Naval Operations off Kyushu Sept 2 1945
September 2 1945 early morning hours
Ensign John Richard was waiting in the ready room with the rest of the pilots of VF-3. Ensign Richard had only been with the squadron since the end of April, and had taken apart of the raids on main land Japan in the summer where he claimed his first kill. But by the standard of the rest of the squadron he was still wet behind the ears. This was mostly because of his age. At 21 Ensign Richard was the youngest man in the squadron. Then the CAG of the Yorktown walked in and someone called out, “Attention on Deck.”
Captain John Thach, call out, “Take you seats men.” As he, walked to the front of the ready room. Once Captain Thach was at the blackboard, he pulled the sheet off of it. “Men in one hour this fighter squadron will be join by fighter squadrons from 20 other carriers, plus army land based P-51s from Okinawa, in the largest pure fighter sweep in the war. We are currently 75miles off Kyushu; the point of this sweep is to clear the area of Kamikazes that will be coming to attack us. Our intelligence believes there will be between 2,000 to 4,000 Kamikazes taking to the air.” At that hearing that number every pilots jaw dropped. “You have the planes and tactics. Good Hunting! Dismiss!”
Admiral Bull Halsey was on his flagship, as he watched the fighter take off in the early morning light. He was hoping the Japanese would take the bait and send the bulk of their kamikazes out to attack. If they did he had a nasty surprise waiting for them. Then he heard one of his radar operator called out there was a large formation of planes about 70miles out. He through to himself, now it beings.
Ensign Richard was in the number four three slot in his formation. As he scanned the skies all he saw were American built fighters. As he was flying to their target area he was thinking, ‘God I know I been praying for Japs, but not all at once.’
As the Ensign scanned the skies he saw a large dot about 20miles in front of him. The dot grew till all he could was the largest formation he had ever seen. The radio began to crackle to life. He signaled his wingman and the two started their attack run. He could see that the fur ball was starting, and he picked out a group of Val dive bombers. On the first past he was able to get lead and opened up with his six 50s. It only took a two second burst of fire to turn the dive bomber into a fireball. He then got lead on a second Val, which also down in flames.
As Ensign Richard started to pull back around for a second pass he heard his wingman call out, “John we call a pair of fighters…” John turned his to the rear to see his wingman had just been shot down. He saw the planes that did were a pair of Frank fighters. He snapped his wildcat into a tight left hand turn. The Japs follow the turn. Then John snapped his plane again, this to the right. This caught the Japanese pilots by surprise. John then reserved the turn and was now behind the Japs fighters. He was in a perfect angle of attack on the Japanese wingman. He gave the Frank fighter a good four second burst from his 50s. This brought burst head the left wing, causing it to snap off.
Now John tried to get angle on the leader. Over the next two minutes he had tried and failed to get a firing angle on the leader. Then the Japanese pilot when vertical, and climbed for altitude. John followed and was finally able to get angle on the Jap. He put all of his ammo into the Japanese leader. A second later the Frank fighter blew up, and John had to dive to miss it.
He was out of ammo, but he wasn’t about to call it quits on this fight. He looked around and saw no allied aircraft nearby, but he did see a pair of Japanese bi-planes making for the task forces. He through to himself do you want to live forever. He punched the throttle forward and started to close the distance on the pair of bi-planes. Then he heard the radio crackle, “Felix 3 break off.” He knew that voice it was his squadron CO, but he didn’t care at that point he knew he had help thin out the Japs before they reached the task force. He aimed his wing for the wing strut of the Jap bi-plane, and within seconds he felt his hellcat shake as he hit the Japanese bi-plane. His plane survived the hit the Jap’s plane didn’t and he saw it began its death dive into open ocean. John took a quick look at his wing, it looked good. He through it worked once it can work again. He brought himself around for a second pass. Again he heard his CO telling him to break off, again he didn’t listen.
He hit the Japanese wing strut of the second bi-plane. But this time it was different. His hellcat was now shaking even after the contact with the other plane had stop. He had enough and head back for the carriers.
Gunner Mate’s First Class Nick Lynch was at his battle station on the USS Oakland(CL-95). He could hear the sounds of aircraft getting closer. He pulled the safety off his 40mm Bofors. He saw the first Japanese of the day. The twin fives opened up first, then he and the other 40s joined the fight. He saw the plane he was aiming for go down in a ball of flames. He then turned and open fire on second plane aiming for his ship, again it when down in a ball of flames, but closer to his ship. He saw a third plane that was less than 1000 yards away coming for the Oakland. He turned and began to fire at this new target. He hit the plane right on the nose with one of his forty millimeter shells. But the plane was now in a ball of fire and kept coming at his ship.
The pilot of the Val was killed when the shell hit his aircraft, but it had enough forward airspeed to hit his target. The Val hit between the bridge and the number three turret. Nick threw the safety on his bofors when he saw that a piece of the Val had wedged into it. He looked up to see the bridge in flames from the hit he started for the bridge to see if anyone was still alive. He reached the bridge to find the deck covered in blood. After looking he saw that no one had survived the hit. He then started to work with the damage control teams to keep the Oakland in the fight. Then the ship shuddered from a second impact. He knew his work was cut out for him.
The last kamikaze plane was shot down a little before noon. As Admiral Halsey saw in his command post on the Missouri, as he listen to the reports come in. The attacks by the Japs had cost him 2 destroyer escorts, 3 destroyers, and the Oakland, and 22 planes. Also a number of other ships were reporting damage, with the worst being the Oklahoma City(CL-91) which was in danger of sinking. But he knew it was a cost that had to be paid. His forces had shot down at least 1,500 airplanes today. After the fighters had landed and refuel and rearm, Admiral Halsey gave the go ahead for phase two of the operation.
Lieutenant George Bush was at the stick of his new TBM Avenger. His plane was loaded with 2000 pounds of bombs for a Japanese airfield. He was the flight leader and he saw his target. He pushed his plane into a dive. At a height of 1,000 feet he dropped his bombs and pulled out of the dive. His bottom tail gunner than opened up with his 30cal machine gun and shot at anything that moved. As Lieutenant Bush turned his Avenger around he could see that the airfield had been totally destroyed in the attack.