One of our screws went out and we had to make emergency repairs during the day. It was fixed later however and we resumed our station. We remained in the fueling area for three days and cruised with the rest of the force. The battle wagons were taking on ammunition and the destroyers were taking on stores, delivering mail and various duties.
We left the afternoon of the 22 and ran into a small storm. It soon blew over and we once headed for Japan with the entire force.
On the afternoon of July 24th we left the main force and joined a small striking force. This consisted of 5 cruisers and 8 destroyers. We headed for Japan at top speed and arrived that night at 2240 just off the coast. We cruised up and down the coast looking for shipping and sunk one small craft. The fog was heavy so we headed north for shore bombardment. We shot up airfields, radio stations and installations. We started the bombardment at 0130. We fired 112 rounds of 5" and then retired. Our range was 8,000 yards from the beach. We had several bogies as we retired but nothing developed. We rejoined the rest of the task group which was 85 miles south of us.
We rejoined the task group and had several bogies during the day of July 25. We were all pretty worn out after being at G.Q. all night and most of the next day. Everyone was happy about the whole thing because many of us had come all the way from Pearl Harbor just for one thing – to bombard the mainland of those Japanese bastards.
We steamed close around the mainland all day of the 25th. We put air strikes out all day from the carriers but had no idea of the results. We were in close formation throughout the day. Late in the afternoon a PBM (Mariner), which is a large twin engine sea plane landed on the surface near the task force. This plane had rescued two pilots who had been shot down during the days air strikes too close to the mainland for destroyers to attempt a rescue. The rescue plane had ran out of gas and the sea was too rough for a take off. A destroyer picked up the crew and the two pilots then sank her by gunfire.
During the early part of the night we had three waves of bogies on the screen and remained at general quarters several hours. None came in over the fleet as our C.A.P. shot 7 down and one of the "Tom Cats" (Radar Pickets) splashed another.
We continued steaming with the rest of the force and resumed our air strikes the next day. Our pilots have run a terrific score on the Japanese Navy as well as Air Force.
One or our planes had dropped his bomb load and started back to the task group. On his way back he saw a large airfield and harbor getting set for another run. A cruiser opened up on him and seriously damaged the plane. The pilot crashed and was rescued by a destroyer. After he had returned to the carrier he reported that the long hidden Japanese Navy had been found. There were several heavy cruisers and two BB’s as well as other ships in next to the beach. All were covered with camouflaged netting, so aircraft could not find them. If the cruiser had not opened fire we would not have known where they were.
For the next three days our planes really went to work on the Japanese Fleet damaging and sinking battleships, carriers, several cruisers and quite a few destroyers. Also three submarines. The entire remaining remnants of the Japanese Navy were virtually destroyed. There were many raids over the cities and many industrial targets really caught hell.