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The aircraft carrier U.S.S. Franklin’s shakedown cruise took her to Trinidad for flight and battle exercises and she then transited the Panama Canal and was operating with the Fast Carrier Task Force in the Pacific by June 1944. Joining the fleet at Eniwetok, Franklin sortied for attacks on the Marianas Islands, culminating with the invasions of Saipan, Tinian and Guam and strikes against Iwo Jima, Chichi Jima and Haha Jima.
In late July, Franklin and other carriers made a combined air strike and photo reconnaissance of the Palau Islands. Franklin’s aircraft caused a lot of destruction in the face of very intense anti-aircraft fire. August found Franklin once again launching air strikes against the Bonin Islands, and she was there again with Enterprise, Belleau Wood and San Jacinto in late August and early September. Strikes against Yap followed, and Franklin provided air cover for the Pelileu invasion on September 16th. On October 9th, Franklin, with the rest of the fast carriers, launched massive air strikes in the Philippines in preparation for invasion. A night air attack on the 13th by Japanese planes forced Franklin to dodge two torpedoes and a plane crashed her flight deck, sliding across the deck into the water, causing little damage and no casualties. On the 16th, while Franklin was providing air strikes against Leyte, she was hit by a bomb on the deck edge elevator, killing three men and wounding 22 but again causing little damage to the ship. Franklin continued in action, attacking Manila on the 19th.
Franklin covered the landings on Leyte beginning on October 19th. During the Battle of Leyte Gulf on October 24-25, 1944, Franklin’s aircraft attacked the Japanese Center Force and the Northern Force, helping to destroy many major units of the Imperial Fleet, including all four aircraft carriers of the Northern Force. This, the largest naval battle in history, destroyed the Imperial Japanese Navy as a fighting force, forcing the Japanese to resort to planned kamikaze attacks, the first occurring during this battle.
After a short replenishment, Franklin was again in action off Samar, where she was hit by a kamikaze on the flight deck, killing 56 men and requiring repairs at Puget Sound in November 1944. Returning to combat in March 1945, Franklin supported actions around Okinawa and strikes against Kyushu. Just before dawn on March 19th, Franklin was hit by two bombs among her loaded and gassed aircraft on the flight and hanger decks. Enormous fires and explosions of ordnance occurred almost immediately, destroying the flight deck and hanger bays. Only incredibly brave damage control saved the ship, supported by light cruiser Santa Fe alongside. Franklin lost 724 men killed and 265 wounded. Two crewmen earned Medals of Honor. Franklin was the most damaged ship to survive the war and was fully rebuilt by the end of the war. Put in reserve and never used again, she was stricken and scrapped in 1964. (DBoyer 2007)
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