Escort Carrier WWII: War in the Pacific
on the Aircraft Carrier USS Petrof Bay
by Rick Cline
R.A. Cline Publishing, 1998, 222 pages
American escort carriers, nicknamed "jeep
carriers" or "baby flat tops," transported aircraft and other
supplies to the front lines during the Pacific War. In addition, air squadrons
based on these small carriers provided air support for land-based operations.
The escort carrier USS Petrof Bay (CVE-80) fought for nine months at
Peleliu, the Philippines, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. The ship's gunners and air
squadron pilots downed many Japanese planes, including kamikazes, but the ship
escaped damage. Escort Carrier WWII was the first book for author Rick
Cline, son of Petrof Bay crewmember Clovis Cline, and he has written two
other books on World War II topics since its publication in 1998. The author
privately published all three books. Although Cline has a family connection to Petrof
Bay, the book includes almost no personal stories and draws extensively
from official Navy deck logs, war diaries, and action reports.
Escort Carrier WWII tells the war history of Petrof
Bay in 15 chapters chronologically arranged, and two long chapters on the
Battle of Leyte Gulf and Battle of Okinawa make up about half the book. A
useful two-page glossary provides meanings for various acronyms and other
technical terms, but the book lacks a map to show locations of Petrof Bay's
battle actions. Although this history lacks particulars about the personalities
of the ship's officers and crew, in some places the book includes excessive
details about the ship's operations. Refueling operations, both from Petrof
Bay to other ships or from tankers to Petrof Bay, get a lot of
attention. As an example of the extreme level of detail, a tanker went
alongside Petrof Bay at 1116 hours on May 16, 1945, and "the CVE
received 292,607 gallons of fuel oil and 30,417 gallons of aviation
gasoline" (p. 187). Each appendectomy performed by the ship's doctor on a
crewman also seems to get mentioned. Although the book has numerous facts about
the carrier, the author misses a basic one like the number of men on the ship.
In February 1944, the US Navy commissioned the escort
aircraft carrier Petrof Bay (CVE-80), nicknamed the Mighty 80. Two Fleet
Composite Squadrons, VC-76 (June 1944 to March 1945) and VC-93 (March to May
1945), used the 512-foot carrier for their operations of about 28 FM-2 Wildcat
fighters and TBM Avenger torpedo bombers. The book's first five chapters cover Petrof
Bay's maiden voyage to carry aircraft, personnel, and materials back and
forth to the southwest Pacific and the ship's first battle action in the Palau
Islands in September 1944.
Chapters 6 to 10 narrate Petrof Bay's battle action in
the Philippines, with focus on the escort carrier's participation in the Battle
of Leyte Gulf. On October 25 and 26, 1944, Petrof Bay's gunners
successfully fought off some of the first kamikaze attacks of the war, but a few
kamikaze planes succeeded in hitting nearby escort carriers. On October
25, gunners from Petrof Bay and other escort carriers failed to stop a
diving Zero fighter from crashing into the flight deck of the escort carrier Santee.
Another Zero barely missed Petrof Bay off her port bow. Minutes later,
two Japanese planes started to dive on Petrof Bay, but one plane changed
direction and hit the escort carrier Suwannee, and the other plane
dropped a bomb that missed Petrof Bay. On October 26 at about 12:30
p.m., five Japanese planes started dives at Petrof Bay and Suwannee,
with three breaking off toward Petrof Bay and the other two toward Suwannee.
The first kamikaze plane heading toward Petrof Bay crashed about 50 feet
astern after being hit by the ship's guns. Petrof Bay gun crews also
downed the second kamikaze plane, which missed only about 25 feet forward of
the bridge and hit the water about 25 feet off the ship's side. The last plane
took off trailing smoke after being hit by the ship's gunners. The first plane
heading toward Suwannee hit the forward flight deck. Suwannee's
gunners managed to shoot down the second plane, which crashed near the port
bow, but the first plane killed more than 100 men and wounded another 170.
The last five chapters cover the battles at Iwo Jima and
Okinawa and Petrof Bay's several postwar trips back and forth across the
Pacific. During the Battle of Iwo Jima, Composite Squadron 76 (VC-76) planes
based on Petrof Bay flew over 800 sorties, mainly for ground support
missions. The ship's new air squadron, Composite Squadron 93 (VC-93), flew
almost 1,800 sorties off Okinawa through the end of May 1945, when the carrier
returned to the States for a general overhaul. VC-93 fighter planes downed 17
Japanese planes during mass kamikaze attacks on April 6 and 12, 1945, and the
book includes battle action related to several of these individual kills by
VC-93 pilots.
This history of Petrof Bay relates the WWII battle
actions of the escort carrier and her air squadrons in a detached manner since
it relies heavily on official Navy documents. A few personal accounts from the
ship's officers and crew would have greatly improved this book.
Kamikaze plane on fire
barely missed Petrof Bay
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