24 December 1944

The Fast Carrier Task Force returned to Anchorage at Ulithi.  Many ships had some degree of damage from the typhoon, including some with serious structural damage such as USS MIAMI.

USS ASTORIA had weathered the storm comparatively well, but she still suffered its effects.  Both of her Kingfisher floatplanes were damaged beyond repair.  F Division shipmate Jim Thomson recorded in his diary that the two 20mm mounts on the forecastle were wrecked, and the 40mm and 5" mounts were also temporarily out of commission due to "water in the cables" connecting the guns to their fire directors.  The ship officially reported one significant injury, although there were others.

Most importantly, the extent of losses from Typhoon Cobra began to be clear.  A third destroyer, USS MONAGHAN, was confirmed lost when a handful of survivors were recovered.  Word spread throughout the fleet; men lost at sea now likely numbered in the many hundreds.

USS ASTORIA F Division shipmate J. Fred Lind wrote in his diary:
The awful fate of those who didn't make it hung over us. How the survivors ever made it in those waters, I'll never know.

Turning his thoughts to his shipmates at Ulithi, Lind wrote:
The best Christmas present that could be had was mail from home, and we received lots of that. Several hundred bags of mail and packages arrived for distribution on Christmas Day. Condition Three Easy was set, and it was a real treat to relax while on watch. Everyone is exhausted from the strenuous operations. The temperatures made Christmas seem more like the Fourth of July. It is really too hot to eat and too hot to sleep.



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Entertainment on the ship's fantail is provided by Santa Claus on Christmas Eve night.  The faces of many shipmates reflect the strain of offensive operations and dangerous storms they have just endured.
-photo taken by USS ASTORIA ship's photographer Herman Schnipper, courtesy of Carl Theaker


25 December 1944: Christmas Day
J. Fred Lind wrote in his diary:
Christmas in port! I attended church in the morning, but my thoughts left this world and returned to Rochester, New York, where I could picture everyone as we always were on Christmas day. Even though there are about 15 hours difference in time, I skipped that detail and thought of them as though it was the same time back home. No time to try to figure out that kind of nonsense on Christmas day.

We enjoyed a delicious turkey dinner. More mail and packages were distributed. The crew seems in relatively good spirits, considering the heartache everyone is feeling way down deep. No one will admit how they feel--we are tough guys, right? Yeah, right. Pictures received were really the key to a lot of smiles and much enjoyment for me--almost got transported 10,000 miles via mail. Four of us formed a makeshift quartet and made the crew suffer through our renditions of carols. We even made the officers suffer.



Christmas turkeys cooking in USS ASTORIA's galley.
-photo taken by USS ASTORIA ship's photographer Herman Schnipper (reproduced from Mighty Ninety Cruise Book)



Enlisted men going through the chow line for their Christmas dinner.
-photo taken by USS ASTORIA ship's photographer Herman Schnipper (reproduced from Mighty Ninety Cruise Book)




Captain Dyer also passes through the enlisted men's chow line for his turkey dinner.  Note the pies in the foreground.
-photo taken by USS ASTORIA ship's photographer Herman Schnipper (reproduced from Mighty Ninety Cruise Book)



A typical card with a wartime holiday theme.  Sent to a USS WILKES-BARRE sailor by his parents, the card depicts the flags of allied nations in 1944.
-from Brent Jones collection



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Not all USS ASTORIA sailors were so fortunate with their Christmas and Hanukkah mail.  Several bags had been soaked in transit and were emptied to discover their contents unreadable or destroyed.
-photo taken by and courtesy of USS ASTORIA ship's photographer Herman Schnipper


26 December 1944
Unknown to most men of the fleet, an official Court of Inquiry was convened the day after Christmas in the wardroom aboard the destroyer tender USS CASCADE AD-16.  Admiral Chester Nimitz, Commander-in-Chief U.S. Pacific Fleet, had personally flown to Ulithi to find out what had happened in the typhoon.

The losses in war matériel were staggering:  Three destroyers sunk, three light carriers headed out of theater for repairs, many other ships damaged, 146 aircraft destroyed.  The losses in personnel were even more devastating: 790 U.S. service personnel were lost at sea, and 80 more were seriously injured.

The Court of Inquiry recorded testimony for the days that followed, and did not reach its conclusions until after Third Fleet had returned to sea for the next stage of Philippine operations.  Its findings were that the preponderance of responsibility lay with Admiral Halsey, and that greater care should have been taken in light of available information and deteriorating conditions.  Halsey's saving grace had been his commitment to stay on station in support of Mindoro operations.

28 December 1944
Following a short holiday rest, the task force began preparations to return to sea.  Repairs were made and ships were redistributed between task groups to adjust for losses and new arrivals.



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Cannibalizing parts from ASTORIA's destroyed Kingfisher floatplanes, 28 December 1944.
-photo taken by and courtesy of USS ASTORIA ship's photographer Herman Schnipper



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A view of ASTORIA's hangar bay as crew members salvage parts from the fuselage of a ruined Kingfisher floatplane, 28 December 1944.
-photo taken by and courtesy of USS ASTORIA ship's photographer Herman Schnipper


30 December 1944:  OPERATION MIKE I
As repairs were completed, the Fast Carrier Task Force sortied again from Ulithi to support the next operation of the Philippine Liberation:  the invasion of Luzon, code-named Operation MIKE I.  Luzon and its capital of Manila were the prize; all operations to this point were incremental steps toward their liberation.

S-Day (as Luzon D-Day was called) was set for 9 January at Lingayen Gulf.  U.S. invasion forces of the 7th Fleet would sortie from Leyte Gulf, cross the Philippines into the Sulu Sea, and head north past liberated Mindoro en route to the west coast of Luzon.  Once again the fast carriers would be tasked with suppression of Japanese air power that could oppose the American landing forces.  Their targets would be airfields ranging from Formosa (modern Taiwan) and surrounding islands to northern Luzon.

Task Group 38.2 Order of Battle at the outset of OPERATION MIKE I
Commander Task Group:  Rear Admiral Gerald C. Bogan

Fleet Carriers:           HORNET CV-12
                                    LEXINGTON CV-16
                                    HANCOCK CV-19
Light Carriers:           CABOT CVL-28  
Battleships:                IOWA BB-61
                                    NEW JERSEY BB-62
                                    WISCONSIN BB-64
Light Cruisers:           PASADENA CL-65
                                    MIAMI CL-89
                                    ASTORIA CL-90
                                    WILKES-BARRE CL-103*                           
AA Cruiser:                SAN JUAN CL-54
Destroyers:                ~24 DDs

*With the arrival of WILKES-BARRE CL-103, USS VINCENNES CL-64 shifted to Task Group 38.3.
                                    


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USS WILKES-BARRE CL-103 underway in Ulithi Anchorage, circa January 1945.  With her arrival prior to Luzon operations, she became the third of four ships in Cruiser Division 17 to join the Fast Carrier Task Force.  The final CruDiv 17 ship, SPRINGFIELD CL-66, would arrive prior to Okinawa operations in March.  Photo taken from USS ESSEX CV-9.
-U.S. Navy Photo reproduced from Wikimedia Commons.


ASTORIA shipmate J. Fred Lind wrote in his diary:
On December 30 we took off again on another mission. Standing on my battle station at sunrise watching the ships pull out in a silent, efficient manner was an amazing spectacle. Just like what you see in a newsreel, but this time I am in a box seat.



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Track chart of USS ASTORIA as Task Force 38 performed a run-in to Formosa (gray line).  Air strikes were launched against northern Japanese airfields within reach of the American invasion beaches.  Simultaneously, U.S. invasion forces of 7th Fleet (yellow line) sortied from Leyte Gulf past liberated Mindoro toward the Luzon landing area at Lingayen Gulf.
-created from Google Earth global mapping and imagery


3 January 1945  (S-Day minus 6)
Halsey's plans called for Task Force 38 to first focus their strikes against Japanese airfields on and around Formosa (modern Taiwan) before heading south to hit airfields on northern Luzon.  The blanketing tactics that had been so successful during Mindoro operations were to be employed again.  Even more fighters had been added to the fast carriers' arsenal, and ESSEX CV-9 became the first carrier to incorporate squadrons of USMC Corsairs along with her Navy planes.

From the launch of first strikes on the morning of 3 January, Halsey's forces encountered foul weather that would become a constant presence over the next three weeks.  Heavy overcast was both a blessing and a curse.  Although blanketing tactics weren't possible, the Japanese did not send up many planes against the task force.  Over the next two days missions against some targets were carried out, but many were recalled or scrubbed.  Accurate results were not recorded, but best guesses placed Japanese losses at 100 planes versus 22 American planes lost.

Meanwhile, the invasion force making its long run up the western side of the Philippines began to endure increasing Japanese attacks including suicide crashes on several ships.  Most notably, on the afternoon of 4 January, the escort carrier OMMANEY BAY CVE-79 was struck by a Japanese plane and two bombs that it released prior to impact.  As fires burned out of control and ammunition exploded, OMMANEY BAY was abandoned and scuttled.

Although Navy planes from the escort carriers and Army Air Force planes from Mindoro worked together to keep this threat to a minimum, the fast carriers would make a welcome addition at Luzon.



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A 40mm gun crew aboard ASTORIA takes in some sun and reading during a break in the weather on 4 January 1945.  With no Japanese planes aloft near the fast carriers, gun crews had little to do except maintain their stations, find ways to entertain themselves, and occasionally observe flight operations on nearby ships.
-photo taken by and courtesy of USS ASTORIA ship's photographer Herman Schnipper.


5 January 1945  (S minus 4)
The task force withdrew out of range from land-based aircraft and fueled from the Logistic Support Group.  USS ENTERPRISE joined up underway, fresh from Pearl Harbor where modifications had been completed enabling her to conduct night operations.  ENTERPRISE, now designated CV(N)-6, and INDEPENDENCE CVL-22 were intended to extend the "Big Blue Blanket" over Luzon airfields in a nighttime capacity.  Forming the new Task Group 38.5, the night carriers joined the protective screen of ASTORIA and Task Group 38.2 during the day.



Ships of Task Group 38.2 en route to the Philippines, circa 5 January 1945.  The destroyer in the foreground  is USS STEPHEN POTTER DD-538.  At upper left is PASADENA CL-65 and at right ENTERPRISE CV(N)-6 has joined the formation.  Photo taken from NEW JERSEY BB-62 by LCDR Charles F. Jacobs, USNR.
-U.S. Navy Photo reproduced from www.navsource.org.



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Track chart of USS ASTORIA as Task Force 38 takes position off Luzon (gray line).  Air strikes were launched against northern Luzon airfields, while airfields further south were covered by land-based Army Air Force planes and the escort carriers at the vanguard of the 7th Fleet invasion force (yellow line).
-created from Google Earth global mapping and imagery


6 January 1945  (S minus 3)
Heavy weather again limited the strikes conducted by the fast carriers as well as enemy planes.  32 more Japanese aircraft were estimated shot down or destroyed on the ground.  However, breaks in the weather and subsequent holes in blanketing tactics permitted some Japanese planes to get airborne and continue attacks against the invasion force.  Although Combat Air Patrols (CAP) prevented any planes from getting through to the fast carriers, several ships in the invasion force approaching Lingayen Gulf were struck.

J. Fred Lind wrote in his diary:
In the past few days, 17 ships of the 7th Fleet (invasion force) have been hit by suicide dive bombers. The Japanese are getting desperate. These tactics don't succeed in sinking many vessels, but they put them out of commission by rendering them inoperative, and kill a lot of sailors.



USS COLUMBIA CL-56, a CLEVELAND-class cruiser assigned to the Luzon Attack Group, is struck by her second suicide attack in three hours on 6 January.  Although the first crash only resulted in superficial damage, this one severely damaged the aft areas of the ship.  Her aft battery was flooded to prevent a magazine explosion, and she remained in formation with the invasion force.
-U.S. Navy Photos reproduced from www.navsource.org


Some planes returning to their carriers were heavily damaged from their runs over Luzon.  In one instance, a USS ENTERPRISE pilot attempted a landing with no control over flaps and hydraulics.  He broke through the deck barriers, struck several other planes, knocking one overboard and following it into the ocean.  The ENTERPRISE flight deck was temporarily shut down for repairs and her airborne planes were redirected to other carriers.

J. Fred Lind wrote about such incidents at Luzon:
Most tried to pancake into the water, and luckily, the majority of the pilots were rescued. They had about one minute to escape the cockpit before the plane went down nose-first. Some damaged planes elected to try a landing on the carrier decks. A few made it, but most crashed into the bulkheads and exploded. Others came back with only one landing gear, and broke the arresting cable. Some shot right over the side of the carrier. It was a sickening sight.



In an undated photo, a U.S. Navy Avenger crew works to escape from their splashed plane before it sinks.
-U.S. Navy Photo reproduced from U.S. Navy War Photographs, Steichen



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A damage control crew brings a deck fire under control following a crash-landing aboard an ESSEX-class carrier off Luzon, circa 6 January 1945.  Fires that damaged the F6F Hellcat at top have just been extinguished.
-photo taken by USN Fleet Photographer Clifford Martin in Brent Jones collection


7 January 1945  (S minus 2)
The weather cleared during the morning hours for the second day of fast carrier strikes against northern Luzon, then deteriorated again in the afternoon.

From Samuel Eliot Morison's The Liberation of the Philippines:
The enemy seemed unwilling to challenge the carrier planes; he was saving his planes for what he considered a more worthy object.  Throughout the entire day of the 7th only four Japanese aircraft were observed to rise in order to give battle, and they were promptly shot down.  Task Force 38 claimed to have destroyed 75 others on the ground; its own losses were heavy--28 planes, 18 of these operational [losses].  With the assistance of 143 sorties from the eleven escort carriers with [7th Fleet], and of the Army Air Force, these strikes accomplished their object of protecting the fleet at Lingayen Gulf, for a time, from Kamikaze attack...  and the Japanese air forces on Luzon were almost wiped out.



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Ships of the Luzon Attack Group steam into Lingayen Gulf, circa S-2 on 7 January 1945.  From front to back of the column are battleships USS PENNSYLVANIA and COLORADO followed by cruisers LOUISVILLE, PORTLAND, and COLUMBIA.
-U.S. Navy Photo reproduced from NARA collection


8 January 1945  (S minus 1)
The Fast Carrier Task Force left the Philippines and headed north again.  They would spend the day refueling and resupplying with the Logistic Support Group, then perform a run-in toward Formosa overnight for a second round of strikes on the northern island airfields within range of the S-Day landing area.  With Japanese air forces on Luzon eliminated, planes from the Formosa area were the remaining threat that needed to be blanketed and destroyed.



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Track chart of USS ASTORIA as Task Force 38 moves away from the Philippines and performs a run-in toward Formosa (gray line).  On 9 January, as the Luzon landings began at Lingayen Gulf, fast carrier strikes were launched against airfields on Formosa and the surrounding islands.
-created from Google Earth global mapping and imagery



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S-Day at Lingayen Gulf, 9 January 1945.  LCVP landing craft bring American 6th Army soldiers ashore.
-U.S. Navy Photo reproduced from NARA collection


9 January 1945  (S-Day, OPERATION MIKE I)
As MacArthur's 6th Army came ashore at Lingayen Gulf, bad weather once again restricted the fast carrier planes to targets of opportunity.  Some missions were recalled while others found breaks in the weather and pushed on toward their targets.  717 sorties were flown against airfields and shipping targets.  The operations achieved their goal--no Japanese planes from Formosa airfields were able to provide resistance against the invasion, and in fact no further Japanese planes would fly to Luzon for the remainder of the war.

For the men of USS ASTORIA, the ship's involvement in the MIKE I operation had been fairly routine.  While enduring the daily nuisance of heavy rain, there was little for the Mighty Ninety to do other than screen her assigned carriers, man stations and watches, and wait.  F Division shipmate Jim Thomson expressed the crew's desire to get into the fight, writing in his diary that "we have yet to fire an offensive gun!"  J. Fred Lind added,  "lots of mines are floating harmlessly by. The destroyers are assigned to blow them up with their five-inch battery."

From Samuel Eliot Morison's The Liberation of the Philippines:
Third Fleet's direct support of the Lingayen operation ended with these 9 January strikes on Formosa.  In one week, Task Force 38 had flown a total of 3,030 target or combat sorties and dropped 9,110 bombs... losing 86 planes, 40 of them operationally.  There is no question but that these operations, combined with the all-out effort of the Army Air Force and the escort carriers, saved hundreds of American lives in the Lingayen landings.

Although their support of Operation MIKE I was effectively over, the Fast Carrier Task Force was far from finished in conducting offensive operations in the area.  Halsey's ships would next take the fight into the so-called "Private Lake of Japan," the South China Sea.


                                       Continue to CHAPTER 9: OPERATION GRATITUDE

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Sources:

Drury, Bob and Clavin, Tom.  Halsey’s Typhoon.  New York, NY: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2007.

http://commons.Wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page  Wikimedia Commons image database.

http://earth.Google.com/  Google Earth.

Jones, Brent.  Private photo and document collection.

Lind, J. Fred.  Sea Attitudes: A Collection of WWII Memories. Privately published.