Evening star., 1942-09-19
Tells of Attacks on
Jap Bases and Ships
In South Pacific Area
3y the Associated Press.

| BY the Associated Press.
The aircraft carrier Yorktown
had been on a continuous battle
cruise of 1O4 days when she was
sunk in the fighting at Midway
Island, the Navy announced yester-
day, and had participated in every
ma jor naval engagement of Pacific
Fleet task forces.
Beginning with the raid on the
Gilbert and Marshall Islands in late
January, the big carrier had put her
planes in action against the enemy
there, at Salamaua and Lac, New
Guinea; at Tulagi, in the Solomon
Islands, which was japanese base
before the Marines captured it in
August, and in the battles of the
Coral Sea and Midway.
Her dive bombers and torpedo
bombers had damaged battleships
and sunk Or damaged cruisers, de-
stroyers, aircraft carriers and trans
ports, and had blasted japanese
shore installations into uselessness
and shot down enemy planes for a
total staggering score which, the
Navy said, will never be exactly
known
One Bomb Sank Jap Cruiser.
The story of the big ships opera
ton was told by 1t. Comdr. w. o.
Burch of Paducah. KY, who recently
returned from the Pacific, where he
was signed to the Yorktown with
Scouting Squadron 5, Immediately
after December 7. One of the Incl
dents he related was that a Japanese
cruiser was sunk by just one bomb
from Yorktown dive bomber
piloted by Ensign Herbert Stanton
Brown, Jr., of Martin, Ga, who was
member of his squadron.
Comdr. Burch told this story, as
released by the Navy:
Il was commanding officer of
Scouting Squadron on the York
town from the time war was de-
clared. We picked up a convoy,
went to the Southwest Pacific with
it, and then headed up into the
Marshalls and made our first attack.
I'm the raid on the Marshalls, we
were assigned to the southern group
of islands. The division I was with
went to Maxim. We had little bad
weather, but found it clear at Ma
kin. There was a seaplane tender
there and two Anchored bombers
sitting on the water.
Set Ships on Fire.
eve met quite a bit of anti-air-
craft fire, but it was miles off. Our
first attack was made on the sea-
plane tender. 1t had planes aboard.
We couldn't tell how many. Luckily
I got hit which made mess of
her deck. We noticed that the bomb
gave off 2 tremendous high yellow
flame. The bomb set the ship on
fire. The other eight bombs were
close misses. The ship took list !
astern.
After that we turned Immediately
and jumped the four -motored bomb
ers and sank them. I started to
approach one and continuously
sprayed him. When I hit 1000 feet
it exploded. The planes behind me
eXpIOQeQ Jne ScCOnQ one.
I'VE made straf1ng attacks on the
seaplane tender and stopped the
anti-aircraft fire from it. We pretty |
we'll riddled it. That was Maxim.
Three Attacks on Tulagi.
Next we went down to the Coral |
Sea and went in to attack Salamaua
and Lac. Our torpedo bombers
made successful level bombing at
tacks. Our fighters (Gruman F4F-4's
''Wildcats), shot down two Jap sea-
planes and strafed both surface
ships and ground installations. Our
dive bombers sank cargo ships and
destroyers. All told, the operation |
completely wiped the place out.
Our next attack was Tulagi, on
May 4. We had been at sea for |
quite long time, and it was good
news when we heard we were head
ing in to an attack.
1--WE made three attacks on Tulagi. |
I was first of with my squadron,
and was told to make a sweep to
see if could find anything coming
down from the North. We saw
nothing. Just as I reached Tulagi,
the other two squadrons, Bombing 5
and Torpero S, arrived. All I could
see in the harbor was three cargo
ships. I divided my squadron into
divisions, designated a cargo ship
4