Looking for picture

Discussion in 'Veteran Accounts' started by Lost in Kansas, Feb 15, 2012.

  1. Lost in Kansas

    Lost in Kansas Junior Member

    On or about May 3, 1945, the Light Cruiser Birmingham was hit by a Kamikaze plane at Okinawa. The bomb penetrated three decks and exploded in the sick bay, killing most of the doctors, nurses and patients there along with many other of the personnel. I witnessed this from the shore. After the blast, a thick smoke ring formed over Birmingham and as it rose, it expanded in diameter. When it reached a height of around a thousand feet the diameter had increased to almost a mile across. Eugene Sledge touched on this in his book, "With the Old Breed ay Pelelieu and Okinawa."

    In July we were sent to the Phillipines for "mop-up" operations and to wait for the invasion of Japan, scheduled for November, 1945. While on Mindoro someone showed me a double spread picture in a magazine and I've forgotten the name of the magazine. I've ruled out Life magazine as my library has a complete set for that time period The picture was taken from a plane above the smoke ring and shows the Birmingham centered in the middle of the halo. I think it was taken from one of the artillery spotter planes stationed at Yomitan airfield.

    I have searched high and low all these years for that picture and posted almost the same message on another WW2 forum five or six years ago without success. If anyone has seen this picture I would appreciate knowing what magazine it was in. Or if anyone has any tips on how to continue this search I would appreciate that also. I have searched the Naval Archives, nothing there. Any help will be more than appreciated.
     
  2. DaveB

    DaveB Very Senior Member

    No luck with the Birmingham, sometimes weird stuff shows up in Aussie records but this is the best I found (right time, wrong ship):

    OFF OKINAWA, JAPAN. 1945-05-11. ISSUING BILLOWING CLOUDS OF SMOKE HUNDREDS OF FEET INTO THE AIR FROM GASOLINE AND AMMUNITION FIRES THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER USS BUNKER HILL TURNS INTO THE WIND TO RESTRICT THE FORWARD SPREAD OF THE FLAMES. SHE WAS HIT TWICE WITHIN THIRTY SECONDS BY TWO JAPANESE KAMIKAZE AIRCRAFT WHEN HER FLIGHT DECK WAS PACKED WITH AIRCRAFT FUELLED AND ARMED IN PREPARATION FOR A STRIKE. IN THE BACKGROUND A FLETCHER CLASS DESTROYER CLOSES AT SPEED TO RENDER ASSISTANCE. THE BUNKER HILL SUFFERED 392 MEN KILLED OR MISSING AND 264 WOUNDED. (NAVAL HISTORICAL COLLECTION)


    302517 | Australian War Memorial
     
  3. DaveB

    DaveB Very Senior Member

    Are we talking about the HMS Birmingham or is there a USS Birmingham - and both of them are Cruisers??


    Aha - it looks like we are talking about the USS Birmingham




    Rejoining the Pacific Fleet, the cruiser USS Birmingham (CL-62) supported the battle of Iwo Jima (4–5 March 1945) and battle of Okinawa (25 March – 5 May). On 4 May, after fighting off three attacks, she was damaged for a third time when a Japanese kamikaze plane hit her forward. Returning to Pearl Harbor, she underwent repairs from 28 May to 1 August.

    Birmingham rejoined the 5th Fleet at Okinawa on 26 August
     
  4. BFBSM

    BFBSM Very Senior Member

    The only one I could find was this:


    [​IMG]

    USS Birmingham suffers her 3rd battle damage - Having survived trial by fire twice earlier in the war, the light cruiser USS Birmingham faced her 3rd test on 04 May 1945 when a Japanese kamikaze bearing a 500 pound bomb crashed on her decks just aft of the number two turret during action off Okinawa.

    U.S. Navy BUMED Library and Archives Number 274280; 09-7921-14.

    Source: Cruiser Photo Index CL-62 USS BIRMINGHAM
     
  5. Lost in Kansas

    Lost in Kansas Junior Member

    Dave B - Yes I had that pic of her helping the Bunker Hill, I ordered it from Navy Archives on their description, thinking it may be the pic I wanted. A man, answering my post on the other WW2 forum, said his Dad was on the USS Birminmgham when the Kamikaze hit. I sent him the pic.

    BFBSM - Thanks for the link. Yes the old girl took quite a beating. I'm sure she was scrapped but not sure when.
     
  6. Tab

    Tab Senior Member

    Bunker Hill sailed all the way to New York for repairs and the war finished while she was there. if I remember rightly
     
  7. Lost in Kansas

    Lost in Kansas Junior Member

    Tab - I believe I spoke in error. I think the picture I received in error from Navy Archives was of the Birmingham giving fire control to the Princeton, not the Bunker Hill. Sorry about that.
     
  8. Birdmanfogleman

    Birdmanfogleman Junior Member

    My grandfather was on the USS Birmingham and has alot of photos and the ships official photograph book offered to the sailors. He boarded right after the USS Princeton explosion and was on deck when the Kamikaze hit the ship on May 4 off Okinawa. The plane actually entered his berthing area of the ship. If your interested in the pics I can probably scan some for you. He is still alive and healthy and talks about his time in the Navy.
    Thanks
     
  9. Wills

    Wills Very Senior Member

  10. Ramiles

    Ramiles Researching 9th Lancers, 24th L and SRY

    USS Bunker Hill...

    [U.S.S. Bunker Hill afire, May 11, 1945]

    USS Bunker Hill (CV-17) - Wikipedia

    Okinawa
    On the morning of 11 May 1945, while supporting the invasion of Okinawa, Bunker Hill was struck and severely damaged by two Japanese kamikaze planes. A Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter plane piloted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Seizō Yasunori emerged from low cloud cover, dove toward the flight deck on the starboard quarter and dropped a 550-pound (250 kilogram) bomb that penetrated the flight deck and exited from the side of the ship at gallery deck level before exploding in the ocean.[13] The Zero then crashed onto the carrier's flight deck, destroying parked warplanes full of aviation fuel and ammunition, causing a large fire. The remains of the Zero went over the deck and dropped into the sea. Then 30 seconds later, a second Zero, piloted by Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa, plunged into its suicide dive. The Zero went through the antiaircraft fire, dropped a 550-pound bomb, and then crashed into the flight deck near the carrier's "island", as kamikazes were trained to aim for the island superstructure.[citation needed] The bomb penetrated the flight deck and exploded in the pilot's ready room. Gasoline fires flamed up and several explosions took place. The bomb carried by the second kamikaze penetrated to the pilots' ready room, where 22 members of VF-84 lost their lives.[14]
    Bunker Hill lost 393 sailors and airmen killed, including 41 missing and never found, and 264 wounded. Among the casualties were three officers and nine enlisted men from Mitscher's staff. The admiral relinquished command by visual signal; he and his remaining staff were transferred by breeches buoy to destroyer English and then to Enterprise, which became the flagship.[15]
    Bunker Hill was heavily damaged but was able to steam at 20 knots to Ulithi, where the Marine pilots of VMF-221, who had been aloft during the kamikaze attack and were diverted to other carriers, rejoined their ship.[16] The carrier returned home by way of Pearl Harbor, and was sent to the Bremerton Naval Shipyard for repairs. She was still in the shipyard when the war ended in mid-August 1945.
     
  11. Temujin

    Temujin Member

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