Tag Archives: USS Lexington (CV-16)

Woleai, back in the news after 80 years

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An isolated coral atoll of 22 islands inhabited by about 1,000 locals, Woleai is 35nm away from the nearest other inhabited island (which has a population of about 500) and is 400 miles away from the nearest serious airport in Guam.

The current civil airfield, an overgrown 1,200-foot strip that hasn’t been used in two decades, is listed as “closed for repairs.” The most reliable physical connection to the outside world these days is a semi-regular four-day boat service with Yap, some 350 miles away.

Considered part of the Caroline Islands under the Spanish from 1686 on, and briefly under the Germans from 1899, the Japanese navy scooped up the chain in 1914 as part of the Emperor’s contribution to the Great War. Post-Versailles, the Japanese retained Woleai under the South Seas Mandate and during WWII transformed it into a fortress, complete with a 3,300-foot airstrip (Falalap Airfield), seaplane base, and port facilities, protected by a 6,000-strong garrison.

Starting in late March 1944 and continuing for the next 18 months, the U.S. military turned the airfield and harbor at Woleai into a smoking ruin as extensively detailed in NARA reports.

Woleai under attack, 1 April 1944, by Navy carrier-based aircraft. US Air Force Reference Number: 60226AC

Japanese airfield on the Island of Woleai Atoll under attack by Task Force 58 planes, probably on 1 April 1944. 80-G-45318

The first large raids, by TF 58 F6Fs, SBDs, and TBFs from USS Lexington (CV 16), USS Bunker Hill (CV 19), and USS Hornet (CV 12), were followed after August 1944 by Army tactical air (P-47s, etc) flying from recently occupied Saipan. Then came regular airstrikes by land-based Navy bombers and flying boats (PB4Y-1s, PV-1s, and PBY-5s) of VD-5, VPB-133, VP-33, VP-52, VB-150, and VPB-151.

Left to wither on the vine, the garrison had constricted to just over 1,600 when USS Sloat (DE-245) arrived two weeks after VJ Day with the unarmed 9,300-ton Japanese hospital Takasago Maru to accept the island’s surrender. It was all very unceremonial.

Unlike other islands in the Pacific, there were no documented holdouts on Woleai. The Japanese there just wanted to go home.

Members of the Japanese garrison on Woleai Island in the Caroline Islands about to be evacuated by a waiting ship. Japanese prisoners are searched by US Marine Corps enlisted men. The Japanese appeared to be in good physical shape, in direct contrast to those found on other islands. 80-G-495722

Japanese rifles and samurai swords are neatly stacked by members of the Japanese garrison on tiny Woleai, an island in the Carolines just west of Truk, preparatory to being evacuated by US Pacific Units cleaning up by-passed islands in the Pacific, September 1945. 80-G-485723

Three days later, with the garrison loaded on Takasago Maru and the garrison’s weapons and interesting equipment stowed aboard Sloat, the two vessels went their separate ways.

Administered by the Navy (U.S. Naval Base Woleai for a time) as a Trust Territory until 1979, the Carolines became the Federated States of Micronesia, and Woleai soon after the Cold War became a backwater for real. I can’t find where a U.S. warship has visited the island since Johnson was in office (USS Brister (DER-327) in February 1965).

So it should not be surprising that the Chinese government just recently broke ground on a new airport project in Wolei.

Did we mention this is just 400 miles from Guam?

As noted by The Island Times, “The FSM maintains diplomatic ties with the People’s Republic of China, while Palau and the Marshall Islands, which also have Compacts of Free Association with the United States, recognize Taiwan.”

Murderers’ Row

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80 years ago today, 2 December 1944, in an ode to the ’27 Yankees. Third Fleet fast carriers anchored in Ulithi Atoll, Carolines, in a brief lull before the start of the Mindoro landings in the Philippines.

NHHC Catalog #: 80-G-294150. Copyright Owner: National Archives

Ships are (L to R): USS Wasp (CV-18), USS Yorktown (CV-10), USS Hornet (CV-12), and USS Hancock (CV-19). A destroyer escort and LCI are passing by. Planes in the foreground on board USS Ticonderoga (CV-14) are F6F-5 Hellcats of VF-80 with a TBM-3 Avenger of VT-80 making a cameo on the far right.

One of Tico’s F6F-5P Photocats got a great profile shot of the group on 8 December, with a sixth sister, Lexington, joining the line-up. The much better known 80-G-294129:

"Murderers' Row" Third Fleet aircraft carriers at anchor in Ulithi Atoll, 8 December 1944, during a break from operations in the Philippines area. The carriers are (from front to back): USS Wasp (CV-18), USS Yorktown (CV-10), USS Hornet (CV-12), USS Hancock (CV-19) and USS Ticonderoga (CV-14). Wasp, Yorktown, and Ticonderoga are all painted in camouflage Measure 33, Design 10a. Photographed from a USS Ticonderoga plane. 80-G-294131

U.S. Third Fleet. Caption: Aircraft carriers and other ships at anchor at Ulithi Atoll, on 8 December 1944. Carriers in line are (from the front): USS Wasp (CV-18), USS Yorktown (CV-10), USS Hornet (CV-12), and USS Hancock (CV-19); USS Ticonderoga (CV-14); USS Lexington (CV-16) is in the left background. Note camouflage schemes used with Wasp, Yorktown, and Ticonderoga all clad in camouflage Measure 33, Design 10a. Photographed from a Ticonderoga plane. 80-G-294129

Of note, none of these six Essex class carriers were in commission during the Pearl Harbor attack just three years prior. Indeed, Hancock and Ticonderoga had only joined the fleet six months before these images were snapped.

It’s worth remembering that when Nagumo’s carriers closed in on Oahu on the early morning of 7 December 1941, the entire U.S. Pacific Fleet only had three carriers to its name.

A sleeping giant, indeed.

White 35, in full Color

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Check out this original Kodachrome, taken some 80 years ago today, of LT(JG) George T. Glacken and his gunner, Aviation Radioman Second Class Leo W. Boulanger, in their Douglas SBD-5 Dauntless dive bomber, White 35, of VB-16 from the Essex-class aircraft carrier USS Lexington (CV-16) off of Palau, 30 March 1944.

(LIFE Magazine Archives – JR Eyerman Photographer)

You can make out the details of the bomb hashes, and Boulanger’s twin AN/M2s, capable of a blistering 1,200 rounds per minute as long as the belts hold out.

You can see the squadron’s distinctive eagle insignia on the side of White 35.

Bombing Sixteen would earn the Presidential Unit Citation “Received for action from the U.S.S. Lexington (CV-16) at Tarawa (September 18th, 1943), Wake (October 5-6th, 1943), Palau, Hollandia and Truk (March 18th – April 30th, 1944), Marianas (June 11th – July 5th, 1944), and Gilbert Islands (November 19th, – December 5th, 1945).”

Glacken is listed as a Navy Cross holder. Born in 1916 in Lorain, Ohio, he passed in 1990. Meanwhile, Boulanger would earn the DFC.

And, of course, the “Grey Ghost” that they flew from is preserved as a museum ship at Corpus Christie, Texas.

Lady Lex Pow Wow

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Some 80 years ago this month, aboard the Essex-class fleet carrier USS Lexington (CV-16) in the Pacific: A great period Kodachrome of The “Fighting Airedales” of Fighting Squadron Sixteen (VF-16)’s Commanding Officer, LCDR Paul Douglas Buie (USNA ’33), (center) briefing his pilots for an upcoming mission, during the Gilberts operation, November 1943.

Photographed by Commander Edward Steichen, USNR. Official U.S. Navy Photograph 80-G-K-16053, now in the collections of the National Archives.

The above are (l-r): ENS WM. J. Seyfferle, LT(JG) A. R. Fizalkowski, LT(JG) A. L. Frendberg, LCDR (future RADM) Paul D. Buie (Commanding Officer), ENS John W. Bartol, LT(JG) Dean D. Whitmore, LT(JG) Francis M. Fleming, LT(JG) WM. C. B. Birkholm, LT(JG) Sven Rolfsen, Jr. plus two others not named in the group to the right of LCDR Buie. A F6F-3 Hellcat fighter is behind them. Note flight gear, markings on helmets, and life vests. The pilot at left wears an M1911 .45 caliber pistol on his belt in a leather flap holster just in case he was to become a member of “The Walking Club.”

The fifth warship (and second WWII flattop) to carry the name, Lady Lex had originally been laid down in July 1941 by Bethlehem Steel in Quincy in July 1941 while America was at an uneasy peace, with the intention she would be named USS Cabot. Instead, on 16 June 1942, just days after CV-2 was lost at the Battle of the Coral Sea, she picked up the mantle and was commissioned on 17 February 1943.

Her inaugural airwing would be Carrier Air Group 16, which had only been established on 16 November 1942 with all-new squadrons (VF-16, VT-16, VB-16, and VS-16). CAG-16 would remain with Lex until July 1945 and would earn their keep in November 1943.

As noted by DANFS:

After Caribbean shakedown and yard work at Boston, Lexington sailed for Pacific action via the Panama Canal, arriving at Pearl Harbor on 9 August 1943. She raided Tarawa in late September and Wake in October, then returned to Pearl Harbor to prepare for the Gilbert Islands operation. From 19 to 24 November, she made searches and flew sorties in the Marshalls, covering the landings in the Gilberts. Her aviators downed 29 enemy aircraft on 23 and 24 November.

A U.S. Navy Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat from Fighting Squadron VF-16, Carrier Air Group 16, goes down deck for take-off of the aircraft carrier USS Lexington (CV-16) during the Gilbert Islands campaign. Photographed by Commander Edward Steichen (U.S. Navy photo 80-G-471179)

Pilots of VF-16 celebrate after shooting down 17 Japanese aircraft in the Marshalls & Gilberts area on 23 November 1943. They are (l-r): Ensign WM. J. Seyfferle, Lieutenant Junior Grade A. R. Fizalkowski, Lieutenant Junior Grade A. L. Frendberg, Lieutenant Commander Paul D. Buie (Commanding Officer), Ensign John W. Bartol, Lieutenant Junior Grade Dean D. Whitmore, Lieutenant Junior Francis M. Fleming, Lieutenant Junior Grade WM. C. B. Birkholm, Lieutenant Junior Grade Sven Rolfsen, Jr. plus two others not named in the group to the right of Lieutenant Commander Buie. Planes are F6F-3s. Photographed by Commander Edward Steichen, USNR. 80-G-44598

Lexington received the Presidential Unit Citation and 11 battle stars for World War II service, served off Cuba during the Missile Crisis with CVG-3 aboard then, at the end of 1963, tapped out sistership USS Antietam (CV/CVS/AVT-36) as the aviation training carrier at Pensacola, a task she would keep up for the rest of the Cold War, remaining the last of her class on active duty– and the final wooden decked carrier in the U.S. Navy.

She logged more than 493,000 arrested landings between 1943 and 1991.

Navy photograph of USS Lexington (AVT-16) at Pensacola December 1991 before towing to Corpus

She is preserved in Corpus Christi, where she has rested since 1992, outliving CAG/CVW-16 by two decades and VF-16 by four.

Galvanic Battlewagon

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Some 78 years ago today:

A Douglas SBD-5 Dauntless dive bomber from the Essex-class fleet carrier USS Lexington (CV-16)— or possibly her sistership Yorktown (CV-10)— in the background, flies anti-submarine patrol over the North Carolina-class fast battleship USS Washington (BB-56) while en route to the invasion of Tarawa and Makin Islands in the Gilbert Island chain (Operation Galvanic). 12 November 1943.

USN photo # 80-G-204897, now in the collection of the National Archives.

Laid down by Philadelphia Naval Ship Yard, 14 June 1938, Washington commissioned 15 May 1941 and earned 13 battle stars during World War II in operations that carried her from the Arctic Circle to the western Pacific. Decommissioned in mid-1947 and assigned to the New York group of the Atlantic Reserve Fleet, she was stricken and sold in 1961 for scrap.

Ironically, both Lexington and Yorktown are preserved as floating museum ships.