Blue Skies and Blood: The Battle Of The Coral Sea (Jerry eBooks) by Edwin P. Hoyt

Author:Edwin P. Hoyt [Hoyt, Edwin P.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jerry eBooks
Published: 2012-06-30T19:12:50+00:00

Chapter Twelve

The Fight from the Ships

From the vantage point of the cruisers and destroyers the battle took on a different aspect. The officers and men of these ships knew that the Japanese were out to get the carriers, although of course that did not mean a Japanese pilot would turn down a chance to sink a cruiser if he could. So it was the job of these support ships to fire and fire again, to protect the big flattops as much as they could from enemy planes.

When the Japanese torpedo planes were first sighted moving in on Yorktown, Captain Francis W. Scanland increased the speed of the cruiser Astoria to 30 knots, so he could conform to the movements of the carrier, and commenced firing the five-inch guns at long range. The gunners were using a 4.5-second fuse to put the barrage up over and beyond Yorktown. At 1115 Astoria claimed its first torpedo plane, shot down on the port quarter by a direct hit. The plane faltered, and then disintegrated in flames.

A minute later Astoria‘s gunners claimed another, a plane that had already dropped its torpedo, and came to within 400 yards of the cruiser’s port quarter on the escape turn. There was no escape for this luckless pilot; Astoria opened up with everything she had, and the plane plummeted into the sea, made one huge splash, and sank.

This minute—1116—was the longest of the day. One torpedo bomber headed directly for Yorktown off Astoria‘s port bow. The gunners were coming close, and the plane dropped prematurely, the torpedo running ahead of Astoria, and forcing one of the destroyers to turn hard to starboard to miss it. No sooner this, than another torpedo plane, its after fuselage aflame, tried to crash on Astoria. The plane came in on the port bow, made a gliding turn, very gracefully, and then splashed in the water 300 yards off the ship’s side.

The action slowed down for the cruiser then—until the dive bombers headed in. Not all of them made for the carriers; Astoria was straddled by two bombs forward, and another pair aft, but they were not close enough to do any damage. The cruiser’s gunners shot down one plane for sure, and believed they damaged another in this second attack.

When the action was over, Commander Chauncey Crutcher, the ship’s executive officer, reported to the captain. There were several bomb or fragment hits.

One man had suffered a flash burn on the face from a nearby gun. Two ammunition handlers had dropped five inch shells on their toes: result, broken toes. But this was something to laugh about in the mess; they could all be thankful that the burning torpedo plane had not managed to crash the bridge, as had been the pilot’s obvious intention. By three hundred yards Astoria was a very happy ship.

The cruiser Portland had an almost exactly similar experience that morning. Her small anti-aircraft guns claimed one Japanese torpedo bomber. She was off on the starboard side of Yorktown and was firing over her.

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