object was still diving, becoming more visible, somehow evading the hail of antiaircraft fire. Spotters had already tagged it as a Judy dive-bomber, though other observers would report it as an older fixed-gear Val.
But everyone would later agree that the dive bomber’s pilot was not a single-mission, poorly trained kamikaze. His attack was a masterpiece of precision. While his two 250-kilogram bombs flew straight and true toward their target, the dive-bomber pulled back up and escaped into the cloud deck.
The results were catastrophic. The first bomb punched through
Franklin
’s forward flight deck and exploded on the hangar deck. Fires and explosions consumed every man and plane in the forward hangar bay and two decks directly below.
The second bomb struck further aft, just behind the island, exploding as it penetrated the wooden flight deck. The number three elevator, in the center of the aft flight deck, was flung to the side by the explosion. Armed aircraft on the flight deck, preparing to launch, were caught in the conflagration and exploded one after the other. Tiny Tim rockets on the wings of the Corsairs were lighting off and sizzling across the flight deck, adding to the carnage.
Franklin
’s executive officer, Cmdr. Joe Taylor, remembered the deadly missiles. “Some screamed by to starboard, some to port, some straight up the flight deck. Some went straight up and some tumbled end over end. Each time one went off, the firefighting crews forward would instantly hit the deck.”
On the navigation bridge,
Franklin
’s skipper, Capt. Leslie Gehres, was slammed to the deck by the impact of the first bomb. Stunned, Gehres staggered to his feet to find the starboard bow of his ship engulfed in flame and smoke. He ordered full right rudder to bring the wind to the port side and deflect the flames from the airplanes parked aft. Then, to his shock, he realized that the aft part of the ship was also ablaze. He countermanded his order, swinging
Franklin
back to port, putting the wind on her starboard side.
Nothing seemed to help. Explosions were racking the ship. “In a very few minutes,” recalled Admiral Bogan, still on the flag bridge, “the forward part of the ship was an inferno.” Firefighting crews were thwarted by exploding ordnance. All the ammunition in lockers and gun mounts behind the island structure exploded.
From 20 miles away the men of
Intrepid
could see the smoke and flames. Radarman Ray Stone, watching from
Intrepid
’s flight deck, was shocked. “Hearing the numerous, repeated explosions from the fully-armed, about-to-be-launched airplanes was sickening,” he wrote. “You could virtually feel and smell the fire.”
Franklin
was dead in the water. All communications on theship were lost. The cruiser
Santa Fe
was already gathering up survivors who’d jumped into the sea to escape the flames. Admiral Davison advised Captain Gehres he should consider abandoning ship. Gehres declined. After transferring more than eight hundred men, mostly wounded, to
Santa Fe
, he kept seven hundred officers and men with him to try to save
Franklin
.
For the rest of the day and the following night they fought the fires that raged inside the carrier. By morning, the skeleton crew had most of the fires under control. Towed by the cruiser
Pittsburgh
, the shattered carrier began a slow withdrawal to the south. Most of her unexploded ammunition had been heaved overboard.
At midday,
Santa Fe
blinkered Admiral Mitscher’s flagship
Bunker Hill
: “
Franklin
says fire practically under control, skeleton crew aboard, list stabilized at 13 degrees.If you save us from the Japanese, we will save the ship.”
By early afternoon
Franklin
had four boilers back on line and her steering control back. Still spewing smoke, her flight deck now a shredded wreck, the wounded carrier limped under her own power toward Ulithi. From there
Franklin
proceeded to Pearl Harbor, and then all the way to New York for major repairs. She
But everyone would later agree that the dive bomber’s pilot was not a single-mission, poorly trained kamikaze. His attack was a masterpiece of precision. While his two 250-kilogram bombs flew straight and true toward their target, the dive-bomber pulled back up and escaped into the cloud deck.
The results were catastrophic. The first bomb punched through
Franklin
’s forward flight deck and exploded on the hangar deck. Fires and explosions consumed every man and plane in the forward hangar bay and two decks directly below.
The second bomb struck further aft, just behind the island, exploding as it penetrated the wooden flight deck. The number three elevator, in the center of the aft flight deck, was flung to the side by the explosion. Armed aircraft on the flight deck, preparing to launch, were caught in the conflagration and exploded one after the other. Tiny Tim rockets on the wings of the Corsairs were lighting off and sizzling across the flight deck, adding to the carnage.
Franklin
’s executive officer, Cmdr. Joe Taylor, remembered the deadly missiles. “Some screamed by to starboard, some to port, some straight up the flight deck. Some went straight up and some tumbled end over end. Each time one went off, the firefighting crews forward would instantly hit the deck.”
On the navigation bridge,
Franklin
’s skipper, Capt. Leslie Gehres, was slammed to the deck by the impact of the first bomb. Stunned, Gehres staggered to his feet to find the starboard bow of his ship engulfed in flame and smoke. He ordered full right rudder to bring the wind to the port side and deflect the flames from the airplanes parked aft. Then, to his shock, he realized that the aft part of the ship was also ablaze. He countermanded his order, swinging
Franklin
back to port, putting the wind on her starboard side.
Nothing seemed to help. Explosions were racking the ship. “In a very few minutes,” recalled Admiral Bogan, still on the flag bridge, “the forward part of the ship was an inferno.” Firefighting crews were thwarted by exploding ordnance. All the ammunition in lockers and gun mounts behind the island structure exploded.
From 20 miles away the men of
Intrepid
could see the smoke and flames. Radarman Ray Stone, watching from
Intrepid
’s flight deck, was shocked. “Hearing the numerous, repeated explosions from the fully-armed, about-to-be-launched airplanes was sickening,” he wrote. “You could virtually feel and smell the fire.”
Franklin
was dead in the water. All communications on theship were lost. The cruiser
Santa Fe
was already gathering up survivors who’d jumped into the sea to escape the flames. Admiral Davison advised Captain Gehres he should consider abandoning ship. Gehres declined. After transferring more than eight hundred men, mostly wounded, to
Santa Fe
, he kept seven hundred officers and men with him to try to save
Franklin
.
For the rest of the day and the following night they fought the fires that raged inside the carrier. By morning, the skeleton crew had most of the fires under control. Towed by the cruiser
Pittsburgh
, the shattered carrier began a slow withdrawal to the south. Most of her unexploded ammunition had been heaved overboard.
At midday,
Santa Fe
blinkered Admiral Mitscher’s flagship
Bunker Hill
: “
Franklin
says fire practically under control, skeleton crew aboard, list stabilized at 13 degrees.If you save us from the Japanese, we will save the ship.”
By early afternoon
Franklin
had four boilers back on line and her steering control back. Still spewing smoke, her flight deck now a shredded wreck, the wounded carrier limped under her own power toward Ulithi. From there
Franklin
proceeded to Pearl Harbor, and then all the way to New York for major repairs. She
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