DRAMATIC SEQUEL TO JAP SUICIDE DIVES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 151, 28 June 1945, Page 6

DRAMATIC SEQUEL TO JAP SUICIDE DIVES

BIG U.S. CARRIER HIT Ship Survives Four Hours Of Flaming Death N.Z. Press Association —Copyright Rec. 2.30. WASHINGTON, June 27. Fanatical Japanese suicide pilots scored two direct hits on ViceAdmiral Marc Mitscher's flagship, Bunker Hill, off Okinawa, on May 11, causing 656 casualties, including 373 dead, but the carrier survived four hours of flaming death. Admiral Mitscher himself narrowly escaped when a 5001b bomb exploded within 20 feet of the ship's island superstructure, killing three officers and 11 men of his personal staff. Admiral Mitscher remained aboard for three hours while he fought to save his ship, then he was transferred by breeches buoy to a destroyer and thence to another carrier.

Many of the carrier's planes were aloft supporting the ground forces on Okinawa when a suicide plane sneaked in and dropped a delayed action 5001b bomb, then crashed among 34 planes parked on the flight deck, starting large fires. The suicide plane skidded into the sea and the bomb went through the flightdeck and out the side of the ship before exploding in the air.

Second Plane Attacks

Twenty seconds later another plane came in, launching a bomb which pierced the deck and exploded below. The plane then crashed into the flightdeck at the base of the island. • Fires, exploding ammunition and petrol swept the flightdeck, while the hangar deck quickly became an inferno fed by ruptured fuel lines and exploding ammunition.

Despite intense heat, suffocating smoke and flying shells, the men stood to their guns to ward off further attacks and fire-fighters fought the flames. A daring manoeuvre which literally flung the fire from the hangar deck capped the crew's heroic efforts. Tons of water were poured on countless gallons of flaming petrol which were forcing the fire-fighters on the hangar deck back against the bulkhead. The sheer weight of water was causing a six-degree list while, below decks, men were dying from heat, wounds and suffocation.

Cruiser's Gallant Rescue

The cruiser Wilkesbarre steamed in and placed her bow hard alongside the carrier's starboard quarter, adding her hoses to the fire-fighting equipment, while the Bunker Hill went into a wide 70-degree turn.

Captain George Sietz said that there were so many individual acts of heroism that it would be impossible to praise anyone above another. The Bunker Hill, which joined the Pacific Fleet late in 1943, is at present being repaired at Puget Sound Navy yard.