Iwo Jima and Okinawa

Support of the landings at Lingayen Gulf, the final operation of consequence in the Southwest Pacific, was the task group's next concern. Light cruiser SANTA FE left Ulithi with the carriers 30 December, proceeded northwest, and stood by 3-4 January 1945 while strikes were launched against Formosa and the southern Ryukyus. Adverse weather conditions prompted the carriers to move southward to Luzon, where strikes were delivered 6-7 January. All ships fueled on the 8th and returned to hit Formosa 9 January 1945.

Passing through Bashi Channel the night of 9-10 January, the task force proceeded southwest through the South China Sea. On 12 January Navy carrier planes sank 127, 000 tons of merchant and minor naval shipping in the south Indo-China area. Through holes in a thick overcast, shipping at Takao, Amoy and Swatow was bombed on 15 January; Hong Kong and Hainan were tackled on the 16th. Fueling operations, which had been hampered by the continuing heavy weather, were finally effected on the 19th, when good weather was found in the lee of Luzon. On 20 January 1945 the task force steamed northward out of the South China Sea.

Exit was made through Balintang Channel, and on 21 January the carriers launched strikes on Formosa from a position southeast of the island. Without warning or previous contact, two enemy planes dove on the formation at 1145. One of them took a dose of hot steel from the SANTA FE, dropped a small bomb on the carrier LANGLEY, and high-tailed it home; the other dashed himself against the TICONDEROGA. Other enemy feints were later made, none of which reached Task Group 38.3.

Okinawa was hit 22 January, the final air strike of the 27-day operation. Having rolled up 200,000 engine miles since her commissioning, cruiser SANTA FE arrived with her task ,group in Ulithi Lagoon 26 January 1945. Upon arrival, the carriers and their escorts reverted to the Fifth Fleet. With the revamping of the task force, SANTA FE was assigned a unit of Task Group 58.4, and as such left Ulithi on 10 February 1945 for air strikes against the Japanese home islands.

Going south of Guam, the SANTA FE bobbed up off the cost of Honshu 16 February and skirted the carriers of Task Group 58.4 as they dispatched their aircraft into misty, ashen skies. Destination: Tokyo, some 150 miles to the northwest. This first strike against Japan proper since Doolittle's "Shangri-La" token raid in April 1942 was a diversionary tactic in conjunction with the Iwo Jima landings to the south. On the evening of 18 February, the SANTA FE was detached for fire support work at Iwo.

Early on 19 February the SANTA FE went to General Quarters for the pre-invasion bombardment of Iwo Jima. At 0645 her 6-inch guns began gouging huge chunks out of Iwo Jima from a position about 2500 yards south of the beach. Unleashed around the SANTA FE was the bombardment of amphibious warfare.

Shortly before 0900 hours, a Niagara of taut-faced Marines in mottled garb cascaded over the transports' gray sides into waiting boats. Gaunt Suribachi glowered down on the hundred of American ships of every nomenclature which were milling around Iwo's approaches as the landing craft converged and swished shoreward through foamy surf. On Iwo Jima, wily General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, in command of the 22,000-strong Japanese garrison, solemnly hissed: "This island is the front line that defends our mainland and I am going to die here."

Aboard the SANTA FE anxious officers jammed her plotting room, juggling figures and pencilling charts. One Kingfisher was kept in the air for spotting purposes. About 1353 the light cruiser shifted her position, with her special target the western face of Mount Suribachi which rose starkly from the island's southern tip. Peeping out of pits and crevices on Suribachi were numerous railroad guns, AA guns, and observation posts. These were smashed and rooted out by accurate 6-inch shellfire from the SANTA FE�s main battery. As the sun set over bleeding Iwo, the SANTA FE moved to the southeast and continued firing at assigned sectors throughout the night.

Various missions were executed on 20 February by the SANTA FE, e.g. preparation fire for the morning assault, neutralization of mortar positions, a barrage against enemy artillery emplacements, and illumination fire ahead of the front lines to prevent a surprise night counter-attack. Japanese shellfire tore into the SANTA FE�s observation plane, fatally wounding the Marine pilot. Strings of small caliber projectiles rained around the SANTA FE several times, but none of her sailors was hit. That evening the cruiser remained on the job off Iwo Jima, much of her fire being directed against enemy rocket launching areas.

Relieved by the battleship NORTH CAROLINA at 1045 on 21 February, the SANTA FE ceased fire and steamed east to form up with the retirement group. That night she moved out to sea with the battleships, having contributed 989 rounds from her main battery, and 3027 from her secondary battery to the conquest of Iwo Jima. On the 22nd she returned to the transport area to replenish ammunition, but gave it up because of rough weather and headed east to rejoin her carriers.

USS SANTA FE was in on a second Tokyo raid, carried out in bad weather on 25 February. Strikes were discontinued at 1212, after which the task force proceeded south with the intention of coming up and hitting Nagoya 26 February. An increase in the heavy weather precluded such an operation, and the SANTA FE's Task Group 58.4 moved to Ulithi on 1 March 1945. Rear Admiral Deyo shifted his flag to the BIRMINGHAM on. 9 March, and five days later the SANTA FE sortied from Ulithi as a member of Task Group 58.2. On the strike docket were further blows against the Empire.

Snooper planes were observed during the approach on Kyushu, but no attack came from the skies. Reaching a position about 125 miles southeast of Kyushu on the morning of 18 March, the carriers commenced sending their squadrons aloft. Enemy planes in the vicinity made minor attacks on the other task groups, but none approached the SANTA FE closer than eight miles. Evening saw the carriers retiring to the southeast, but course was changed to north at midnight for an approach on Shikoku. First strikes were in the air about 0700 on 19 March 1945, the U.S. planes streaking off to hit Japanese fleet units in the Inland Sea.

Suddenly at 0708, a Japanese dive-bomber darted down out the clouds. Pulling out of his dive at low altitude, he released two armor-piercing 500-pound bombs which plummeted into the big carrier FRANKLIN. One detonated beneath the carrier's flight deck on which her planes, weighted with bombs, rockets and machine gun ammunition, their belly tanks swollen with 100 octane gasoline were spotted ready for the take-off. Bomb No. 2 went off on the hanger deck where other planes were parked, fueled and armed, waiting to be taken to the flight deck.

Carrier FRANKLIN became, in seconds, a floating ammunition dump in the process of blowing up. Men were blown off the flight deck into the sea, burned to a crisp in a searing white-hot flash of flame that swept the hanger deck, or trapped in compartments below and suffocated by smoke. Leathery black smoke funneled up to blanket the exploding flat-top, as nearby ships quickly jockeyed out of her way.

Out of the formation turned the FRANKLIN, her track marked by a trail of sailors bobbing in the water. Large bombs exploded, throwing men the length of the ship (almost equal to the length of three football fields). The whole after end of her flight deck had become a mass of flames and smoke. Airplanes disintegrated, as did their pilots and crewmen. Aviation gasoline poured over the sides of the hangar deck like a blazing waterfall. Trailing this enormous blizzard of bombs, bullets, wood splinters and jagged hunks of shrapnel was the cruiser SANTA FE. Captain Fitz had gotten the order to cover and assist as possible the retiring FRANKLIN. He and his crew shared the same thoughts as they drove toward the holocaust which was the FRANKLIN, thoughts of sister cruiser BIRMINGHAM who had similarly gone to the aid of the hit PRINCETON in the Battle for Leyte Gulf. (Her decks became the scene of bloody carnage when the PRINCETON's magazines exploded while she was alongside.)

First to inch within touching distance of the FRANKLIN's tortured sides was the destroyer MILLER, who removed an admiral and his staff, then sped away to transfer them to another ship. While awaiting her turn, SANTA FE dropped over life nets, life jackets and rafts to the men struggling in their carrier's wake. Captain Fitz took his cruiser close aboard the FRANKLIN on the first pass in, while he sized up the situation.

In the words of the Assistant Damage Control Officer Lieutenant Chauncey B. King: "We passed so close aboard that our after fire-fighting party was able to put out the fires in the FRANKLIN's 40mm gun tubs with our hose lines. Twenty millimeter and 40mm ammunition was exploding and shooting all over the place. In fact, any time we approached closer than 1,000 yards we were showered with the carrier's projectiles."

SANTA FE circled and gingerly moved in on the FRANKLIN's starboard side, receiving wounded by gangway and makeshift mailbag breeches-buoys for 45 minutes until forced to cast off from the rapidly drifting carrier. Then Captain Fitz brought the SANTA FE up to the FRANKLIN at 25 knots, gave her hard right rudder, and backed full on both engines. She stopped in the water a few feet off the FRANKLIN for a perfect approach. Despite a 13-degree list, the carrier's heading was fairly steady.

Nestled alongside the carrier's leaning side at 1050, CL-60 passed hose lines over to pour water on the blazing flight deck. With all phone, tube and speaker inter- communication on the FRANKLIN dead, men fighting the fire in various parts of the ships were isolated from the bridge. SANTA FE signalmen, the shrapnel sounding like hail on their helmets, filled the gap. Orders and reports were passed from the after flight deck of the FRANKLIN to men on the cruiser's fantail, relayed by phone to the signal bridge, and signaled by semaphore to the bridge of the FRANKLIN.

Below decks, teams were busy reinforcing the SANTA FE's hull plating with timbers and shoring to off-set the pressure of the sea grinding the cruiser against the sides and gun mounts of the carrier. In the SANTA. FE sick bay, Medical Officer Lt. Commander Carl Gilman and his men pitched in on the Herculean task of treating the FRANKLIN's wounded. Only one case, a sailor with third-degree burns on 65 per cent of his body, was lost.

FRANKLIN crew members continued to cross the thin valley separating the crashing, colliding ships via lines, radio masts, and a brow placed from the carrier's flight deck to the SANTA FE's No.2 5-inch mount. To prevent them from catching fire from the FRANKLIN who continued to spew geysers of flame, the SANTA FE's Kingfishers were jettisoned. Meanwhile, the PITTSBURGH was busy getting the FRANKLIN in tow.

Due to the FRANKLIN�s loss of power on her capstan, difficulty was had in getting the towing wire aboard to shackle up. By leading the 10-inch messenger line to the capstan of the SANTA FE, and hauling it in until the wire came aboard the FRANKLIN, the problem was solved. This operation was rendered most hazardous by the presence of the stump of the FRANKLIN's forward radio mast, which continually threatened to crush the windlass and line handling details on the SANTA FE's forecastle.

Gradually the heavy fires on the FRANKLIN were brought under control, her list stabilized, and 833 of her personnel safely quartered aboard the SANTA FE. After spending a hectic one and one-half hours grappled alongside, the SANTA FE cast off from the still-burning FRANKLIN. Other ships formed a circular screen around the PITTSBURGH and her tow.

From a position about 55 miles south of Shikoku, the assemblage snail-paced southward to Ulithi. At 1259 a single-engine plane dropped out of the sun and planted a bomb close aboard the FRANKLIN. All ships took him under fire, but he escaped to the south. Small fires continued to break out on the stern of the yawing FRANKLIN, whose progress was soon built up to a steady 5 knots. To the north, Task Force 58 covered the retirement.

FRANKLIN began to work up her own power during the night of 19-20 March and at noon the next day reported ready to proceed without a tow. Enemy planes approached, one getting through to drop his bomb on the FRANKLIN's port quarter. This was the FRANKLIN's last attack. SANTA FE was routed to Task Force 58's fueling rendezvous on the morning of 21 March.

From the FRANKLIN's skipper, big, curly-haired Captain Leslie E. Gehres, later came words of praise for the SANTA FE's rescue feat: "It was a most daring piece of seamanship. I want Captain Fitz to get full credit. It took a lot of nerve." Rejoining the FRANKLIN and two other damaged carriers on the 22nd, the SANTA FE continued on to Ulithi, arriving without incident at noon on 24 March 1945.

Over 550 FRANKLIN personnel debarked from the light cruiser at Ulithi while orders were, received to proceed to the United States for a much-needed yard overhaul. Preparations were completed by 27 March, and that evening FRANKLIN and SANTA FE departed Ulithi for Pearl Harbor. Passing Eniwetok 30 March, the twin veterans entered Pearl Harbor 3 April 1945. Putting the remainder of her FRANKLIN passengers ashore, the SANTA FE left 4 April and dead-headed it to the Terminal Island Navy Yard at San Pedro, California. When she checked in at San Pedro Bay on 10 April 1945, the SANTA FE had plied 221,750 engine miles of sea since her commissioning, and had also chalked up 25 months of rigorous Pacific combat.

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