Admiral John S. McCain and the Triumph of Naval Air Power by William F. Trimble

Author:William F. Trimble
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
Published: 2019-03-05T16:00:00+00:00

McCain’s three carrier groups came together as scheduled early on the morning of the third. Refueling and transfer of aircraft from Jasper Acuff’s TG-30.8 oilers and escort carriers went smoothly during the day, but that evening McCain got a harsh reminder that there were threats to his force under the sea as well as above it. At 2325, as the task force was zigzagging north at fifteen knots, the Japanese submarine I-41 stole past the screen into Sherman’s group and loosed a torpedo into the light cruiser Reno (CL 96). McCain immediately ordered an emergency turn and increased the speed of the task force to twenty-five knots to clear the area. Torn apart by explosions and quickly flooding aft, the Reno survived as a result of heroic damage-control efforts, and under destroyer escort it was towed back to Ulithi. The next day, destroyers in the screen contacted another submarine, although they were unable to chase it down, and before dawn on the fifth, the Boyd (DD 544) in Montgomery’s group was the target of another submarine, whose fish ran wide of their target.6

McCain’s carriers began launching at 0615 on 5 November about eighty miles off Polillo Island. The Americans swept over Luzon like a tsunami. In 1,407 offensive sorties over two days, fighters claimed 105 enemy aircraft shot down, most of them over Clark Field. Taking into account more accurate reporting and the 70 percent rate of overclaims, the aviators actually got more than 73 aerial kills, still an impressive performance. More than 320 aircraft were destroyed on the ground at Clark, Mabalacat, and Aparri airfields. In his action report, McCain boasted that the total of enemy aircraft destroyed or damaged over the two days was “the greatest number of planes destroyed in any one operation by any air force in history.” In what McCain later called “a savage body blow to the Jap system of reinforcement and supply,” the raids also pounded radio stations, hangars, runways, railways, docks, oil storage tanks, and fuel dumps. A transport and destroyer escort were reported sunk in Manila Bay, another transport at Subic Bay, and an oiler and small cargo ship off the Bataan Peninsula. McCain’s airmen exacted a toll on the Imperial Navy too. In Manila Bay they sank the heavy cruiser Nachi with torpedoes and bombs and claimed hits on an unnamed light cruiser and seven destroyers. Thirty-seven task force aircraft, more than half of which were fighters, were lost in the attacks, as well as eighteen airmen.7

McCain’s CAP defeated the inevitable Japanese counterattacks, downing eight enemy planes over the fleet, while another four fell to antiaircraft fire. Yet on the afternoon of the fifth, a kamikaze penetrated the force defenses and plunged into the starboard side of the Lexington’s island, igniting fires, knocking out some of the ship’s controls, and causing many casualties, although the carrier continued flight operations.8 Even though the strikes on the fifth and sixth came at a cost, and considering that the airmen exaggerated some of

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