Rain of Steel by Stephen L. Moore

Author:Stephen L. Moore
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
Published: 2020-03-14T16:00:00+00:00

Jack Lyons and the Essex searchers had pinpointed the Yamato fleet, but Pete Mitscher was not yet ready to commit his warplanes to the attack. In June 1944 in the Marianas, he had sent out 240 carrier planes to attack the Japanese fleet in the famous “mission after darkness.” They succeeded in causing great damage to aircraft carriers, sinking Hiyo as well as two tankers, but more than 100 aircraft were lost. His decision to turn on the lights to land returning strikers long after dark saved many lives, but those who had perished weighed heavily on him.

Mitscher was not prepared to launch against the Yamato force at a distance so great that severe aircraft losses might be repeated, this time due to running out of fuel. He was in a quandary. Another long-legged flight might cost him numerous planes, but if he pondered the dilemma too long, the Yamato fleet might slip away, damaging his reputation. Mitscher finally turned to Chief of Staff Burke and announced: “Order a full strike for 1000. Target 344 degrees, range 238 miles.”9

He could only hope the Yamato group would continue on its suicide course for Okinawa. The ninety minutes following the last Essex contact reports were nail biters for both the task-group brass and the aviators who faced the long attack flights. Captain Burke and his staff had worked through the night, trying to plot Yamato’s likeliest course. With the Essex reports in hand, Burke could only rely on best instincts when Mitscher’s carriers “launched the works” around 1000.10

As the pivotal moment approached, Burke found British liaison Charlie Owen to be overly excited and a bit apprehensive. “You don’t know where she is,” said Owen.

“No,” admitted Burke.

“Where are you letting the pilots go?” Owen asked.

“We’re launching to the point where we would be if we were the Yamato,” Burke explained. “We are directing the planes to that spot. We expect her to be there by the time the planes get to this spot.” He silently prayed that other search planes would offer fresh intelligence of Yamato’s course once the strike planes were airborne.11

On Bunker Hill Ensign Melvin Guttenberg went to the front of VT-84’s ready room and scrawled a simple phrase in large letters across the chalkboard: “GET THE YAMATO.”12

Not everyone in the room was feeling as spirited. Lieutenant (jg) Alan “Al” Turnbull noticed his buddy Lieutenant (jg) Richard John Walsh, with whom he had graduated flight school in Corpus Christi, solemnly smoking in the back of the room. “Bull,” Walsh announced, “I am not going to make it back from this strike. I got that feeling.”

Turnbull, feeling a certain apprehension about his own fate this day, tried to reassure his friend: “I’ll get you back, Dick.”13

In Hornet’s ready room VF-17 skipper Marsh Beebe prepared his four divisions to be included in the strike group. Lieutenant (jg) Tilly Pool of Tommy Harris’ division was not at ease with this mission. “They told us we were going to launch an attack on this Japanese fleet,” said Pool.

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