Ghost Carrier: They Died to Fight Another Day by Robert Child Page A
Authors: Robert Child
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plan and all planes bore down head on for the kill. As the American pilots made their move, the Zeros broke off as expected into steep climbing maneuvers to get above the American formation. Sunderland and his squad opened up with their .50 caliber wing machine guns. Sunderland shattered the right wing of one of the evading Zeros. His bullets burst the interior fuel tank of the Zero, and the entire plane blew up in a blinding white flash. Sunderland shielded his eyes a moment, then saw debris careening past his canopy, including the Zero’s engine, which was still spinning and turning. Smaller pieces of debris bounced off his prop and right wing, but his Wildcat remained flyable. Fellow pilots had similar albeit less spectacular kills on the exposed underbelly of other Zeros, sending them crashing into the sea.
With the Wildcats engaged, the Avengers had lost their fighter screen. Even still they doggedly continued forward battling through the remaining Japanese planes. If they could reach the enemy task force, their deadly accurate 2216-pound, Mark 13 torpedo bombs could wreak considerable havoc.
Eight Avengers were able to squeeze past the first Japanese formation, but six miles distant from the Hiryu, they slammed head on into the second overwhelming wave of escort fighter Zeros, which had just lifted off from the Akagi. The American pilots had no chance. Two and three Zeros simultaneously attacked each Avenger in an epic mismatch that destroyed all eight remaining bombers in less than seven minutes. There were no American survivors.
With Sunderland’s squadron tied up in aerial combat, this unfortunately allowed a great number of Japanese torpedo and dive bombers to slip past and bear down on the American task group. Their overwhelming numbers simply could not be stopped.
USS MISSISSIPPI
On the only battleship left in Task Force 52.13, Mississippi Gunner Patrick “Patty” Murphy, 19, former alter boy and only son of Fiona and Sean of South Boston, MA, agonized. His finger twitched on the trigger. This was his first Naval battle and his shirt was already soaked through with sweat. As his body trembled, he whispered a silent prayer as he readied for the onslaught of enemy bombers. Alarms rang out from all ships in the battle group. This would be close-in fighting. The ship’s big guns would be ineffective for anti aircraft combat as they were designed to hurl projectiles at enemy ships twenty miles away. Admiral Yamaguchi’s fleet steered clear of their range circling the American task force at 50 nautical miles.
A lookout on the Mississippi shouted, “They’re coming in low!” Then Murphy saw them. It was a formation of ten B5N “Kate” torpedo bombers scraping the surface of the waves three miles out coming in “low and slow” directly at him. Murphy could see they had their landing gear down and flaps up. This was a Japanese tactic for more precise targeting. Murphy, along with the line of other gunners on the starboard side, unleashed an intense wall of AA fire into the attackers. The noise was deafening.
Five of the “Kates” instantly peeled off to the east, maintaining low altitude while the other five dropped their payloads and climbed skyward.
At 0521 hours five 2,000 pound torpedo bombs slammed into the starboard side of the USS Mississippi. One would have been sufficient to neutralize her. Five spread carnage on a scale rivaling the explosions on the West Virginia sunk by nine torpedoes at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
Mutilated blackened bodies were blown 1500 yards from the ship into flaming oil slicks in the sea as the 10,000 pounds of torpedo bombs detonated in sickening succession. The last image Murphy witnessed before his incineration was the red tip of the Mark 91 torpedo slamming into the side of the ship thirty feet below his 20mm gun.
Watching the exploding Mississippi from the bridge of the Liscome, Mullinnix, anguished, had to look away. The battleship became completely
With the Wildcats engaged, the Avengers had lost their fighter screen. Even still they doggedly continued forward battling through the remaining Japanese planes. If they could reach the enemy task force, their deadly accurate 2216-pound, Mark 13 torpedo bombs could wreak considerable havoc.
Eight Avengers were able to squeeze past the first Japanese formation, but six miles distant from the Hiryu, they slammed head on into the second overwhelming wave of escort fighter Zeros, which had just lifted off from the Akagi. The American pilots had no chance. Two and three Zeros simultaneously attacked each Avenger in an epic mismatch that destroyed all eight remaining bombers in less than seven minutes. There were no American survivors.
With Sunderland’s squadron tied up in aerial combat, this unfortunately allowed a great number of Japanese torpedo and dive bombers to slip past and bear down on the American task group. Their overwhelming numbers simply could not be stopped.
USS MISSISSIPPI
On the only battleship left in Task Force 52.13, Mississippi Gunner Patrick “Patty” Murphy, 19, former alter boy and only son of Fiona and Sean of South Boston, MA, agonized. His finger twitched on the trigger. This was his first Naval battle and his shirt was already soaked through with sweat. As his body trembled, he whispered a silent prayer as he readied for the onslaught of enemy bombers. Alarms rang out from all ships in the battle group. This would be close-in fighting. The ship’s big guns would be ineffective for anti aircraft combat as they were designed to hurl projectiles at enemy ships twenty miles away. Admiral Yamaguchi’s fleet steered clear of their range circling the American task force at 50 nautical miles.
A lookout on the Mississippi shouted, “They’re coming in low!” Then Murphy saw them. It was a formation of ten B5N “Kate” torpedo bombers scraping the surface of the waves three miles out coming in “low and slow” directly at him. Murphy could see they had their landing gear down and flaps up. This was a Japanese tactic for more precise targeting. Murphy, along with the line of other gunners on the starboard side, unleashed an intense wall of AA fire into the attackers. The noise was deafening.
Five of the “Kates” instantly peeled off to the east, maintaining low altitude while the other five dropped their payloads and climbed skyward.
At 0521 hours five 2,000 pound torpedo bombs slammed into the starboard side of the USS Mississippi. One would have been sufficient to neutralize her. Five spread carnage on a scale rivaling the explosions on the West Virginia sunk by nine torpedoes at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
Mutilated blackened bodies were blown 1500 yards from the ship into flaming oil slicks in the sea as the 10,000 pounds of torpedo bombs detonated in sickening succession. The last image Murphy witnessed before his incineration was the red tip of the Mark 91 torpedo slamming into the side of the ship thirty feet below his 20mm gun.
Watching the exploding Mississippi from the bridge of the Liscome, Mullinnix, anguished, had to look away. The battleship became completely
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