USS Ommaney Bay

Construction and early service

Ommaney Bay was laid down on 6 October 1943 as MCE hull 1116, the twenty-fifth of fifty Casablanca-class escort carriers. Her hull was launched on 29 December, sponsored by Mrs P.K. Robottom. She was transferred to the Navy and commissioned at 10:00 on 11 February 1944. Her construction and outfitting cost $7,339,521 (equivalent to $103,595,400 in 2024).^[7]

She spent much of February 1944 being fitted out at Naval Station Tongue Point in Astoria, Oregon.^[8] She conducted sea trials in Puget Sound from 4 to 13 March, before proceeding south on 14 March. She arrived at Naval Air Station Alameda on 17 March, and sailed on 19 March for Brisbane, Australia, carrying passengers, aircraft, and supplies.^[9] She arrived in Brisbane on 7 April, left port on 12 April, and arrived in San Diego on 27 April.^[10] From 1 to 10 May, she conducted carrier qualification landings, drills and tests, spending the rest of the month moored for alterations and repairs.^[11] She sailed for Pearl Harbor on a transport mission on 10 June. She arrived on 16 June, and until August, she trained air groups and squadrons off the Hawaiian coast.^[12] On 12 August, Ommaney Bay joined the escort carrier formation Task Unit 32.4.6, commanded by Rear Admiral William D. Sample. She then sailed to Tulagi, arriving on 24 August, where rehearsals were made for Operation Stalemate II, the invasion of the Palau Islands.^[13]

After the rehearsals were completed on 26 August, Ommaney Bay set off for the Palau Islands. From 11 September until 1 October, Ommaney Bay provided air cover for the fleet and conducted close support strikes for the forces ashore. Her aircraft targeted Japanese anti-aircraft and artillery emplacements, strafed troop formations, and destroyed supply depots.^[14] In total, they expended 63 500 lb (230 kg) GP (general-purpose) bombs, 82 350 lb (160 kg) Mk.54 depth charges^{[note 1]}, 54 250 lb (110 kg) GP bombs, 233 100 lb (45 kg) GP bombs, 21 incendiary bombs, 149,060 .50 BMG rounds, and 9,000 .30-06 rounds.^[16] On 18 September 1944, an Avenger torpedo bomber from Ommaney Bay, low on fuel, was the first aircraft to land on Peleliu's airfield.^[17]

Battle of Leyte Gulf

On 2 October, Ommaney Bay sailed to Manus Island to renew her depleted stock of fuel and ammunition. She departed to support the Battle of Leyte on 14 October, arrived off Leyte on 22 October, and joined Rear Admiral Felix Stump's Taffy 2 (TU 77.4.2).^[18] From 22 to 24 October, her aircraft attacked anti-aircraft emplacements, pillboxes, bridges, and Japanese positions.^[19] During the night of 24–25 October, the escort carriers received reports of the Battle of Surigao Strait, occurring about 100 mi (160 km) to their southwest. In response, Captain Howard Leyland Young, the commanding officer of Ommaney Bay, ordered some of her Avengers to be outfitted with torpedoes.^[20]

On 25 October, at 01:55, Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid ordered three searches at daybreak. Rear Admiral Stump received this order at 04:30, and at 05:09, he delegated one of the searches to Ommaney Bay.^{[note 2]} Two searches were planned, one to cover the Camotes Sea, and one to sweep the area from 340° to 033° from Homonhon, to a distance of 135 mi (217 km). Hampered by the darkness and the rain, it was not until 06:58, by which time the first shells were falling around Taffy 3, the northernmost escort carrier group, that a search contingent of five Wildcat fighters and seven Avenger torpedo bombers was finally assembled. If launched expeditiously, the patrol could have intercepted Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita's Center Force, providing some advance warning to the American fleet.^[20]

Nonetheless, once Ommaney Bay's search contingent had been launched, orders were received that canceled the search and vectored them towards the Camotes Sea, where the Japanese had been sighted. Arriving, they found the heavy cruiser Mogami, escorted by the destroyer Akebono. At 09:02, they set upon Mogami, with her Avengers dropping 500 lb (230 kg) semi-armor-piercing (SAP) and GP bombs. Three bombs hit Mogami, setting her forward aviation fuel storage for her floatplanes ablaze, and possibly disabling her sole remaining turbine.^{[note 3]} Dead in the water, and with her forward 8-inch magazines threatening to blow, the order to abandon ship was given, and Mogami was scuttled by Akebono at 12:56.^[23]

While her aircraft set off for their strike, word was filtering in of the beleaguered Taffy 3 to the north, and at 07:08, Admiral Kinkaid ordered Taffy 2 to divert all of the aircraft towards the defense.^[24] At 08:10, four Avengers took off from Ommaney Bay, each armed with a Mark 13 torpedo. Her pilots made a run against a heavy cruiser, and one of her Avengers, having previously failed to release its torpedo, dropped it against the battleship Kongō, forcing her to make a hard turn away from Taffy 3.^[25] At 09:15, she launched an Avenger armed with a Mark 13 torpedo, and at 11:20, she dispatched a flight of three torpedo-carrying Avengers. Both sorties returned with inconclusive results.^[26]

At 13:15, four Wildcats and six Avengers were launched from Ommaney Bay to pursue Kurita's fleet. They assembled into a formation of eight Wildcats and eleven Avengers, setting off at 13:31. Three of her Avengers were armed with torpedoes, while the other three were each carrying three 500 lb (230 kg) SAP bombs. At 14:00, one of her Avengers spotted a blip on its radar. Peeling off, the three torpedo-laden Avengers found the cruiser Chikuma dead in the water, accompanied by the escorting destroyer Nowaki. Diving down to attack, all three torpedoes were planted into the port side of the stationary Chikuma. Within fifteen minutes, Chikuma had capsized.^[27] At 15:10, a final strike of two Avengers, each armed with three 500 lb (230 kg) SAP bombs and six HE rockets, was launched, which attacked a damaged Japanese destroyer.^[28]

Ommaney Bay launched six strikes that day. As part of Taffy 2, she was also obliged to take in aircraft from other task groups that were either damaged or low on fuel. The task unit had to jettison several aircraft to accommodate them.^[29] She remained on station until 30 October, when her task group retired from Leyte Gulf for Manus.^[30]

She anchored in Seeadler Harbor on 3 November, beginning a period of availability and replenishment. On 10 November, she witnessed the ammunition ship Mount Hood explode violently 1.5 mi (2.4 km) from her. Even from her distant vantage point, Ommaney Bay was showered with metal fragments, and hit by a tidal wave.^[31] On 26 November, she steamed with Task Unit 77.12.7 for Kossol Roads, arriving on 2 December. There, preparations were made for the impending landings on Mindoro, and the task unit sallied out on the morning of 10 December.^[32]

Battle of Mindoro

Ommaney Bay entered the Sulu Sea on 13 December, where they were met with Japanese resistance, with a kamikaze damaging the destroyer Haraden. Over the next few days, her task unit fended off daily attacks by Japanese aircraft.^[33] At the same time, Ommaney Bay's air contingent busied themselves with combat air patrols and anti-submarine operations.^[34] The largest attack came on 15 December when forty Japanese planes, divided equally between kamikazes and escorts, took off from Clark Field and Davao in the early morning, bound for the battleships and carriers to the east of Mindoro. The first sightings were reported at 07:00, and for the rest of the morning, kamikaze attacks harried the task force. At 09:40, a group of Japanese planes dove towards the escort carriers. One plane missed with its bomb, while two others were shot down by anti-aircraft fire from Manila Bay and the destroyer escorts. At 09:43, a Yokosuka P1Y dove directly towards Ommaney Bay from the port bow. Engaged by heavy anti-aircraft fire from the entire task force, the plane was set ablaze about 400 yd (370 m) away and passed 30 yd (27 m) over the flight deck, crashing into the ocean 400 yd (370 m) to her starboard quarter.^[35] She concluded operations on 17 December, anchoring at Manus on 23 December. On 27 December, she departed for the Philippines in support of the planned 6th Army landings at Lingayen Gulf. She paused at San Pedro Bay, entering the Sulu Sea on 3 January 1945.^[36]

Invasion of Lingayen Gulf and loss

On the afternoon of 4 January 1945, she was transiting the Sulu Sea, on a heading of 290° at 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph), within the rear group of the American convoy, astern of the battleship New Mexico. At 17:00, approximately 15 Japanese planes were picked up on radar, 45 nmi (83 km; 52 mi) west of the task group, and approaching quickly. These planes split into two groups, one group heading towards the rear of the task group, while the other continued on its course towards the center. Although fighters from the carrier group were scrambled, false radar signals hampered their efforts to intercept, and the only successful interception was when P-47 fighters intercepted two enemy planes, shooting down one. The other plane escaped, and is believed to be the kamikaze which would attack Ommaney Bay. This successful intercept was not reported back to command, nor was the fact that the plane which escaped was being herded towards the carrier group.^[37] At 17:12, a Yokosuka P1Y penetrated the screen undetected and made for Ommaney Bay, approaching directly towards the ship's bow. Captain Young later reported that the kamikaze's approach was concealed by the blinding glare of the sun.^[38]

The Americans were well aware of the kamikaze threat, and additional lookouts had been positioned around the carrier. At the time of the attack, there were ten air lookouts and one sun lookout on the signal platform, who was equipped with Polaroid glasses. However, a lack of radar signals led the task group to believe that the Japanese planes had withdrawn, and the kamikaze attack took the lookouts by complete surprise.^[39] Admiral Kinkaid, reviewing the action report, wrote:

The failure of the OMMANEY BAY's air search radar to pick up the approaching plane after losing contact at forty-five miles indicates that the enemy climbed to high altitude at long range and approached along a node in the radar antenna pattern. At certain angles of elevation and with constant head-on aspect of the aircraft the present air search radar is very insensitive. It is believed that the Japanese are aware of this and are taking advantage of it. Strengthening of the visual lookouts is the best countermeasure until improved radar reaches the fleet.

The first indicator of trouble was the sound of ricocheting shells, and looking up, the crew of Ommaney Bay saw a twin-engine bomber at 1,000 ft (300 m) in a 45° dive, approaching from nearly dead ahead. New Mexico was only able to respond with inaccurate anti-aircraft fire, while Ommaney Bay was unable to react at all.^[41] Seconds later, the kamikaze made impact, first passing a few feet above the open bridge, where the command staff of Ommaney Bay was present, tearing off part of the superstructure with its wing, and collapsing it onto the flight deck. It then veered into her flight deck on the forward starboard side. Two bombs were released; one of them penetrated the flight deck and detonated below, setting off a series of explosions among the fully gassed planes on the forward third of the hangar deck, near the No. 1 boiler uptakes, while the second bomb passed through the hangar deck, ruptured the fire main on the second deck, and exploded near the starboard side.^[42]

As a result of the earlier strafing, gasoline had already been leaking from the planes, and in conjunction with the bombs and an Avenger torpedo bomber that had been hit by the kamikaze's wreckage, a conflagration was sparked which enveloped the aft of Ommaney Bay's flight deck.^[43] In addition, loose ammunition within a clipping room immediately began cooking off. Water pressure forward, power, bridge communications, and steering control were lost immediately. An oil tank may have been breached, contributing to the fire, as the smoke was noted as looking "oily". The effect of this was that the forward and aft halves of the ship were immediately cut off from contact with each other.^[44] Some of the ships surrounding Ommaney Bay, having missed the kamikaze, initially believed that the explosion was the result of an accident.^[45]

Men struggling with the terrific blazes in the hangar deck soon had to abandon it because of the heavy black smoke from the burning planes and exploding .50 caliber ammunition. Attempts were made to reestablish water pressure, but they were precluded by the blaze. Destroyer escorts found it difficult to assist Ommaney Bay because of the intense heat, the ammunition going off, and the real possibility of a catastrophic detonation, as there were nine torpedoes stowed within the hangar deck.^[46] At 17:40, the destroyer Bell, attempting to maneuver into a position to fight the fires, collided with the carrier, damaging her port bridge wing. At 17:45, a gunnery officer gave the order to abandon ship from the aft section, and at 17:50, Captain Young gave the order to abandon ship from the forward section, with both orders passed around by word of mouth. Captain Young was the last man to evacuate the burning wreck at 18:12. At 18:18, the torpedoes stored in the aft end of the ship finally detonated, collapsing the flight deck and launching debris onto the destroyers that were rescuing survivors. At the time of the explosion, there were five men working to rescue survivors from Eichenberger's motor whaleboat, of which one man was struck and killed by debris, while two more were critically injured. Both of the critically injured patients would succumb to their wounds, one later that day, while the other was transferred to the battleship Mississippi and died the following day.^[47]

At 19:58, Ommaney Bay was scuttled by a torpedo from the destroyer Burns, under orders from Admiral Jesse B. Oldendorf.^[48] The loss of the carrier and the effort to retrieve survivors put her task unit behind schedule, although the tempo was regained later. A total of 93 Navy men from Ommaney Bay were killed, and 65 men were wounded.^[49] On 6 and 9 January, Columbia was struck by kamikazes, killing seven survivors rescued from Ommaney Bay.^[50] As a replacement for the sunken carrier, Shamrock Bay was dispatched to support the landing on Lingayen Gulf.^[51] Ommaney Bay received two battle stars for her World War II service.^[52]