HIT 3Y SUICIDE PLANE

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23258, 20 July 1945, Page 5

HIT 3Y SUICIDE PLANE

Veteran U.S. Battleship <7.30 p.m.) WASHINGTON, July 18. The Navy announced that the old battleship. U.S.S. Nevada, veteran cf Pearl Harbour, Normandy, South France and Iwo Jima, was hit by a suicide plane and shells froin a shore battery at Okinawa, and was considerably damaged. The ship suffered 78 casualties, but fought on. The kamikaze plane struck at dawn on March 27. Seven Marines manning a 20mnu shot off the wing of the diving plane and then died at their stations, maintaining fire until the plane struck the Nevada. In a duel with a shore battery on April 5 the Nevada was hit five times The Nevada fired 71 shells froni one battery alone, after which the target area resembled a gravel quarry after a week's blasting.

Severe Damage Suffered New U.S. Carrier (7.30 p.m.) WASHINGTON, July 18. One of America’s newest aircraft carriers, Ticonderoga, suffered severe damage and 337 casualties, including 144 killed, when, two Japanese suicide planes struck her near Formosa on January 21, reports tue Navy Department. Notwithstanding the heavy damage, the crew took the Ticonderoga to Bremerton Navy Yard, where she was repaired and strengthened and has since rejoined the fleet. The Ticonderoga had .just returned from the Third Fleet’s daring sweep in the South China Sea. when the Japanese plane came through a cloudbank and crashed on the flight deck, exploding between the ga’ipry and the hangar decks, which were packed with aircraft refuelling and rearming. A fire fed by gasoline spread swiftly, but was being successfully fought wh n another kamikaze crashed into the ship’s superstri ic ti i re. seriously wounding C. mmnnder Burch. Captain <now Commodore' Kiefer, who suffered 65 separate "wounds, changed course to prevent the wind from fanning the flames and ccntinued to direct the ship for 12 hours, refusing treatment- until assured that all the injured men had been attended. In a sf*<'ond sni* le attack five enemy planes were sliot >wn.