Evening star., 1945-07-30
Intrepid, Survivor
.0f5Jap Bombings,
Is Back With Fleet
By WILLIAM ]. WREATLEY


The most-bombed aircraft carrier
! in the Pacific, the Essex class In
trepid, is back with the feet again
after repairs to damage suffered in
the fifth japanese bombing attack
on her, the Navy Department an
nounced today.
However, the 27,000-ton carrier
has well demonstrated her ability
to give as well as receive punish
ment. During am eventful Is
months in the Pacific her airmen
and gunners have taken an impress
sive toll of enemy sea and air power
The Intrepids planes sent 80
enemy ships to the bottom, one of
which was an aircraft carrier, and
she was one of those in the group
which sent Japan's best battleship,
the Yamato, to the bottom. To-
gether the airmen and gunners of
the Intrepid have destroyed $50 air.
craft. Her flyers also probably sank
80 enemy vessels and damaged an
additional 179 ships.
Named for Famous Ketch.
The Intrepid was named for the
famous American Navy ketch which
sailed into Tripoli Harbor on Feb
ruary 6, 1904, to send the captured
U. S. S. Philadelphia to the bottom
Oddly enough, the modern Intrepid
received her first damage from
Japanese planes off Truk on the
140th anniversary of her namesake's
famous raid.
In this action, lone enemy plane
got through the Intrepids anti
aircraft screen and dropped tor
pedo. Explosions damaged the
ships steering mechanism and
Ihopelessly jammed her rudder But
Capt. Thomas L. Sprague of Coro-
nado, Calf. used his engines to
steer the stricken ship, ordered a
sail rigged on the forecastle, shifted
his cargo to lift the bow, and, thus
rigged, brought his ship to Pearl
Harbor for repairs. Comdr Charles
B. Lanman of 1904 Montgomery
street, Chevy Chase, navigated the
vessel on this trip.
Afterward the Intrepid returned
to the Pacific to cooperate with
fast carrier forces of Task Forces
So and 38 in series of strikes in
the Marianas, the Philippines, the
japanese Inland Sea, Two Jima and
Okinawa. '
Damaged Off Luzon.
She next was damaged off Luzon
on October 20, 1914, while under
the command of Capt. Joseph F.
Bolger, formerly of 4819 Sixteenth
street North, Arlington, who now
lives in Coronado. The carrier was
hit by the first successful Japanese
suicide plane attack. The Jap plann
plummeted into her flight deck, slid
into the gun gallery, killing 10 gun
ners and starting fire which was
quickly brought under control.
32 Killed in Attack.
This time the ships crew fixed
up her damage and remained in the
fight for the retaking of the Phil
| ippines. On November Is, 1914,
while off Luzon, she was hit again,
when a Jap Zeke dropped on her
flight deck, the bomb piercing the
deck and hitting in the pilots ready
room, which was empty. However,
| it killed 80 men in the next COM
partment. While still trying to
check the fires from this attack,
the carrier was hit by another plane
which crashed into the flight deck.
This made it impossible for the ship
to take aboard her planes 'and, with
two gaping holes in her flight deck,
came home again for repairs.
On last April 16, while the In
trepid was operating close to the
Jap home islands, another plane
struck her flight deck with such
force, the Navy said, that the i'm
print of its wings we're left in the
deck. This time the bomb tore
through to the hangar deck, the
resulting explosion killing nine men
and wounding 81. The fire that fol-
lowed destroyed more than three
dozen planes, which, however, were
not fueled or armed at the time.
In SO minutes her crew had brought
the blazes under control.