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Ulithi Kamikaze 1945
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The following is a post at
WW2incolor
in a discussion of WWII Japanese Photo Reconnaissance.
vcs-ww2
02-19-2006, 02:56 PM
MATZOS:
Thanks again for the information you sent me. In return here's the experience I alluded to in my first post to you. Actually the Myrt's reconnaissance mission was just the first action in a chain of actions that led to the story I have to tell.
Following the invasion of Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945 (sixty one years ago today!) the United States started assembling warships at Ulithi atoll in preparation for the invasion of Okinawa.
 On March 9, 1945 a Japanese "Myrt" reconnaissance aircraft, flying from Truk Island,
discovered the gathering fleet. Upon learning of the large collection of U.S. warships the Japanese decided to launch a long-planned major operation called "TAN" -- the destruction of U.S. warwhips at their base. The operation was to be carried out by kamikaze aircraft from the by-passed Japanese-held island of Truk.
The suicide attack took place on March 11, 1945.
On March 11, 1945 I was at Ulithi atoll. I had recently arrived there following the
invasion of Iwo Jima. I was scheduled to participate in the same duty for the invasion of Okinawa. (How lucky can you get !!!!!!!!!!!)
I was a very minor "grunt-type" member on the staff of a major officer involved in both of the above operations. The officer and his staff made up of USN, USMC and Army personnel were headquartered on a command ship (AGC). I was involved in air support (ALP, ASCU) -- coordinating bombings, strafings, napalming, etc. on the front lines providing close air support for front line troops.
At Ulithi the ship I was on was anchored amid a hugh armada of BB's, CV's, CVE's, CA's. CL's, DD's, etc. Anchored on our starboard side -- a couple hundred yards or so away -- was the aircraft carrier USS Randolph (CV-15)
It was just beginning to get dark. The weather was warm and pleasant, as it generally was in that part of the Pacific. The ship's crew and members of our staff were assembled outside on deck on the ship's stern to watch a movie. Lights on all the ships were ablaze. The anchorage was considered to be safe enough that there were no blackouts at night.
By the time the movie started it was dark. The film hadn't run very long before a commotion of airplane roars were suddenly heard overhead. Assuming the planes to be our own -- buzzing the fleet -- everybody started cursing "those damned show-off fly-boys" for interupting and drowning out the sound of the movie. Suddenly general quarters sounded over the ship's address system. Everybody started running to their battle stations. Not being a member of the crew I had no battle station, so I just stayed up on deck to determine what was happening.
Suddenly there was a terrific roar coming from the right! Those of us still on deck turned to see what it was. What we saw was the black silhouette of an airplane coming in at high speed -- just above the water -- directly toward us. Before anybody could react the plane zoomed over our heads with a deafening roar -- just missing our ship's superstructure by feet. Then there was a loud explosion. We turned to discover that the airplane had crashed into the Randolph -- it's intended target -- right beside us. It was only then that we realized that the plane was a Jap kamikaze. The Randolph was on fire. Sailors were rushing about on her.
  Kamikaze USS Randolph
And then the sounds of the enemy aircraft slowly faded into the east.
The Randolph was the only ship damaged in the raid (that I'm aware of). She suffered
relatively minor damage and was repaired in time to participate (although late) in the Okinawa campaign.
Besides hitting the carrier the Japanese kamikaze raid was a complete failure due to a
number of reasons. Some of the old planes had to turn back for Truk because of engine troubles (a couple had to ditch in the ocean) -- others experienced navigational errors -- and, finally, the remainder had to fly into a brisk headwind all the way from Truk to Ulithi, causing them to to arrive late -- after dark -- when they weren't able to pick out targets.
That was my first experience with kamikaze attacks -- but there were one hell of a lot more to come at Okinawa.
Incidently -- the bad news -- the movie for the evening was cancelled !!!
 We emailed ""vcs-ww2" for permission to publish his post, but never heard from him. So, we are publishing his post anyway. vcs-ww2, if you have any objection to our publishing your post, please email us.
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