Aug. 30-31, 1943
By Walter J. (Deptula) Drew, ADC, CAC, USN (ret.) (deceased)
U.S.S. Essex (CV-9) departed Pearl Harbor on 22 August 1943 in TG 15.5. The next day, an impressive armada had formed west of Hawaii. The new U.S.S. Yorktown (CV-10), light carrier U.S.S. Independence (CVL-22), and four destroyers were joined by Essex, the battleship Indiana, two cruisers, more destroyers and a fleet oiler. This was Task Force 15 and they were headed into battle. Rear Adm. Charles A. Pownall on Yorktown was in command. The target was Marcus Island, 2720 nautical miles west of Hawaii and 989 miles from Tokyo.
On the way to Marcus, Pilot LTJG Richard B. Zentmeyer; Radioman Herbert C. (Andy) Anderson; and myself, Turret Gunner Walter J. Deptula, flew a number of anti-submarine patrols. For the Marcus strike, our plane was loaded with four 500-pound bombs with delayed-action fuses, set to go off up to 24 hours after being dropped. On the morning of 30 August, the force made a high-speed dash--about 25 knots-south toward the target.
Yorktown was the first to launch aircraft at 0415 hours on 31 August with Marcus Island 128 miles to the south. At 0520 Essex began launching her planes. First off were several Hellcats of VF-9 followed by eighteen TBF Avengers of VT-9. Next off were the SBD Dauntless dive-bombers of VB-9. Then more fighters were launched. All the planes were milling around in the early morning darkness trying to find their own squadrons. This was not only scary, but downright dangerous.
At 0605 Marcus came into view of the leading Yorktown planes and three minutes later, the lead Avengers roared over the island releasing 500-pound bombs and incendiaries to start fires for the bombers.
Air Group Nine was now battle tested. Strike after strike was launched from the three carriers. After ten hours, Marcus Island was in shambles; shrouded in a pall of black smoke. The attacks continued through the morning and into mid-afternoon.
From Admiral Pownell came this message: "Congratulations on a bang-up job well done. You have marked Marcus' face so badly, Tojo won't recognize him for a long time". After the strike and back on the ship, I kept thinking about the delayed fuses on the bombs we had dropped and that they would explode up to 24 hours after we'd dropped them. The Japanese must have been surprised when the bombs exploded well into the night.
