Back to January 1st, 1944

ABOARD THE USS BUNKER HILL;

As you recall, we had hit Kavieng Harbor on Christmas day and had headed back to Espirito Santo on the 26th.

On the 27th, we were turned around and headed back. There was a Jap task force in the area. We looked til the 31st. and found nothing.

Jan 1st, it was reported that there were more ships in Kavieng Harbor so we sent out scouting planes to find out. They located a DD and a cruiser in the area so we launched an all out attack..

At 1030, we landed our combat air patrol to fuel them and Fox 1 made a hard landing, caught a wire and the tail section pulled off FWD of the Stabilizers, the engine rev ved up and it went over the port side. The pilot was not recovered. We put up a new CAP.

The group returns from the strike, all planes return but one SB2C, the photo plane. It was reported to have gone down. Reports of heavy AA and lots of zeros.

RADAR reports 12 to 15 boggies 55 miles out. Our CAP tangles with them while we got 8 more fighters up. Lt. Coates shoots down a new "Tony", Japan's latest version of the zero.

The ships Captain reports 2 cruisers and one DD sunk and one DD badly damaged, 8 zeros shot down.

GQ sounded at 1930, radar reported 3 to 5 bogies 27 miles out but they never came closer than 18 miles and left after awhile.

Jan 2 1944.

We start for Espiritu Santo - again, from all indications.

Will continue on 4 Jan.

Glen Boren

Aboard the USS Bunker Hill;

January 3 1944;

Got orders to reverse course and head back to Kavieng. More ships reported in the area.

January 4 1944;

Launched a predawn patrol and a search at Kavieng. Several ships were located in the general area, so we launched an attack at 0800 hrs.

The strike returned about noon and reported that some hits were made on cruisers and DD's but none were believed to be sunk. The ships were out of the harbor and in open water.

It was reported that Ensign Beedle got shot down. aircraft on fire and crashed in the water Our Skipper came in to land, after three tries, he made it. The Hydraulics to his flaps were shot away and he made a "fast" landing. He had taken a hit in the wing stub and severed the Hyd. line. He also got some leg injuries from the schrapnel.

Trigg landed and dropped a wheel into the catwalk on the port side, messed up the plane pretty bad.

General Quarters sounded at about 1400 hrs. Radar reported boggies at 50 miles. Monterey fighters shot them down real soon. I was told it was 5 zekes and 1 nell.

A little later, we had the CAP and Lt. Runyon shot down a Jake. ( I have it as a 3 place seaplane w/ twin floats.) A bit latter, a Betty was shot down by Mandt and Trigg.

The calm finally set in. At about 1845 hrs., the Sub. "Guardfish" surfaced in the middle of the convoy and sailed with us til dawn.....

NOTE; About 2 years age, I found out that Ensign Beedle was the brother of movie star "William Holden".

This is all of our action till about the 20th of Jan.1944.

Regards,

Glen Boren

 

If you recall, the comic strip Lil' Abner had this character that walked around under a cloud all the time and something bad was always happening to him ? Well, we had our own in that one of our pilots was always pulling something and he busted up a lot of aircraft. Maybe just blowing a tailwheel on landing but it seemed that something happened every time he went up. His first two initials were D.D. and we (the enlisted men started calling him "Dangerous Dan")

January 8 thru the 18th 1944.

We finally made it to Espiritu Santo on the 8th for another stay on the beach. We launched our fighters just a short ways out and then we went into the harbor and dropped anchor. We grabbed our gear and headed for the fighter strip.

The fighter pilots continued their training program which was never finished before we went into combat. Well, Dangerous Dan had been out flying on Jan 13th. and he came in for a landing on the fighter strip. He flaired out and was making for a beautiful 3 point landing, just one problem tho' he was still 40 feet in the air. The plane stalled and it hit with such force that it drove the main landing gear up through the wings and really made a mess of it. That was the biggest excitment of this stay on the beach except for our little escapade with the local hooch dealer. After his second call at our hut, when he came in to make a sale, some of us went out the back door, found his jeep and did some midnight smallstores shopping. A good time was had by all. I always wondered where they got the bottles, they were wine type and they seemed to have a good supply.

I will pick this up again on the 18th when we went back to the ship for another scrap with the japs.

Regards,

Glen

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