James Henry Bishop 1989
“Our carrier night fighters”
When we were screening the fast carriers one evening around 1945, I had just came up out of my sleeping compartment aft and was proceeding to my gun watch. It was dark and I saw a few tracers followed by an explosion in the air. The enemy plane flamed down into the sea. About 2 minutes later I saw another enemy plane knocked out of the sky and flame into the sea. I started running for my battle station in gun one and immediately General Quarters sounded.
If my memory serves me correct I believe there were 47 air raids that night on our task force, and the next night there were another 30 air raids. I believe the planes were coming from Clarks Air Field in the Philippines. At dawn our carrier planes carried out air raids on Clarks Air Field.
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“Being good doesn’t always pay.”
Shortly after joining the fast carriers task force, a B-26 Marauder was sent out towing a sleeve for the screening destroyers to shoot at. The Swanson shot down 5 sleeves out of 7 towed! Not long afterwards we were assigned as a picket destroyer on a lonely station several miles ahead of the task force!
R-75