USS OMMANEY BAY
4 JANUARY 1945
USS OMMANEY BAY
The twin-engine Japanese medium bomber, converted into a flying bomb herself, dove toward USS OMMANEY BAY (CVE-79). To the American crew it was a complete surprise! Screened by the numerous small Philippine islands nearby, Ommaney’s radar never picked up the plane. Only New Mexico (BB-40) detected her presence but was not able to shoot her down. The suicide plane clipped the escort carrier’s island, then crashed her forward starboard flight deck. Two bombs penetrated, the first exploded among fully fueled aircraft on the hangar deck. The second penetrated farther, cutting the fire main on the second deck and exploding in the forward engine room. An oil fire quickly erupted, filling the ship with acrid black smoke. Communications from the bridge were paralyzed. In an instant, the fires blazed too intensely for damage controlmen to make headway. Power failed throughout the ship, aircraft gasoline tanks exploded, and cooked-off .50 caliber ammunition peppered the decks!
OMMANEY BAY was part of the task force intent on re-taking the main Philippine Island of Luzon. The force had left Leyte Gulf and headed west through the Surigao Strait, then turned north through the Sulu Sea. They were to converge on the Lingayen Gulf northwest of Manila, the site of the Allied landings. Kamikazes had been a constant threat throughout the Philippine campaign. Indeed, this same afternoon another kamikaze missed LUNGA POINT (CVE-94) by only 50 yards. Now it was OMMANEY BAY’s turn.
By 1730 the fires had spread throughout the hangar deck. The flight deck above became untenable as flames and smoke engulfed it as well. Burned and injured sailors cried out in agony. Nearby destroyers attempted to close the stricken “baby flattop,” to help put out her fires–only to be driven off by the intense heat and flying debris. Worse, the flames threatened to reach the carrier’s stockpile of torpedoes!
Burned and injured sailors were strapped to cots, covered with kapok life vests, and lowered over the side with two able swimmers accompanying each. Then about 1750, a massive explosion sprayed metal shards that killed two sailors aboard EICHENBERGER (DE-202). Skipper CAPT H.I. Young had no choice but to order “Abandon Ship!” and at 1812 he, too, went over the side. Six minutes later the flames reached the torpedo lockers.
Oppressive heat and secondary explosions from the flaming carrier spelled her doom. In all 93 OMMANEY BAY mates were lost and 65 injured. BURNS (DD-588) was ordered to scuttle the stricken carrier. Seven other OMMANEY BAY survivors died as well when rescuing ships were also crashed by kamikazes in the ensuing days.
Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 11 JAN 24
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
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Department of the Navy, Naval History Division. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 5 “N-Q”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1979, p. 154.
Morison, Samuel Eliot. History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol XIII The Liberation of the Philippines: Luzon, Mindinao, the Visayas. Little Brown and Co., Boston, MA, 1959, pp. 99-101.
Poolman, Kenneth. Allied Escort Carriers of World War Two in Action. Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1988, pp. 235-36.
Robbins, Gary. “Wreckage Found Off Philippines is WWII Aircraft Carrier Which Deployed from San Diego.” military.com website, 12 July 2023. AT: http://www.military.com/daily-news/2023/-7/12/wreckage-found-off-philippines-wwii-aircraft-carrier-which-deployed-from-san-diego.html, retrieved 12 July 2023.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: The Casablanca-class “Jeep carriers” were the most prolific of WWII, comprising fully one-third all of US carriers commissioned during the conflict. Hers was the first class of escort carrier built from the keel up for that purpose (rather than from conversion of merchant hulls). Most were named for bays, inlets, or peninsulas—Ommaney Bay is in southern Alaska.
In 2019 the wreck of OMMANEY BAY was discovered off Mindanao, Philippine Islands. The Naval History and Heritage Command confirmed the identity of the carrier in 2023.
