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The USS White Plains
completed her outfitting at Astoria, Oregon, on 4 December 1943, and
then she began shakedown training on 8 December. At the conclusion
of her initial cruise, the warship entered San Diego on 21 December.
On 30. December 1943, she returned to sea, bound for the Gilbert Islands.
She arrived at Tarawa Atoll on 11 January 1944 and unloaded the
aircraft she had transported. On 17 January, the ship headed back to
Oahu, arriving in Pearl Harbor six days later. Following a four-day
turnaround period, the White Plains again set course for the Central
Pacific to provide aircraft logistics support for the Marshall
Islands operation. By the time she reached Tarawa on 3 February, the
undefended Majuro Atoll had been occupied, and the Japanese garrison
at Kwajalein Atoll had been all but subdued. On the next day, she
got underway for Majuro where she arrived on 5 February. From there,
the escort carrier moved on to Kwajalein for a brief visit before
heading back to Hawaii. The White Plains stopped briefly at Oahu
before continuing on toward the West Coast on 23 February. She
arrived at Alameda, California, on San Francisco Bay on 3 March.
While off the West Coast, the White Plains conducted operational
training for her own ship's company and carrier qualifications for
three air squadrons. In April, she embarked her own permanently
assigned air unit, Composite Squadron 4 (VC-4), composed of 16 F4F
Wildcat fighters and 12 TBM Avenger torpedo planes. She departed the
West Coast from the San Diego Naval Base on 24 April, and she
arrived at Pearl Harbor on 1 May. During the next month, the White
Plains conducted air operations and amphibious support training out
of Pearl Harbor.
At the end of May, the White Plains steamed out of port in company
with units of the Task Forces assembled to invade the Mariana
Islands. The portion of the Fleet containing the White Plains
sortied from Eniwetok Atoll, and during the voyage from there to the
Marianas, her aircraft provided antisubmarine warfare patrols and
part of the combat air patrol. During the assault on Saipan, her
planes continued to cover the Fleet against submarine and air attack,
strafed the beaches, and spotted shellfire for gunfire support ships.
They helped repulse at least three major enemy air attacks. On 17
June, while helping to fight off those raids, her antiaircraft
gunners earned their first definite kill. Later, VC-4 Avengers
successfully torpedoed an enemy transport during a sweep of the
island of Rota.
The USS White Plains departed the combat zone on 2 July but, after a
week at Eniwetok, returned to the Marianas with her air squadron
upgraded to a total of 28 aircraft. During her second tour of duty
in the Marianas, the escort carrier supported the Tinian assault
late in July. Her planes carried out sortie after sortie in support
of the troops ashore and over the ships assembled, but the White
Plains herself suffered no enemy attacks. Her heavy flight schedule
proved grueling to air squadron and ship's company alike.
She completed her participation during the first week in August and
departed the Marianas and headed for Espiritu Santo in the New
Hebrides. She arrived in Segond Channel on 16 August and began
preparations for the invasion of the Palau Islands. Those
preparations included amphibious support training in the Solomon
Islands. The White Plains and ten other aircraft carriers moved into
the vicinity of the Palaus during the second week of September.
Their planes provided a portion of the prelanding bombardment and
support for the troops after the assault on 15 September. In
contrast to the Marianas campaign and later operations, the Palaus,
though extremely difficult on the troops ashore, brought little
opposition to the ships in the waters surrounding the islands. No
enemy air attacks developed because the Japanese were husbanding
their aircraft for the defense of the Philippines, and as a result
of Japan's new strategic concept of defense in depth at some
distance from the beaches, few shore batteries were sited near
enough to the coast to fire upon ships. On 21 September, the White
Plains joined the forces detached from the Palau operation for the
occupation of Ulithi Atoll, which to everyone's relief, was
undefended.
In October, after repairs at the naval base at Manus Island in the
Admiralty Islands, the USS White Plains headed for the invasion of
the Philippines at Leyte. The initial assault went forward on 20
October. Aircraft from the White Plains provided air support for the
troops and ASW and combat air patrols for the ships assembled in
Leyte Gulf. However, because of the strategic importance of the
Philippines which lay athwart their lines of communication with the
East Indies, the Japanese chose to oppose the landings with their
surface fleet. They launched their surface counterattack in three
distinct phases. While a decoy force of carriers under Admiral
Jisaburō Ozawa moved south from Japan in an attempt to draw off
Halsey's Third Fleet and the large carriers, the forces under Vice
Admirals Shōji Nishimura and Kiyohide Shima attempted to force the
Surigao Strait from the south, and Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita's
Center Force tried to sneak through the Central Philippines and
transit the hopefully unguarded San Bernardino Strait. The Center
Force, by far the strongest of the enemy fleets involved, consisted
of five battleships - including the huge superbattleships Yamato and
Musashi - 11 heavy cruisers, two light cruisers, and 19 destroyers.
By the time Kurita's Center Force cleared the San Bernardino Strait
on 25 October, it had been reduced by four heavy cruisers and the
battleship Musashi. Three heavy cruisers had fallen prey to American
submarine attacks in Palawan Passage on 23 October, and the Musashi
and the Myōkō succumbed to Task Force 38's air attacks in the
Sibuyan Sea on the following day. The Musashi sank there, whereas
the Myōkō headed back to Brunei Bay, heavily damaged. In addition,
on the night of 24 October and 25 October, Vice Admiral Oldendorf's
old battleships in Leyte Gulf obliterated Nishimura's force and sent
Shima's packing.
In the meantime, after Admiral Halsey received information
indicating that a battered Center Force had begun retirement,
Ozawa's decoy force finally managed to draw the American carriers
off to the north. However, Kurita's retrograde movement proved to be
only temporary, and he once again reversed course and headed back
toward San Bernardino Strait. With Oldendorf regrouping his warships
in Leyte Gulf and Halsey off chasing the Japanese Navy's aircraft
carriers, only three Task Groups - composed of escort carriers,
destroyers, and destroyer escorts - remained off Samar island
between Kurita and Leyte Gulf. The USS White Plains was an element
of "Taffy 3," the northmost of the three Task Groups, and the one
which bore the brunt of Kurita's surface onslaught. "Taffy 3",
commanded by Rear Admiral Clifton Sprague, first learned of Kurita's
presence when, at 0637, a pilot on routine air patrol spotted
Kurita's task force and attacked it with depth charges. Rear Admiral
Sprague was incredulous about the presence of the Japanese Navy, and
he demanded identification verification - verification which came
disconcertingly enough when the enemy battleships' pagoda-style
masts loomed up over the horizon.
For the next two and one-half hours, the Japanese force chased "Taffy
3" southward and subjected the escort carriers and their
counterattacking screen to a murderous, but mercifully and
frequently inaccurate, heavy-caliber cannonade. The aircraft
carriers' warplanes fearlessly fought back, even making dummy runs
on the Japanese ships to slow the ships' speed of advance, after
expending all their bombs, torpedoes, and ammunition. During their
counterattacks, the USS Johnston, Hoel, and Samuel B. Roberts were
sunk by gunfire. Later, the USS Gambier Bay was sunk by gunfire as
well, while the USS Fanshaw Bay, the USS Kalinin Bay, the Dennis,
and the Heermann suffered heavy damage.
During the surface phase of the action, White Plains's 5-inch gun
scored hits on heavy cruiser Chōkai, causing its eight deck-mounted
Type 93 "Long Lance" torpedoes to explode. The explosion crippled
Chōkai, making it vulnerable to air attack. Chōkai was later sunk by
planes from Ommaney Bay (CVE-79), a escort carrier of Taffy 2.
Miraculously, the Japanese surface force broke off its pursuit from
0912–0917 hours, and after milling around in apparent confusion for
a time, retired northward to San Bernardino Strait. The retreat by
Kurita's surface force, however, did not end the ordeal for the
White Plains and her fellow warships. After a 90-minute respite,
they suffered harassment from a different quarter. At 1050 hours, a
formation of nine Japanese Navy Zeke fighters appeared and began
simultaneous kamikaze attacks. Two of them singled out the White
Plains as their victim. Her antiaircraft gunners responded with a
hail of gunfire. They scored a hit on one of the intruders, and he
immediately changed course and succeeded in crashing into the USS
St. Lo, which eventually sank. His comrade continued on toward the
White Plains, but her antiaircraft guns finally brought him down
mere yards astern. His explosion scattered debris all over her deck
and sides but caused only 11 relatively minor casualties. In the
meantime, the USS Kitkun Bay and the USS Kalinin Bay also suffered
from kamikaze crashes, but neither of these proved to be fatal to
the carriers. That attack proved to be the final combat action of
the USS White Plains, not only of the Battle off Samar but also of
the war. She steamed to the naval base at Manus with the other
surviving carriers, and she arrived there on 31 October. After an
inspection of the damage, it was decided that the battered escort
carrier should return to the United States for complete repairs.
Accordingly, she departed from Manus on 6 November and headed to the
West Coast. The USS White Plains arrived at San Diego Harbor on 27
November and repairs began immediately.
Ready for action once more, the USS White Plains steamed out of San
Diego on 19 January 1945. However, for the remainder of the war, she
carried out the relatively tame assignment of ferrying replacement
aircraft from their factories in the United States to bases in the
western Pacific. During the last months of the war, the White Plains
visited such places as Kwajalein, Hollandia (currently known as
Jayapura), Ulithi, Saipan, Guam, Leyte, and Pearl Harbor. All had
been scenes of major combat actions in the past, but by this time,
they had all become rear areas. The closest approach to the fighting
by the White Plains after the Battle off Samar came just after the
amphibious landings on Okinawa in April 1945, when she steamed to
within 100 miles of that island to launch two squadrons of Marine
Corps F4U Corsair fighter planes for duty from air bases on that
large island.
The end of hostilities in mid-August found the USS White Plains en
route from Pearl Harbor to the West Coast. She arrived at San Pedro,
California, on 22 August but soon moved to San Diego. From there,
she headed back to the Western Pacific on 6 September to begin
Operation Magic Carpet duty bringing American fighting men home from
the Pacific Theater. Twenty days later, she arrived in Buckner Bay,
Okinawa, where she embarked more than 800 passengers for the voyage
to the United States. On 28 September, she pointed her bow eastward
and set a course, via Pearl Harbor, for San Diego. The White Plains
entered San Diego Harbor on 16 October and disembarked her
passengers. After nine days in port, she got underway for Pearl
Harbor and stopped there only briefly on 1 November before setting
out on the return voyage to the West Coast. The warship visited San
Francisco for five days from 7 to 12 November and then headed across
the Pacific once more. She entered port at Guam in the Marianas on
27 November, embarked passengers, and then began the return voyage
on 30 November. White Plains arrived in Seattle, Washington, on 14
December 1945. She remained there until 30 January 1946, when she
embarked upon the voyage, via the Panama Canal and Norfolk,
Virginia, to Boston, Massachusetts. The White Plains entered Boston
Harbor on 17 February 1946, and then began preparations for
decommissioning.
The USS White Plains was decommissioned on 10 July 1946 and was
berthed with the Boston Group, Atlantic Reserve Fleet. She remained
with the reserve fleet for 12 years. On 12 June 1955, she was
redesignated a utility aircraft carrier (CVU-66). Finally, her name
was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 July 1958. She was
sold on 29 July to the Hyman Michaels Company, of Chicago for
scrapping. |
