The Ship That Wouldn't Die

The USS Franklin was a United States aircraft carrier commissioned on 31 January, 1944. It was number 13 of 24 essex-class aircraft carriers built during World War Two, and was the fifth ship to bear the name Franklin, in honor of Benjamin Franklin. Under Captain James M. Shoemaker, U.S.N., the Franklin left for “shakedown” in Trinidad on 20 March 1944, and a few months later on 15 June, left for battle in the Pacific. The Franklin made it just in time to join Carrier Air Group 13 for the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October. The Franklin, along with the other ships in the Carrier Air Group 13, damaged or sank over twenty of Japan’s naval ships. These severe attacks would ultimately put the Japanese so far behind in naval warfare that they would not be able to recover before the war was over. However, this would not stop them from destroying U.S. naval ships in the Pacific. The Franklin would come under fire several times, but would not be taken down.

On 25 October 1944, the Franklin along with Carrier Air Group 13, were fighting in The Battle of Leyte Gulf just off Samar Island in the Philippines. Suddenly, five Japanese fighter planes were closing in on the air group. When they were close enough, they “climbed to five thousand feet�"and deliberately dove their aircraft into four small CVE escort aircraft carriers.” The St. Lo was hit the hardest, losing 100 sailors and sinking within an hour of being hit. This was the first known attack of organized kamikaze warfare. Kamikaze warfare was born of desperation from the Japanese Military; by this time in 1944, they had lost a majority of their experienced pilots. All kamikaze pilots volunteered for the task themselves. The Japanese felt this was the only way in which they could possibly defeat the American Navy. Nicknamed “Big Ben”, the Franklin stretched 872 feet long, and the massive ship quickly became a target for enemy. 

Just five days after the St.Lo was sunk by kamikaze, on 30 October 1944, the Franklin was also struck by enemy planes. Three planes targeted the Franklin but only the second one struck the ship. The first was gunned down by the Franklin men and crashed into the ocean. The third dropped a bomb which also missed the ship, and then flew between the Franklin and the Belleau Wood, which made it difficult for the ships to shoot at it, in fear they would hit the adjacent ship. Eventually it crashed into the fantail of the Belleau Wood, and ninety-two officers were injured or killed in the attack, and twelve aircraft were destroyed. Thirty-three of the Franklin’s planes had to be pushed overboard because of the severe damage caused by fire. There were eighty-six casualties, fifty-six killed and thirty wounded. 

Following the October attack, Franklin arrived at Ulithi, a small island base in the Pacific, on 7 November for repairs. Once the Franklin arrived, they received devestating news: Captain Shoemaker was being reassigned to command all Naval Air Bases in the liberated areas of the Philippines. Captain Leslie Edward Gehres was there to replace Captain Shoemaker. After assessing the damage to the ship, the Ulithi repair crew determined it would take all of the steel that was available to them, and more than a month to repair Franklin enough to see battle again. “Ulithi’s limited facilities must be kept available for quick repair of ships which would return to action in weeks.” Four days later on 11 November 1944, Franklin sailed east towards Pearl Harbor, escorted by two destroyers, for repairs.

Franklin sailed into Pearl Harbor on 21 November, and was inspected by repair crews upon arrival. Again, it was determined that the damages were too much to handle. The Franklin and her crew were sent to the Puget Sound Navy Yard in Bremerton, Washington. The crew at Pearl Harbor called ahead to the yard in Bremerton as soon as the Franklin left to give them enough notice to prepare for the significant repairs that would need to be done. Franklin, just thirteen months old, arrived at Bremerton on 28 November 1944. She sat in dry dock five and immediately underwent overhaul and major repairs. Along with repairs, Franklin received many upgrades and modifications to help with defense. 

Attitudes, ship design, weaponry, carrier aviation, and fleet tactics and defense strategy as a whole changed radically after the appearance of the kamikaze in October 1944. Many of the new upgrades to Big Ben were specifically intended to combat this deadly threat.

Ships were equipped to have the best chance against enemy attacks. Franklin received a new radar system, dozens of guns were added to the deck for a total of sixty-eight. Water pumps were relocated throughout the entire ship, and “the fire main was reconfigured from six to eight to ensure a continuous water supply in case of severe damage.” This change would become significant in the following months. The ship was equipped with extra armor, and was repainted to the Measure 21 dark blue color scheme in order to help camouflage the ship against enemy air attacks. On January 28, 1945, the Franklin finally sailed out of Puget Navy Yard a new ship with a new captain, ready for battle. 

On February 1, 1945, Franklin arrived at the Alameda, California naval base, eager to join her new air group, Air Group 5. Six days later they headed west towards Pearl Harbor. At this point, the ship was home to roughly 3,400 men and sailors. Franklin arrived in Pearl Harbor on 12 February, and gained dozens of men aboard the ship. One of those men was Father Joseph Timothy O’Callahan, who was immediately welcomed and loved by the crew. He was refreshing to be around: he was easy going, and didn’t hesitate to stand up to Captain Gehres, who the crew never quite grew to like. Captain Gehres was harsh and often thought of as unfair, compared to the former Captain Shoemaker. He was arrogant, and lead by fear rather than example. Captain Gehres was arrogant and disrespectful towards his crew, and based on several accounts, was overheard blaming the crew for the kamikaze attack, telling them that if they had not been lazy or incompetent, they could have shot down the enemy and avoided the attack altogether. This came just days after the October attack happened, and the crew had just finished burying their fellow sailors at sea. His comments struck a nerve among the crew, yet they powered on.

The Franklin participated in a three week shakedown inspection off the coast of Hawaii. On March 3, 1945, Franklin headed towards Ulithi harbor. Twelve days later on March 13th, Franklin arrived at Ulithi harbor along with around a dozen more carriers. They stayed briefly, and then on March 14, 1945, with Franklin the flagship of Task Group 58.2, she headed towards enemy waters off the coast of Japan. They arrived March 17th, and that night, they used the cover of darkness to Move in 100 miles towards the island. Just before the early morning hours on March 18th, twenty of Franklin’s warplanes were flying over the enemy’s island, destroying as many aircrafts, hangars, and airfields. The day was spent gunning down enemies, which were now utilizing floating mines in the water. The night of March 18th, the crew was called to battle stations twelve times in just six hours. 

On the morning of March 19th, after battling all night, Captain Gehres decided to give the men a well-deserved break. With a radar clear of enemy threats, the crew was placed on modified condition, relieving them of their battle stations, except the gunnery crews who remained at their stations. This gave the sailors a chance to eat a hot breakfast or catch up on sleep after a long, grueling night of fighting. Just after 7 am, Franklin received a message over the radio from the ship Hancock, reporting that enemy planes were closing in on the Franklin. The radar was still clear, so they pressed on as usual. The Franklin was busy fueling and arming twenty-two aircrafts on the deck. Five minutes later, at 7:08, a Japanese Judy cut through the sky, flying close to the Franklin. Just a few minutes later, a Japanese aircraft would drop a 500 pound armor-piercing bomb onto the deck of the Franklin.

The Japanese bomb exploded on the hangar deck, and ignited the planes that had been gassed and armed. Then, a second bomb hit, exploding two decks below on the third level. Fire quickly spread across the ship. Quick thinking by Captain Gehres helped slow the fire; by turning the ship into the wind, he helped keep the fire from the undamaged sections of the ship. Minutes passed before the planes armed with bombs, torpedoes, and fuel were engulfed in flames and exploded. The fire also set off lots of ammunition aboard the ship. Bombs were rolling around the deck, so hot they were painful to touch, flames surrounding the crew. Luckily, the crew was able to use the new fire mains added to the ship to help combat the flames. At 7:25, Captain Gehres speaks with Admiral Davidson about the bridge of the ship. “The Admiral advised the Captain to pass the word to prepare to abandon ship.” At 7:45, USS Miller came up next to the exploding Franklin and took aboard the Admirals and their staffs, Captain Gehres stayed aboard. 

During the chaos, Father O’Callahan managed to round up men and organize them to help fight the growing fire on deck. In between checking on men and fighting the flames, he would give last rites to any sailor he saw who had been killed, would gather more men, and continue in this cycle. O’Callahan was calm, he was efficient, and he was everywhere. Captain Gehres requested that a ship pull up along the side of her, to transfer the injured and another ship to follow to help those who were forced to jump off of the ship due to the fire and explosions. The Franklin began to list starboard, and at around 10:00am, the engine finally gave out. Lt. Stanley Graham was able to transfer 13,000 gallons of oil and water from starboard to port, and the list was recorded as 14 degrees. The engines were dead, and the ship was overcome with an eerie silence. 

The Santa Fe came to the side of the Franklin two more times, taking on casualties among other men. The Pittsburgh was ordered to tow the ship back into town. Franklin had drifted thirty-eight miles off of Shikoku. Just after 2:00pm, the Pittsburgh took the tow line that had been secured to the Franklin and used the force of her engines to move the 872 foot long ship. The rudder of the Franklin was stuck in a hard left position, as that is where it was when the engines shut off. In order to tow the massive ship, the rudder needed to be completely straight, and this had to be done manually by the men in the steering aft.  This took extreme power between the four men, and they used up most of the remaining air supply down below deck. Two hours later, the Pittsburgh was towing the Franklin at a top speed of three knots. Around this same time, the fires on deck were under control, and explosions had all but ended. The Santa Fe pulled away, and took the last of the crew who wanted to leave. The slow moving ship was a target, and Japanese planes tried attacking several times, and each one was gunned down before an attack could be made. 

On March 21, two days after the attack, 704 men remained on the ship, which started off with over 3,000. At daybreak, the men saw that they were surrounded by several ships and destroyers, protecting them on all sides. Ships sent over small rations of food to feed the men, who had not eaten in over twelve hours. Just one day after the attack, Lt. Gary was able to the number five boiler running, which helped increase the tow speed to four knots. One day after the attack, the crew was able to get four boilers running, and had enough power to cast off of the Pittsburgh. Still sailing with a list, the Franklin was able to sail on its own at fifteen knots, and eventually averaged nineteen knots.

Hundreds of men perished in this devastating attack. After surviving the attack and celebrating the victory of running the ship under its own power, the men were faced with a gruesome task: they had to bury all of their shipmates at sea. “The treatment and management of the dead was an essential and largely untold part of the war.” This was not a surprise to the men, anytime someone died aboard the ship, they were buried at sea. The ships were away from land for months at a time, and it was unreasonable and impractical to keep the bodies after they had died. There was nowhere to keep them, and nowhere to preserve them, and there were no caskets.

The body was usually placed in canvas or what was known as sailcloth. A weight was placed with the body, which was typically a 5-inch projectile placed between the legs. Then the sailcloth was sewn, enclosing the body. Navy lore has it that the last stitch went through the nose of the body to ensure death prior to burial.

The men would then place the body on a plank or a board, and drape it with an American Flag. They would say a prayer, and maybe hold a small service, and then the body bearers would tip the board forward, hanging onto the board and the flag, and the body slipped down into the ocean feet first. The remaining crew spent days recovering dead bodies, or what was left of them. They were finding bodies up to twenty days after the initial attack. 

Father O’Callahan remained a calming presence throughout this entire ordeal. On the 23 of March, he decided that the men needed entertainment, so he gathered the surviving members of the ship’s band, who then gathered anything that could be used as instruments, and began to sing and play music for the crew. The ship entered Ulithia yet again on 25 March for emergency repairs, playing music as the ship limped into the naval yard. On April 3, Franklin charged into Pearl Harbor at twenty-four knots, music blaring over the sounds of the yard. The Santa Fe met the Franklin in Pearl Harbor, and those men who jumped from the burning ship to the Santa Fe were told to grab their belongings and be out of the ship in no more than twenty minutes. On April 9th, 1945, the Franklin sailed towards New York. The Franklin dropped anchor on 26 April at Gravestone Bay just off of New York. This was so that they could clear out the ammunition, fuel and bombs that remained on the ship. Commander Joe Taylor gave orders when they arrived: “no smoking in the vicinity of the ammunition stowed in the hangar deck was recommended to avoid exploding ammunition.” Two days later, all ammunition was removed from the ship, and the Franklin headed towards Brooklyn Navy Yard where it finally was able to rest. 

After undergoing one of the largest repair jobs in a naval yard, the Franklin returned to the Pacific on 30 June 1945 under Commander H.H. Hale, who relieved Captain Gehres. The war in the Pacific finally ended on August 15, 1945. Franklin was put on reserve for a few years, but was never used again. In 1966, Franklin was stricken from the Navy Register, and someone paid $228,000 to preserve the ship from being sold for scrap parts. 

The story of the Franklin, both fascinating and tragic, often goes untold. Most who know of the history of the ship, were told by friends or family members who were on the ship when it was attacked. This ship holds an important place in American history. The Franklin was an embodiment of the strength and determination of the United States during the time of war. In a time of complete and utter destruction, the remaining soldiers came together to revive the ship. The story of the courageous men who faced death and won, should not go untold. 

Bibliography

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Nilo, James R. and Robert E. St. Peters. USS Franklin (CV-13): The Ship That Wouldn’t Die. Paducah: Turner Publishing Company, 1989.

Shea, Michael R. Red Sky at Morning: Horror and Heroism Aboard the USS Franklin. Accessed September 31, 2016). http://www.historynet.com/

Springer, Joseph A. Inferno: The Epic Life and Death Struggle of the USS Franklin in World War II. St. Paul: Zenith Press, 2007.

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