Ghost Carrier: They Died to Fight Another Day by Robert Child

Author:Robert Child [Child, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Robert Child
Published: 2016-05-27T04:00:00+00:00

USS MISSISSIPPI

On the only battleship left in Task Force 52.13, Mississippi Gunner Patrick “Patty” Murphy, 19, former alter boy and only son of Fiona and Sean of South Boston, MA, agonized. His finger twitched on the trigger. This was his first Naval battle and his shirt was already soaked through with sweat. As his body trembled, he whispered a silent prayer as he readied for the onslaught of enemy bombers. Alarms rang out from all ships in the battle group. This would be close-in fighting. The ship’s big guns would be ineffective for anti aircraft combat as they were designed to hurl projectiles at enemy ships twenty miles away. Admiral Yamaguchi’s fleet steered clear of their range circling the American task force at 50 nautical miles.

A lookout on the Mississippi shouted, “They’re coming in low!” Then Murphy saw them. It was a formation of ten B5N “Kate” torpedo bombers scraping the surface of the waves three miles out coming in “low and slow” directly at him. Murphy could see they had their landing gear down and flaps up. This was a Japanese tactic for more precise targeting. Murphy, along with the line of other gunners on the starboard side, unleashed an intense wall of AA fire into the attackers. The noise was deafening.

Five of the “Kates” instantly peeled off to the east, maintaining low altitude while the other five dropped their payloads and climbed skyward.

At 0521 hours five 2,000 pound torpedo bombs slammed into the starboard side of the USS Mississippi. One would have been sufficient to neutralize her. Five spread carnage on a scale rivaling the explosions on the West Virginia sunk by nine torpedoes at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Mutilated blackened bodies were blown 1500 yards from the ship into flaming oil slicks in the sea as the 10,000 pounds of torpedo bombs detonated in sickening succession. The last image Murphy witnessed before his incineration was the red tip of the Mark 91 torpedo slamming into the side of the ship thirty feet below his 20mm gun.

Watching the exploding Mississippi from the bridge of the Liscome, Mullinnix, anguished, had to look away. The battleship became completely engulfed in a white and orange fireball. No outline of the ship remained visible. The raging inferno of twisted iron and molten metal sank beneath the waves in under two minutes. The Admiral shouted to the Communications officer, “Any word from our squadron?”

“Negative, Admiral, we lost radio contact with Commander Sunderland five minutes ago.”

“What about our torpedo bombers?”

“Not a word, sir.”

Mullinnix slammed his hand down on the map table as the battle continued to rage around him. Ship to ship radio transmissions conveyed the desperation. Shouts, screams, and explosions pierced the air. Hundreds of men were dying horrible deaths all around him.

Turning to the west from the bridge, Mullinnix could see the twisted heap of the disabled cruiser Baltimore burning and sinking stern first. Only it’s bow number “68” remained above water. The ship had taken three direct torpedo hits in its bomb bay from the Kates.

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