The Indestructible Man by Don Keith & David Rocco

Author:Don Keith & David Rocco
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: STACKPOLE BOOKS
Published: 2021-01-19T00:00:00+00:00

Japanese kamikaze pilots play with a puppy.

“Relentless” was too mild a word to describe the hell-bent fliers. And that wild-eyed willingness to deliberately complete a fiery crash onto a ship’s deck was terrifying to even the most courageous sailor. How do you deter an attacker who is perfectly willing to die? What could warships possibly do to minimize the damage these resolute attackers might inflict?

Captain Dixie presents a cake to one of his pilots commemorating Big T’s six thousandth aircraft landing.

That question was precisely what Kiefer wanted to discuss with his other officers and members of the task force. They had been lucky this most recent outing. Lexington had recovered from her own brush with a kamikaze just in time to save Big T’s bacon.

The truth was that nobody had any answers. The best hope was for the ships’ gun crews to shoot down the attackers before they had a chance to crash. Or for fighters flying cover to chase them through the air, attempting to shoot them down before they completed their death mission. At the same time, they hoped the fighter pilots would keep the kamikazes from lining up for a well-placed strike. But that was easier said than done.

The only other thing to do was to be ready should a kamikaze attack come and to recover should one or more hit home. Complete refueling and rearming as efficiently as possible. Drain gas hoses immediately after use. Have sprinkler systems ready to employ. Be ready to fight fire; tend to wounded crewmen; salvage what equipment, machinery, and weapons could be put back into service; and keep the vital ship in the fight. Especially the carriers, the vessels the suicide fliers preferred to target. Once launched, aircraft had to have a place to land before they ran out of fuel.

For the rest of November and into December, Ticonderoga and her mates in Task Force 38 continued to take a heavy toll on enemy shipping and land-based facilities in the Philippines. But despite the success of her flight crews and gunners, there were some close calls. On November 25, the Sunday after Thanksgiving, a kamikaze plane struck sister carrier USS Essex, which was operating within sight of Big T.

The Zero hit the port edge of the Essex flight deck just as planes were being gassed up for takeoff. There was extensive damage. Fifteen men died instantly, and another forty-four were wounded. But it could have been worse.

When a second suicide aircraft zoomed in to attack the stricken carrier, Ticonderoga’s gunners joined those firing from other ships in the area, just as Lexington had done earlier to protect Big T. They shot the Zero down before it could line up and do more damage—maybe fatal—to the already blazing Essex. That afternoon, while damage-control parties worked to get Essex and her flight deck back to operational again, Ticonderoga busily recovered aircrew that the wounded carrier was unable to receive.

Kiefer and the crew of Ticonderoga continued to work hard and kick butt in support of the retaking of the Philippines.

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