Template:Marshalls Raid
Raid on the Marshall Islands
On February 1, 1942, Task Force 17, led by VADM William Halsey, Jr. (USNA '04) struck Jaluit, Mili, and Makin (Butaritari) islands. The Task Force was centered on USS Yorktown (CV 5), with USS Louisville (CA 28) among her escorts.
George Bellinger '32, Francis Maher, Jr. '35, and Jack Moore '36 were all flying from Yorktown and were all lost that day. George Bellinger's plane simply "failed to return;" he had last been seen in the vicinity of Jaluit as the leader of a bombing section. Jack Moore's plane also "failed to return;" no other information was given in the after-action report. Francis Maher may have been the pilot of the plane observed in the water approximately 20 miles astern of the carrier, presumably having crashed due to a lack of fuel. The crew were seen getting into rubber rafts, but "a destroyer was immediately sent back but failed to make contact."
A fourth graduate, Edward Worthington '34, was lost when his float plane, launched from Louisville, went missing and was possibly shot down by a Japanese patrol bomber.
Separately, Task Force 8 was raiding other islands in the group. Hallsted Hopping '24, commanding officer of Scouting Squadron (VS) 6, flying from USS Enterprise (CV 6). His aircraft was shot down by a Japanese fighter and he and his gunner were both killed.
All three of the documents below are via Matt Robbins '04. Note times are in Greenwich mean time.
Aircraft lost from Yorktown during the raid
Louisville's after action report
Louisville's after action report
From a blog post:
As soon as [a returning pilot] hit the deck he reported two planes out of gas and down on the water 20 miles astern, with pilots and crewmen breaking out their rubber rafts. They must have been Francis X. Maher and Jack Moore of Torpedo Five.
A destroyer and an observation scout seaplane were sent back to pick them up. Lieutenant Worthington, pilot of the seaplane, located the spot and reported that he was circling. He was never heard from again. On the way back, the destroyer was bombed by a Kawanishi four-engine flying boat, which missed by many yards. But when it arrived at the spot where the pilots were down, the destroyer found only wreckage. It is believed that Worthington either landed on the water or was shot down by the Kawanishi... and that the Japanese had strafed the men on the rubber life rafts.
It's not clear what this post is based off of; none of the specifics (two aircraft down, report of circling, discovery of wreckage) is supported by the Task Force's after action report. Yorktown's losses report only mentions one aircraft down astern of the carrier.
