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Koontz, Lloyd E., Jr. (Lefty), SF3.
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USS BUNKER HILL (CV-17) - The ship was stationed off of Okinawa on May 11, 1945. At 10:10 A.M. a Japanese Zero came in and dropped a 550 pound bomb and at the same time the plane plunged into the flight deck destroying 34 parked aircraft. Seconds later another Kamikazi dropped a bomb on the aft flight deck. The blast blew sailors overboard and flames covered the flight deck. 375 sailors perished along with 264 wounded and 43 missing. The carrier was saved but was known as the "most severely damaged ship" ever to enter the Puget Sound Navy Yard.
Mariana and Palau Islands Campaign (1944)/Battle of Philippine Sea
From Month/Year
June / 1944
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June / 1944
Description The Battle of the Philippine Sea (June 19–20, 1944) was a major naval battle of World War II that eliminated the Imperial Japanese Navy's ability to conduct large-scale carrier actions. It took place during the United States' amphibious invasion of the Mariana Islands during the Pacific War. The battle was the last of five major "carrier-versus-carrier" engagements between American and Japanese naval forces, and pitted elements of the United States Navy's Fifth Fleet against ships and aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Navy's Mobile Fleet and nearby island garrisons.
The aerial part of the battle was nicknamed the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot by American aviators for the severely disproportional loss ratio inflicted upon Japanese aircraft by American pilots and anti-aircraft gunners. During a debriefing after the first two air battles a pilot from USS Lexington remarked "Why, hell, it was just like an old-time turkey shoot down home!" The outcome is generally attributed to American improvements in pilot and crew training and tactics, technology (including the top-secret anti-aircraft proximity fuze), and ship and aircraft design. Although at the time the battle appeared to be a missed opportunity to destroy the Japanese fleet, the Imperial Japanese Navy had lost the bulk of its carrier air strength and would never recover. During the course of the battle, American submarines torpedoed and sank two of the largest Japanese fleet carriers taking part in the battle.
This was the largest carrier-to-carrier battle in history.
My Participation in This Battle or Operation
From Month/Year
June / 1944
To Month/Year
June / 1944
Last Updated: Mar 16, 2020
Personal Memories
Memories Battle of the Philippine Sea.
Reporting to the Pacific in the fall of 1943, Bunker Hill participated in carrier operations during: the Rabaul strike (11 November 1943); Gilbert Islands operation, including support of the landings on Tarawa Atoll (13 November�??8 December); the Kavieng strikes in support of the Bismarck Archipelago operation (25 December 1943, 1 January and 4 January 1944); Marshall Islands operation (29 January�??8 February); strikes against Truk (17�??18 February), during which eight Japanese combatant vessels were sunk; Mariana Islands raid (23 February); Palau-Yap-Ulithi-Woleai raids (30 March�??1 April); Truk-Satawan-Ponape raids (29 April�??1 May); Hollandia (currently known as Jayapura) operation (21�??28 April); and Marianas operation (12 June - 10 August), including the Battle of the Philippine Sea.
On 19 June 1944, during the opening phases of the Marianas battle, Bunker Hill was damaged when an enemy near-miss scattered shrapnel fragments across the ship. Two men were killed and over 80 were wounded. Bunker Hill continued to fight, with her aircraft shooting down some of the 476 Japanese aircraft destroyed during the battle, and assisting in the sinking of a Japanese carrier. During September, she participated in the Western Caroline Islands operation and then launched strikes at Okinawa, Luzon, and Formosa until November.