regular overhauls at the Bremerton Navy Yard. In the fleet problems, Saratoga continued to assist in the development of fast carrier tactics, and her importance was recognized by the fact that she was always a high priority target for the opposing forces. The fleet problem for 1932 was planned for Hawaii and, by coincidence, occurred during the peak of the furor following the "Manchurian incident," in which Japan started on the road to World War II. Saratoga exercised in the Hawaii area from 31 January to 19 March and returned to Hawaii for fleet exercises the following year between 23 January and 28 February 1933. On the return trip to the West Coast, she launched a successful air "attack" on the Long Beach area.
Exercises in 1934 took Saratoga to the Caribbean and the Atlantic for an extended period, from 9 April to 9 November, and were followed by equally extensive operations with the United States Fleet in the Pacific the following year. Between 27 April and 6 June 1936, she participated in a fleet problem in the Panama Canal Zone, and she then returned with the fleet to Hawaii for exercises from 16 April to 28 May 1937. On 15 March 1938, Saratoga sailed from San Diego for Fleet Problem XIX, again conducted off Hawaii. During the second phase of the problem, Saratoga launched a surprise air attack on Pearl Harbor from a point 100 miles off Oahu, setting a pattern that the Japanese copied in December 1941. During the return to the west coast, Saratoga and Lexington followed this feat with "strikes" on Mare Island and Alameda. Saratoga was under overhaul during the 1939 fleet concentration, but between 2 April and 21 June 1940, she participated in Fleet Problem XXI, the last to be held due to the deepening world crisis.
World War II
1941 Between 14 October and 29 October 1940, Saratoga transported a draft of military personnel from San Pedro to Hawaii, and on 6 January 1941, she entered the Bremerton Navy Yard for a long deferred modernization, including widening her flight deck forward, fitting a blister on her starboard side and additional small antiaircraft guns. Departing Bremerton on 28 April 1941, the carrier participated in a landing force exercise in May and made two trips to Hawaii between June and October as the diplomatic crisis with Japan came to a head.
When the Japanese struck at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, Saratoga was just entering San Diego after an interim drydocking at Bremerton. She hurriedly got underway the following day as the nucleus of a third carrier force (Lexington and Enterprise were already at sea), carrying Marine aircraft intended to reinforce the vulnerable garrison on Wake Island. Presence of these aircraft on board made Saratoga the logical choice for the actual relief effort. She reached Pearl Harbor on 15 December and stopped only long enough to fuel. She then rendezvoused with Tangier, which had relief troops and supplies on board, while Lexington and Enterprise provided distant cover for the operation. However, the Saratoga force was delayed by the low speed of its oiler and by a decision to refuel destroyers on 21 December. After receiving reports of Japanese carrier aircraft over the island and Japanese landings on it, the relief force was recalled on 22 December. Wake fell the next day.
1942 Saratoga continued operations in the Hawaiian Island region, but on 11 January 1942, when heading towards a rendezvous with Enterprise 500 miles south-west of Oahu, she was hit without warning by a deep-running torpedo fired by Japanese submarine I-16. Although six men were killed and three firerooms were flooded, the carrier reached Oahu under her own power. There her 8 inch guns, which were useless against aircraft, were removed for installation in shore defenses, and the carrier proceeded to the Bremerton Navy Yard for permanent repairs and installation of a modern anti-aircraft battery.
Saratoga departed Puget Sound on 22 May for San Diego. She arrived there on 25 May and was training her air group when intelligence was received of an impending Japanese assault on Midway. Due to the need to load planes and stores and to collect escorts, the carrier was unable to sail until 1 June and arrived at Pearl Harbor on the 6th, after the Battle of Midway had ended. She departed Pearl Harbor on 7 June after fueling and, on 11 June, transferred 34 aircraft to Hornet and Enterprise to replenish their depleted air groups. The three carriers then turned north to counter Japanese activity reported in the Aleutians, but the operation was canceled, and Saratoga returned to Pearl Harbor on 13 June.
Between 22 June and 29 June, Saratoga ferried Marine and Army aircraft to the garrison on Midway. On 7 July, she sailed for the southwest Pacific, and from 28 July to 30 July, she provided air cover for landing rehearsals in the Fiji Islands in preparation for landings on Guadalcanal. As flagship of Rear Admiral F. J. Fletcher, Saratoga opened the Guadalcanal assault early on 7 August when she turned into the wind to launch aircraft. She provided air cover for the landings for the next two days. On the first day, a Japanese air attack was repelled before it reached the carriers, but since further attacks were expected, the carrier force withdrew on the afternoon of 8 August towards a fueling rendezvous. As a result, it was too far away to retaliate after four Allied cruisers were sunk that night in the Battle of Savo Island. The carrier force continued to operate east of the Solomons, protecting the sea-lanes to the beachhead and awaiting a Japanese naval counterattack.
The counterattack began to materialize when a Japanese transport force was detected on 23 August, and Saratoga launched a strike against it. The aircraft were unable to find the enemy, however, and spent the night on Guadalcanal. As they were returning on board the next day, the first contact report on enemy carriers was received. Two hours later, Saratoga launched a strike which sent Japanese carrier Ryûjô to the bottom. Later in the afternoon, as an enemy strike from other carriers was detected, Saratoga hastily launched the aircraft on her deck, and these found and damaged seaplane tender Chitose. Meanwhile, due to cloud cover, Saratoga escaped detection by the Japanese aircraft, which concentrated their attack on, and damaged, Enterprise. The American force fought back fiercely and weakened enemy air strength so severely that the Japanese recalled their transports before they reached Guadalcanal.
After landing her returning aircraft at night on 24 August, Saratoga refueled on the 25th and resumed her patrols east of the Solomons. A week later, a destroyer reported torpedo wakes heading toward the carrier, but the 888-foot flattop could not turn quickly enough. A minute later, a torpedo from B1 type Japanese submarine I-26 slammed into the blister on her starboard side. The torpedo killed no one and only flooded one fireroom, but the impact caused short circuits which damaged Saratoga's turbo-electric propulsion system and left her dead in the water. Cruiser Minneapolis took the carrier under tow while she flew her aircraft off to shore bases. By early afternoon, Saratoga's engineers had improvised a circuit out of the burned wreckage of her main control board and had given her a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h).[1] After repairs at Tongatabu from 6 September to 12 September, Saratoga arrived at Pearl Harbor on 21 September for permanent repairs.
1943 Saratoga sailed from Pearl Harbor on 10 November 1942, and proceeded via Fiji to Nouméa, which she reached on 5 December 1942. She operated in the vicinity of Nouméa for the next twelve months, providing air cover for minor operations and protecting American forces in the Eastern Solomons. Between 17 May and 31 July 1943, she was reinforced by the British carrier, HMS Victorious, and on 20 October, she was joined by Princeton (CVL-23). As troops stormed ashore on Bougainville on 1 November, Saratoga's aircraft neutralized nearby Japanese airfields on Buka. Then, on 5 November, in response to reports of Japanese cruisers concentrating at Rabaul to counterattack the Allied landing forces, Saratoga conducted perhaps her most brilliant strike of the war. Her aircraft penetrated the heavily defended port and disabled most of the Japanese cruisers, ending the surface threat to Bougainville. Saratoga herself escaped unscathed and returned to raid Rabaul again on 11 November.
Saratoga and Princeton were then designated the Relief Carrier Group for the offensive in the Gilberts, and after striking Nauru on 19 November, they rendezvoused on 23 November with the transports carrying garrison troops to Makin and Tarawa. The carriers provided air cover until the transports reached their destinations and then maintained air patrols over Tarawa. By this time, Saratoga had steamed over a year without repairs, and she was detached on 30 November to return to the United States. She underwent overhaul at San Francisco from 9 December 1943 to 3 January 1944, and had her antiaircraft battery augmented for the last time, receiving 60 40 millimeter guns in place of 36 20 millimeter guns.
1944 The carrier arrived at Pearl Harbor on 7 January, and after a brief period of training, sailed from Pearl Harbor on 19 January with light carriers, Langley and Princeton, to support the drive in the Marshalls. Her aircraft struck Wotje and Taroa for three days, from 29 January to 31 January, and then pounded Engebi, the main island at Eniwetok, the 3rd to the 6th and from the 10th to the 12th of February. Her planes delivered final blows to Japanese defenses on the 16th, the day before the landings, and provided close air support and CAP over the island until 28 February.
Saratoga then took leave of the main theaters of the Pacific war for almost a year to carry out important but less spectacular assignments elsewhere. Her first task was to help the British initiate their carrier offensive in the Far East. On 4 March, Saratoga departed Majuro with an escort of three destroyers, and sailed via Espiritu Santo; Hobart, Tasmania; and Fremantle, Australia, to join the British Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean. She rendezvoused at sea on 27 March with the British force, composed of carrier HMS Illustrious, HMS Renown (flagship of Vice-Admiral second-in-command Eastern Fleet), HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Valiant with escorts, and arrived with them at Trincomalee, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), on 31 March. On 12 April, the French battleship Richelieu arrived, adding to the international flavor of the force, which also included warships from Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands. During the next two days, the carriers conducted intensive training at sea during which Saratoga's fliers tried to impart some of their experience to the British pilots.
On 16 April, the Eastern Fleet, with Saratoga, sailed from Trincomalee, and on the 19th, the aircraft from the two carriers struck the port of Sabang off the northwest tip of Sumatra (Operation Cockpit). The Japanese were caught by surprise by the new offensive ("caught with their kimonos up"), and much damage was done to port facilities and oil reserves, with minimal losses. The raid was so successful that Saratoga delayed her departure in order to carry out a second. Sailing again from Ceylon on 6 May, the force struck at Soerabaja, Java, on 17 May with equally successful results. Saratoga was detached the following day, and passed down the columns of the Eastern Fleet as the Allied ships rendered honors to and cheered each other.
Saratoga arrived at Bremerton, Washington, on 10 June 1944, for overhaul. On 24 September, she arrived at Pearl Harbor and commenced her second special assignment, training night fighter squadrons. Saratoga had experimented with night flying as early as 1931, and many carriers had been forced to land returning aircraft at night during the war, but only in August 1944 did a carrier, Independence, receive an air group specially equipped to operate at night. At the same time, Carrier Division 11, composed of Saratoga and Ranger, was commissioned at Pearl Harbor to train night pilots and develop night flying doctrine. Saratoga continued this important training duty for almost four months, but as early as October, her division commander was warned that "while employed primarily for training, Saratoga is of great value for combat and is to be kept potentially available for combat duty." The call came in January 1945. Light carriers like Independence had proved too small for safe night operations, and Saratoga was rushed out of Pearl Harbor on 29 January 1945, to form a night fighter task group with Enterprise for the Iwo Jima operation.
1945 Saratoga arrived at Ulithi on 7 February and sailed three days later with Enterprise and four other carrier task groups. After landing rehearsals with Marines at Tinian on 12 February, the carrier force carried out diversionary strikes on the Japanese home islands on the nights of 16 February and 17 February, before the landings on Iwo Jima. Saratoga was assigned to provide fighter cover while the remaining carriers launched the strikes on Japan, but in the process, her fighters raided two Japanese airfields. The force fueled on 18 February and 19 February, and on 21 February, Saratoga was detached with an escort of three destroyers to join the amphibious forces and carry out night patrols over Iwo Jima and night heckler missions over nearby Chi-chi Jima. However, as she approached her operating area at 17:00 on the 21st, an air attack developed, and taking advantage of low cloud cover and Saratoga's insufficient escort, six Japanese planes scored five hits on the carrier in three minutes. Saratoga's flight deck forward was wrecked, her starboard side was holed twice and large fires were started in her hangar deck, while she lost 123 of her crew dead or missing. Another attack at 19:00 scored an additional bomb hit. By 20:15, the fires were under control, and the carrier was able to recover aircraft, but she was ordered to Eniwetok and then to the West Coast for repairs, arriving at Bremerton on 16 March.
On 22 May, Saratoga departed Puget Sound fully repaired, and she resumed training pilots at Pearl Harbor on 3 June. She ceased training duty on 6 September after the Japanese surrender, and sailed from Hawaii on 9 September, transporting 3,712 returning naval veterans home to the United States under Operation Magic Carpet. By the end of her "Magic Carpet" service, Saratoga had brought home 29,204 Pacific war veterans, more than any other individual ship. At the time, she also held the record for the greatest number of aircraft landed on a carrier, with a lifetime total of 98,549 landings in 17 years.
Decommissioning With the arrival of large numbers of Essex-class carriers, Saratoga was surplus to postwar requirements, and she was assigned to Operation Crossroads at Bikini Atoll to test the effect of the atomic bomb on naval vessels. She survived the first blast, (Test ABLE) an air burst on 1 July, with only minor damage, but was mortally wounded by the second (Test Baker) on 25 July, an underwater blast which was detonated under LSM-60 500 yards from the carrier. Salvage efforts were prevented by radioactivity, and seven and one-half hours after the blast, with her funnel collapsed across her deck, Saratoga slipped beneath the surface of the lagoon. She was struck from the Navy List on 15 August 1946.
Saratoga received seven battle stars for her World War II service.
In recent years, the submerged wreck, the top of which is only 40 ft below the surface, has become a scuba diving destination, one of only two (the other being the USS Oriskany in the Gulf of Mexico) carrier wrecks accessible to recreational divers.
Other Memories
Sprague served with Observation Squadron 1 for two years.
USS Maryland (BB-46), a Colorado-class battleship, was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named in honor of the seventh state.
Her keel was laid down 24 April 1917 by Newport News Shipbuilding Company of Newport News, Virginia. She was launched on 20 March 1920 sponsored by Mrs. E. Brook Lee, wife of the Comptroller of the State of Maryland and commissioned on 21 July 1921 with Captain C.F. Preston in command.
With a new type of seaplane catapult and the first 16 inch (406 mm) guns mounted on a U.S. ship, Maryland was the pride of the Navy. Following an east coast shakedown she found herself in great demand for special occasions. She appeared at Annapolis, Maryland, for the 1922 United States Naval Academy graduation and at Boston, Massachusetts, for the anniversary of Battle of Bunker Hill and the Fourth of July. Between 18 August and 25 September she paid her first visit to a foreign port transporting Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes to Rio de Janeiro for Brazil's Centennial Exposition. The next year, after fleet exercises off the Panama Canal Zone. Maryland transited the canal in the latter part of June to join the battle fleet stationed on the west coast.
She made a goodwill voyage to Australia and New Zealand in 1925, and transported President-elect Herbert Hoover on the Pacific leg of his tour of Latin America in 1928. Throughout these years and the 1930s she served as a mainstay of fleet readiness through tireless training operations. In 1940 Maryland and the other battleships of the battle force changed their bases of operations to Pearl Harbor. She was present at battleship row along Ford Island during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941.
Seaman Leslie Short, addressing Christmas cards near his machine-gun, brought the first of his ship's guns into play, shooting down one of two torpedo planes that had just released against OKLAHOMA. Inboard of Oklahoma and thus protected from the initial torpedo attack, Maryland managed to bring all her antiaircraft batteries into action. Despite two bomb hits she continued to fire and, after the attack, sent firefighting parties to assist her sister ships. The Japanese announced that she had been sunk, but 30 December, battered yet sturdy, the ship entered the repair yard at Puget Sound Navy Yard.
She emerged 26 February 1942 not only repaired but modernized and ready for service. During the important Battle of Midway, the old battleships, not fast enough to accompany the carriers, operated as a backup force. Thereafter Maryland engaged in almost constant training exercises until 1 August, when she returned to Pearl Harbor.
Assigned sentinel duty along the southern supply routes to Australia and the Pacific fighting fronts, Maryland and Colorado operated out of the Fiji Islands in November and advanced to the New Hebrides in February 1943. Her return to Pearl Harbor after ten months in the heat of the South Pacific brought the installation of additional 40 mm antiaircraft protection.
In the vast amphibious campaigns of the Pacific the firepower of Maryland and her sister ships played a key role. Departing the Hawaiian Islands on 20 October for the South Pacific, Maryland became flagship for Rear Admiral Harry W. Hill's Southern Attack Force in the Gilbert Islands Invasion, with Major General Julian C. Smith, Commander, Second Marine Division, embarked. Early on 20 November her big guns commenced five days of shore bombardment and call fire assignment in support of one of the most gallant amphibious assaults in history, at Tarawa. After the island's capture, she remained in the area protecting the transports until she headed back to the United States 7 December.
Maryland steamed from San Pedro, California, on 13 January 1944, rendezvoused with TF 53 at Hawaii, and sailed in time to be in position off the well-fortified Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands on the morning of 31 January. Assigned to reduce pillboxes and blockhouses on Roi Island, the old battleship fired splendidly all day and again the following morning until the assault waves were within 500 yards of the beach. Following the operation she steamed back to Bremerton, Washington, for new guns and an overhaul.
Two months later Maryland, again readied for battle, sailed westward 5 May to participate in the biggest campaign yet attempted in the Pacific war -- Saipan. Vice Admiral R.K. Turner allotted TF 52 three days to soften up the island before the assault. Firing commenced 0545 on 14 June. Silencing two coastal guns, Maryland encountered little opposition as she delivered one devastating barrage after another. The Japanese attempted to strike back through the air. On 18 June the ship's guns claimed their first victim but four days later a G4M Betty sneaked in flying low over the still-contested Saipan hills and found two anchored battleships. Crossing the bow of Pennsylvania, she dropped a torpedo which opened a gaping hole in Maryland's bow, portside. Casualties were light and in 15 minutes she was underway for Eniwetok, and shortly thereafter to the repair yards at Pearl Harbor.
With an around-the-clock effort by the shipyard workers, on 19 August, 34 days after arrival, the ship again steamed forth for the war zone. Rehearsing briefly in the Solomons, she joined Rear Admiral J. B. Oldendorf's Western Fire Support Group (TG 32.5) bound for the Palau Islands. Firing first on 12 September to cover minesweeping operations and underwater demolition teams, she continued the shore bombardment until the landing craft approached the beaches on 15 September. Four days later organized resistance collapsed, permitting the fire support ships to retire to the Admiralty Islands.
Reassigned to the Seventh Fleet, Maryland sortied 12 October to cover the important initial landings in the Philippines at Leyte. Despite floating naval mines, the invasion force entered Leyte Gulf on 18 October. The bombardment the following day and the landings of 20 October went well, but the Japanese decided to contest this success with both kamikazes and a three-pronged naval attack.
Forewarned by submarines and scout planes, the American battleship-cruiser force steamed 24 October to the southern end of Leyte Gulf to protect Surigao Strait. Early on 25 October the enemy battleships Fusô and Yamashiro led the Japanese advance into the Strait. The waiting Americans pounded the enemy ships severely. First came torpedoes from the fleeting PT boats, then more torpedoes from the destroyers, which destroyed the battleship Fusô. Next came gunfire from the cruisers. Finally, at 0355 the readied guns of the battleship line opened fire. Thunderous salvos of heavy caliber fire slowed the enemy force and set the Japanese battleships on fire. Leaving their doomed battleships behind, the decimated enemy ships fled; only a remnant of the original force escaped subsequent naval air attacks. Similarly other U.S. forces blunted and repulsed attacks by the center and northern enemy forces during the decisive Battle of Leyte Gulf.
In the aftermath of this important victory, Maryland patrolled the southern approaches to Surigao Strait until 29 October; after replenishment at Manus, Admiralties, she resumed patrol duty 16 November. Japanese air attacks continued to pose a definite threat. During a raid on 17 November, guns of TG 77.2 splashed 11 of the attacking planes. Shortly after sunset two days later, a determined suicide plane dove through the clouds and crashed onto Maryland between turrets Nos. 1 and 2. Thirty-one sailors died in the explosion and fire that followed; however, the sturdy battleship continued her patrols until relieved 2 December. She reached Pearl Harbor on 18 December and during the next two months workmen repaired and refitted "Fighting Mary."
After refresher training, Maryland headed for the western Pacific 4 March 1945, arriving Ulithi on 16 March. There she joined Rear Admiral M.L. Deyo's TF 54 and on 21 March departed for the invasion of Okinawa. She closed the coast of Okinawa 25 March and began hitting assigned targets along the southwestern part of the Japanese island fortress. In addition, she provided fire support during a diversionary raid on the southeast coast drawing enemy defenses from the main amphibious landings on the western beaches. On 3 April she received a fire support call from Minneapolis (CA-36). The cruiser was unable to silence entrenched shore batteries with eight inch (203 mm) fire and called on "Fighting Mary's" mighty 16 inch (406 mm) guns for aid. The veteran battleship hurled six salvos which destroyed the enemy artillery.
Maryland continued fire support duty until 7 April when she sailed with TF 54 to intercept a Japanese surface force to the northward. These ships, including the mighty Yamato, came under intense air attacks that same day, and planes of the Fast Carrier Task Force sank six of ten ships in the force. At dusk on the 7th Maryland took her third hit from enemy planes in ten months. A suicide plane loaded with a 500 pound (230 kg) bomb crashed the top of Turret No. 3 from starboard. The explosion wiped out the 20 mm mounts, causing 53 casualties. As before, however, she continued to hit enemy shore positions with 16 inch (406 mm) fire. While guarding the western transport area on 11 April, she splashed two planes during afternoon raids.
On 14 April Maryland left the firing line as escort for retiring transports. Steaming via the Mariana Islands and Pearl Harbor, she reached the Puget Sound Navy Yard at Bremerton, Washington, on 7 May the next day for extensive overhaul. Completing repairs in August, she now entered Operation Magic Carpet fleet. During the next four months she made five voyages between the west coast and Pearl Harbor, returning more than 8,000 combat veterans to the United States.
Post war Arriving Seattle, Washington, on 17 December, she completed her Operation Magic Carpet duty. She entered Puget sound Naval Shipyard on 15 April 1946 and was placed in commission in reserve on an inactive basis 16 July. She decommissioned at Bremerton 3 April 1947 and remained there as a unit of the Pacific Reserve Fleet. Maryland was sold for scrapping to Learner Company of Oakland, California, on 8 July 1959.
On 2 June 1961 the Honorable J. Millard Tawes, Governor of Maryland, dedicated a lasting monument to the memory of the venerable battleship and her fighting men. Built of granite and bronze and incorporating the bell of "Fighting Mary," this monument honors a ship and her men whose service to the Nation reflected the highest traditions of the naval service. This monument is located on the grounds of the State House, Annapolis, Maryland.
Maryland received seven battle stars for World War II service.
Other Memories
Sprague assisted in the official commission of the USS Montgomery (DD-121) in July. Sprague would eventually come to command the destroyer from January to November 1920.
The fifth USS Montgomery (DD?121) was a Wickes class destroyer in the United States Navy during the World War I, later reclassified DM-17. She was named for General Richard Montgomery.
Montgomery was built by Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company, launched 23 March 1918; sponsored by Mrs. Andrew Jones, a descendent of Admiral Montgomery; and commissioned 26 July 1918, Lt. Comdr. W. R. Purnell in command.
Following an east coast shakedown, Montgomery left Hampton Roads 25 August 1918 for her first antisubmarine patrol, alternating such patrols with coastal escort duty until the close of World War I. She conducted training and fleet maneuvers from Maine to Cuba until 19 July 1919, when she departed Hampton Roads for west coast duty.
Montgomery arrived San Diego 7 August to join Destroyer Squadron 4, Pacific Fleet. For the next 3 1⁄2 years she took part in fleet operations from Alaska to Panama, then on 17 March 1922 began inactivation at San Diego, where she decommissioned 6 June 1922.
Redesignated DM-17, 5 January 1931, Montgomery was converted to a light minelayer and recommissioned 20 August 1931. In December she sailed to Pearl Harbor, her base until 14 June 1937, when she returned to San Diego, there to decommission 7 December 1937 and go into reserve.
With world tension increasing on the eve of World War II, Montgomery reactivated, recommissioning 25 September 1939. She trained for possible war service and completed several towing assignments on the west coast until 3 December 1940 when she sailed for her new home port, Pearl Harbor.
At Pearl Harbor during the Japanese attack 7 December 1941, Montgomery immediately began antisubmarine patrols in the approaches to the vital base, as well as interisland convoy duty. Departing Hawaii 11 April 1942 for Suva, Fiji, Montgomery began 16 months operating from Suva, Espiritu Santo, and Noumea for escort and minelaying operations in the southwest Pacific, aiding In the struggle for the Solomons. One interruption to this service was 22 September to 12 November, when she sailed north to lay mines in the Aleutians in preparation for the recapture of Attu and Kiska.
While laying a minefield off Guadalcanal on the night of 24 August to 25 August 1943, Montgomery collided with light minelayer Preble, losing 20 feet of her bow. She made temporary repairs at Tulagi and Espiritu Santo, then sailed 1 October for San Francisco, arriving 19 October.
Repairs completed, Montgomery began 10 months of activity which included 2 convoy escort voyages between San Francisco and Hawaii (8 December 1943 to 5 February 1944), defensive minelaying around Kwajalein (17 March to 4 April), convoy escort to Majuro (May 1944), and local convoy escort in the Hawaiians. Montgomery attacked an enemy submarine contact 25 June 1944 without evident result. After an escort voyage to Eniwetok and return (28 June to July 16), she sailed for Guadalcanal to prepare for the invasion of the Palaus.
Getting underway for the assault 6 September, Montgomery took station off Peleliu 12 September to destroy mines swept from the Japanese minefields. On 17 September she screened transports landing assault troops on Angaur, and 2 days later sailed for mine destruction and patrol duties at Ulithi until 14 October. She bombarded Ngulu 15 October and acted as mother ship for small minelayers during the capture of the atoll.
While anchored off Ngulu 17 October, with her engines secured, Montgomery sighted a mine floating close aboard to port. The wind swung the ship down onto the mine before she could get underway or destroy it. The resulting explosion flooded both enginerooms and one fireroom, ruptured fuel tanks, and killed four of her crew. Salvage efforts kept her afloat until she could be towed to Ulithi for repairs. Underway on her own power 12 January 1945, Montgomery arrived San Francisco 14 February. There it was recommended that she be decommissioned, which she was 23 April 1945. Montgomery was sold 11 March 1946.
Montgomery received four battle stars for World War II service.
Criteria The World War I Victory Medal was awarded for military service during the First World War. It was awarded for active service between April 6, 1917, and November 11, 1918; for service with the American... The World War I Victory Medal was awarded for military service during the First World War. It was awarded for active service between April 6, 1917, and November 11, 1918; for service with the American Expeditionary Forces in European Russia between November 12, 1918, and August 5, 1919; or for service with the American Expeditionary Forces in Siberia between November 23, 1918, and April 1, 1920. MoreHide
Other Memories
Sprague served aboard the USS Cleveland (C-19) assigned to the trans-Atlantic convoy from June 1917 until April 1918.
USS Cleveland (PG-33/C-19/CL-21) was a United States Navy Denver-class protected cruiser.
She was launched 28 September 1901 by Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine, sponsored by Miss R. Hanna (probably Ruth Hanna McCormick), and commissioned 2 November 1903, Commander W. H. H. Southerland in command.
Cleveland cruised with the European Squadron, in West Indies and Cuban waters, along the east coast between Hampton Roads and Boston, and on a midshipmen training cruise until 17 May 1907. She then sailed from New York via Gibraltar, Port Said, Aden, Colombo and Singapore to Cavite, arriving 1 August 1907. After 3 years on the Asiatic station, Cleveland returned to Mare Island Navy Yard 1 August 1910. Decommissioned 3 August 1910, she was placed in second reserve 8 April 1912, and returned to full commission 31 August 1912.
Cleveland alternated patrols in waters off Mexico and Central America with reserve periods at Mare Island Navy Yard between 1912 and 1917, protecting American lives and interests from the turmoil of revolution. On 31 March 1917, she arrived at Hampton Roads, and from 9 April to 22 June, patrolled from Cape Hatteras to Charleston. Assigned to escort convoys to a mid-ocean meeting point, Cleveland made seven such voyages between June 1917 and December 1918.
Returning to patrols off Central and South America, Cleveland was assigned to the Pacific Fleet once more from 16 February 1920, returning to Caribbean waters from time to time. She was reclassified CL-21 on 8 August 1921. During her continued service in the Caribbean and along the South American coasts, Cleveland made courtesy calls, supported diplomatic activities, gave disaster relief, and represented American interests in troubled areas. She was decommissioned at Boston 1 November 1929, and sold for scrapping 7 March 1930 in accordance with the Washington Naval Treaty limiting naval armament.
Appointed commander of the Pacific Fleet Air Force in October, Sprague would hold this post until his retirement in April 1952.