Nice weather. Franklin was seriously hit this morning. Suicide planes tried to get in on us about noon, two were shot down, the others retired. Pittsburgh has Franklin in tow. She is really a wreck. The Halsey Powell was hit at 1500 while fueling from Enterprise. We have been detailed to drop back and guard her. Our two ships we were attacked at 1600. Torpedo plane made run on us but was shot down. One suicide plane made a dive on us but pulled out at the last minute. We really though it was the end of our ship. After the task group left us the Enterprise was hit by a suicide plane. We are now 150 miles off Tokyo and about 100 miles from our group.
Open in the diary →Entered Ulithi 2100. Are task group is in including the battleships. Three carriers were hit on last operation. They are, Franklin - Enterprise, Wasp.
Open in the diary →Nice weather. Getting a little cooler as we are nearing Tokyo. We made 23 knots all last night and 25 all day today. Enterprise joined us today. We now have the carriers Randolph and Enterprise and our squandron. Should pick up our T.G. tomorrow.
Open in the diary →We were under air attack all morning. Our ships shot down two suicides that were making runs on carriers. Sure looked like they were heading for us. The carrier Enterprise was hit by a suicide at 2200 this morning. Our T.G. shot down 5 planes today. Our Cap got 7. The Jap pilots today seemed a little more experienced than usual.
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