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Following a period of
brief training during the early summer of 1944, Lunga Point sailed
for the Pacific to deliver Army bombers to New Guinea and bring
war-worn P-47 Thunderbolts back home. Upon return, she became a unit
of Carrier Division 29 (CarDiv 29) and departed San Diego on 16
October to participate in the Leyte Gulf operations, touching Pearl
Harbor, Eniwetok, and Kossol Roads en route. From 13–22 November,
she provided air cover for transports and surface units engaged in
the campaign. Relieved on the 23rd, she sailed to Manus Island,
Admiralty Islands, to prepare for the Luzon campaign.
The escort carrier sailed on 27 December from Manus to supply air
support for 6th Army landing operations at Lingayen Gulf. On 4
January 1945, she splashed one enemy aircraft and witnessed the
sinking of Ommaney Bay which had been hit by Japanese planes.
Fighting her way through 14 enemy attacks, she arrived off Lingayen
Gulf on 6 January, and commenced 11 days of intensive air support
during which time her aircraft flew an average of 41 sorties a day.
On 17 January, the support carriers were withdrawn and returned to
Ulithi.
From 23 January-10 February, Lunga Point prepared for the invasion
of Iwo Jima, and stood off the beaches with the advanced amphibious
forces 16 February. Enemy airstrikes developed in strength by 21
February, when some 16 planes attacked carriers in the vicinity.
Saratoga was damaged and Bismarck Sea was sunk, but Lunga Point
splashed three Nakajima B6N "Jills" while suffering only minor
damage. By 8 March, land-based planes were present in sufficient
strength to allow the ship to return to Ulithi to get ready for the
Okinawa campaign.
The ship reprovisioned, and on 21 March sortied from Ulithi with
other advanced form of Rear Admiral Clifton Sprague’s Task Unit.
From 24 March-27 June, Lunga Point remained in support of the
operation providing air cover, pounding enemy ground targets in the
Ryukyu Islands and fighting off constant kamikaze attacks. She
completed this duty without mishap, and returned to Leyte 27 June.
This was followed by a minesweeping operation west of Okinawa in
early July, and an anti-shipping sweep along the China coast from
Shanghai northward in August. This duty terminated the 7th, and she
sailed to Buckner Bay, Okinawa, where she received news of the
Japanese peace offerings.
In late August the ship, attached to the 5th Fleet, aided in
evacuating Allied prisoners of war from the ports of Wakayama and
Nagasaki, on 19 September she transported 760 men of various
nationalities to Okinawa. She was ordered to Tokyo Bay in early
October, and en route took part in the unsuccessful search for Rear
Admiral W. D. Sample missing in a PBM Mariner on a patrol flight.
Lunga Point stood out of Tokyo Bay 28 October, and arrived at Pearl
Harbor on 7 November. She sailed to San Diego, California arriving
on 15 November, and made voyages to the Pacific before returning to
the west coast early in 1946.
On 24 October 1946, the ship was decommissioned and became part of
the Tacoma Group, Pacific Reserve Fleet. She was reclassified CVU-94
on 12 June 1955 and AKV-32 on 7 May 1959. She was struck from the
Navy list on 1 April 1960, and sold at San Diego to Hyman Michaels
Co. on 3 August 1960. |
