We left Eniwetok on September 19 and we knew we were in for something but none knew for sure just what. In a couple of days we joined a large task force consisting of all types of ships and we knew something big was coming off.
We steamed on a steady course for the Philippines and made strikes on Manila. The carriers launched planes from about 60 miles from the coast of Luzon. We sent four waves of planes over and we damaged 20 ships and sank 20. Our losses were very light consisting of only a few planes. The enemy really paid for our first raid on Manila as we caught plenty of Japanese in the harbor and we knew how the Harbor lay as it hadn’t been too long before when Old Glory flew above the buildings. The pilots went in looking for revenge and they certainly ran up a good score the first day we were there.
Our raids were so successful the first day until we remained there for the second day and although the Japanese came out they only made a half hearted attack and they were the only losers as we suffered no damage what so ever.
After we left Luzon we returned to Saipan and remained there for a few days. The CB’s were really working the place over and some of the worst ruins had been cleared away but still there was loads of work to be done. We left there and then went to port, (censored) where we remained for a week and then it was the same old story again. Underway on October 11 –
Once again our course led us to Luzon but by this time the Japanese had cleared the harbor of ships and all the planes did was strafe and generally work over enemy installations and gun emplacements. We only remained in the vicinity of Luzon one day and as there were no targets we passed on in to greener pastures which was the island due north of the Philippine group, Formosa.
Formosa, is a large island belonging to the Japanese and had many airfields as well as large industrial plants including a very large cement works which supplied Japan with a large percent of her cement. Then too there was quite a bit of sugar grown there. Formosa was one of the most important ports for Japanese convoys coming through the China Sea from Sumatra and Java. This was the big fueling stop for the Japanese and they were protecting it at all costs.
As soon as our air strikes were off the Japanese pilots paid us a visit and believe me it wasn’t a social call by any means. We shot one Japanese down and one probable. We were under attack almost continuously for 48 hours and by the time our strikes were secured we were plenty knocked out as we had had little sleep and no rest. We were more than ready to leave. Our planes really fixed up the entire place and the damage was heavy to the enemy. The cement plants production was cut by an estimated 50% due to the accurate bombing of our pilots. There were a few ships sunk and a large number of aircraft destroyed on the ground as well as in the air. The airfields were the main objective and they took a terrific pounding for two days. We left Formosa and went out to refuel.
As soon as we had refueled we again returned to Formosa. Little did we know as we started back in what we had in front of us.