Kamikaze Attack - November 25th, 1944 (New York City, New York)

 Second World War 1939-1945, military, place with historical importance, crash site, historical layer / disappeared object

Late November 1944 found the Intrepid off the coast of the Philippine Islands, her aircraft pounding southern Luzon and the Visayan area. Morning flight operations were still in progress on November 25th, when radar screens aboard the Intrepid and her escorts began to pick up swarms of suicide-bent Japanese planes closing on the formation from Luzon. At 12:15, Intrepid went to general quarters and her crew manned their battle stations and anti-aircraft guns in preparation to repel the coming attack. The first wave of attacking aircraft was driven off, with two kamikaze planes near-missing USS Hancock and USS Cabot, two carriers steaming with the Intrepid.

The skies became quiet again until 12:52, when the radar team on the Intrepid picked up two Japanese Zero fighters closing in at 8000 feet. At 12:53 Intrepid's stern AA guns and 5-inch batteries opened fire on the left hand of the two Zeroes, exploding it just above the water 1500 yards astern of the ship. The second of the two Zeroes came sweeping in low from the stern, dodged a US Hellcat fighter and went into a power stall some 1,000 yards astern, did a wingover from an approximate altitude of 500 feet and rocketed into Intrepid's flight deck at 12:55. The bomb it carried penetrated into the pilot's ready room, which was fortunately empty. Thirty-two radarmen in an adjoining compartment were not so lucky, and were all killed by the explosion.

Immediately Intrepid began making sharp starboard (right) turns, spilling water and flaming gasoline over the port side, away from critical systems in the island structure on the starboard side. Fire-fighting parties were met with a hail of exploding .50 caliber and 20mm ammunition as they sought to extinguish raging fires on the hangar deck.

At the same time the AA gunners continued fending off further attack. At 12:57 two more Japanese Zeroes were spotted flying about 100 feet from the surface. Smoke billowing from the burning hangar deck obscured the view of all starboard and stern island AA guns, leaving the two planes to be taken under fire by port side AA guns. The left hand attacker was shot down at 1,500 yards range, but the right hand plane, making violent evasive moves drove through a blizzard of tracers, power-stalled and went into a wing over to crash on the flight deck at 12:59, its bomb penetrating the flight deck and detonating in the hangar deck.

After being attacked twice in 10 minutes, the valiant crew of the Intrepid fought to save their ship. For over three hours and under constant threat of further air attack, her sailors struggled to bring roaring gasoline fires under control. Remaining on her station to recover her aloft aircraft, the battered Intrepid withdrew on 26 November 1944 for repairs. Arriving at San Francisco on December 20th, the Intrepid was repaired, modernized and rejoined the fight on February 15th, 1945.

59 enlisted men and 6 officers were killed or listed as missing as a result of the attack.

www.wa3key.com/cv11data.html