By BILL McKINNEY
Morning News staff reporter
Keeping the setting sun at their backs, three unprotected Avenger torpedo bombers swept out of the clouds to a low altitude and launched the deadly ""fish'' that sent the Japanese aircraft carrier Hiyo to the
bottom.Officially, the action was part of The First Battle of the Philippine Sea. Unofficially, in aviation circles, it was part of a U.S. Navy attack later dubbed ""The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot'' that took
place June 19 and 20, 1944.
It was the greatest aircraft carrier battle of all time, involving 24 flattops launching 1,350 U.S. and Japanese planes. Those numbers don't take into account U.S. escort carriers or
Japanese land-based aircraft.
For his part in the sinking, then-Navy Lt. Warren R. Omark of Erie received the Navy Cross, the second highest award for heroism the Navy could bestow, ranking right beneath the
Congressional Medal of Honor.Omark consented to have his outfit's story retold from previously published accounts, much of which was taken from Navy intelligence after-action reports.Omark, a Hammermill Paper Co.
retiree, is nothing like the stereotype that's been painted of the cocky combat pilot. He's a quiet man, reluctant to talk about his experiences because he knows others have been through worse.He also remembers
the friends who didn't come back at all.""Write it short!'' he told a reporter.
But it's hard to write a short story about what happened on June 20, 1944, because it and The Second Battle of the Philippine
Sea, known as ""The Battle of Leyte Gulf,'' several months later, were major turning points in the Pacific war.They were the last two major naval battles the Japanese were capable of waging.The first battle
began June 19.
Japan had put together a plan called Operation A-Go. Its goal was the final destruction of U.S. Navy attack forces in the Pacific Ocean. It was designed to lure American ships into Japanese
waters where they could be hit repeatedly by both carrier-based and land-based Japanese planes.Meanwhile, Americans had been planning an operation called ""Forager,'' aimed at attacking the Mariana Islands of
Saipan, Tinian and Guam, islands the enemy knew would give the Allies heavy bomber land bases within striking distance of the Japanese homeland itself.Initially, Omark and the other Avenger pilots played their routine
roles in supporting the island landings - bombing, ground support and reconnaissance.
On June 19 Navy Hellcat squadrons took on the first elements of Operation A-Go, successfully defending against multiple waves of
enemy planes sent to sink U.S. ships. No U.S. ships were sunk that day and only a few were damaged, compared to 375 Japanese planes shot down.U.S. submarines also sank two Japanese carriers.The remainder of the
fleet of Japanese vessels fled and it wasn't until mid-afternoon on June 20 that American search teams spotted them some 275 miles to the west.
Knowing an immediate air attack from his carriers would mean that
returning U.S. aircraft would have to try to land at night, Vice-Admiral Marc Mistscher gave the order and 216 planes took off from 10 carriers.Air Group 24 launched 12 planes, including a division of four Avengers
piloted by Lt.(jg) George P. Brown in the lead, Omark, Benjamin C. Tate and W.D. Luton. All four Avengers were armed with torpedoes.Omark said Brown predicted just before take-off that his division would sink an
enemy aircraft carrier. As it turned out it was Brown who, looking down through a separation in the cloud cover, spotted the biggest carrier, the Hiyo."
"He went into a violent turn and a steep dive,''
Omark remembered.According to after-action reports, Brown, followed by his division members, broke away from other planes in a sweeping 50 degree dive and then made a 180 degree turn down through the clouds to get into
position for a low-level attack on the Hiyo.Omark said that Brown, Tate and he fanned out to approach the carrier from different angles. Luton was somehow separated from the division during the maneuver and ended
up attacking a light enemy carrier but didn't damage it.
Omark, Brown and Tate, each with their two-man crews, attacked over a defensive screen of Japanese destroyers, cruisers and battleships. Anti-aircraft
fire was described as ""very intense'' and the U.S. planes took evasive action when possible.""During the attack, Brownie's aircraft was hit by AA fire and caught fire,'' Omark is quoted in one
account. ""I think one of the remarkable stories of the war then took place."
"George Platz and Ellis Babcock were the two crewmen in Brownie's plane, and on knowing their plane was afire and
unable to reach Brownie on the intercom, they parachuted and actually witnessed the attack from the water.''
Omark said Platz and Babcock, along with many other naval airmen, were rescued the next day during a massive
search ordered by Vice-Admiral Mitscher.
Coming in at about 400 feet from the water, with a wounded Brown still flying, the trio of planes dropped their torpedoes. Their torpedoes struck home and Platz and
Babcock reported later that the Hiyo sank within 30 minutes of being hit.
The Avengers were then chased unsuccessfully by Japanese fighters.
Tate first and then Omark caught sight of Brown.Omark reported that
Brown's plane had suffered a lot of damage and that Brown was flying with the cockpit open. He said it was obvious the pilot was badly injured. Tate recalled that, at one point, Brown held up his right arm
and it was ""all bloodstained.''
Omark stayed with Brown and tried to have Brown fly on his wing, but night fell and Brown, who appeared dazed and was flying erratically, wandered off.
No one ever saw him
again.The return was almost as harrowing. Omark became separated from the other flyers and couldn't pick up the homing signal to get a bearing on the fleet. Fortunately, a night fighter sent to find him did
just that.
Omark remembered that there were so many returning planes in the sky, most with little fuel left, that Mitscher made the unusual wartime command decision for the fleet's ships to turn on their lights."
"I can recall what a fantastic sight that was in seeing the lights from the task force. It was a remarkable beacon,'' he's quoted as saying in a 1979 book authored by Barrett Tillman entitled
""Avenger At War.''
Of the four Avenger-division that took off from the USS Belleau Wood, only Omark was able to land on a carrier, the first one he could find, the USS Lexington.
He had only two gallons
of gas remaining when he landed. His crew cheered as they felt the plane catch the wire on the Lexington's deck and roll safely to a stop.
Both Tate's plane and Luton's ran out of gas before making it back to a
carrier deck but both made successful water landings and they and their crews were rescued.
According to another written account of the mission, again taken mostly from after-action reports, the last thing that Brown,
Omark, Tate and Luton saw on the Belleau Wood's ready-room blackboard before takeoff was ""a hastily scrawled, "Get The Carriers.''
'This division of Avengers took that order to heart.
