June 28, 1945: BUNKER HILL HIT BU SUICIDE PLANES:

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, JUNE 28, 1945:

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BUNKER HILL SURVIVES JAP SUICIDE ATTACK—Smoke filled the skies as It rose from the .flight deckof the U. S. S. Bunker Hill—another gallant ship that refused to die. The carrier, flagship of Vice-AdmiralWare A. Mitscher, was hit twice within 30 seconds by two Jap suicide planes just as she was ready to send off a flight of gasoline-filled and bomb-loaded planes on a mission over Okinawa. In the resulting inferno 373 men were killed and 264 wounded. Ship survived to limp into a west coast repair yard where she is being refitted for further duty.

 

Command

to Defend

Tokyo Set

Tokyo Says B-29s

Mine Inland Sea;

Nip Convoy Sunk

GUAM, Friday, June 29.

(U.P) A giant sky fleet of almost 500 Superfortresses showered more than 3000

tons of fire bombs on three major Japanese seaports and a huge army training center in a pre-dawn multiple attack today.

The B-29s attacked Sasesbo, one of Japan's most Important naval bases on the northwestern coast of Kyushu island; Moji, large shipping center at the northern tip "of Kyusliu facing Shimonoseki; Nobeka, on the southeastern Kyushu coast, and Okayaama, site of an enemy army training base.

Major-General Curtis E. Lemay’s Twenty-first Bomber Command Superforts flew in four separate formations and dropped their jellied-gasoline

incendiaries In pre-dawn darkness at 4 a. m.

Eighty-fifth Raid

 

Mitscher's Carrier Hit

With 656 Total Losses

Task Force 58 Commander Escapes When Two Jap Planes Crash

Into Decks; U. S. S. Bunker Hill Survives to Fight Again

By JAMES A. MacLEAN

United Trees Staff Correspondent

SEATTLE, June 28. OLE)—Two Japanese suicide planes on the morning of Mny 11 almost converted the

U. S. S. Bunker Hill into a flaming tomb off Okinawa for Vice-Admiral Marc A. Mitscher, whose flagship she was.

But the hard-hitting and hard-to-kill commander of Task Force 58 escaped—without a scratch or blister, and the Bunker Hill survived.

After a six-hour ordeal of blasting bombs, exploding ammunition

636 casualties, including 373 killed, 19 missing and 264 wounded.

But thanks to her crew's heroism and to a daring maneuver under enemy hoses, the 27,500-ton Bunker Hill lived to join the Franklin, her “Essex"class sister, and the mighty: Saratoga in the proud company of United States carriers which refused to sink.