Truk was next on the list. The COWPENS left Pearl Harbor early in February, again with Task Group 58.3. Each attack had carried deeper into the Japanese Island defenses, and with the announcement that Truk was the objective came a natural apprehension. Little was then known about this enemy strongpoint in the Carolines. Legend had built Truk into a well-nigh-impregnable fortress.
Task Force 53 was getting stronger all the time, but the men aboard the COWPENS, like everyone else in the force, had yet to realize their own strength. Truk proved to be a lot softer than supposed. Our planes smashed at its shipping, airfields and other defenses throughout the 16th and 17th of February, encountering surprisingly feeble opposition. COWPENS planes helped sink a Japanese light cruiser, shot down three enemy planes and destroyed many more on the ground. The overall damage to the enemy was heavy, but more important was the lift to our morale.
From Truk, the task force moved up to the Marianas to learn more about Guam, Saipan and the other islands slated for invasion. The job involved important photographic coverage of the islands in addition to whatever damage could be inflicted.
Up to this point, every operation in which the COWPENS bad been involved had started with the element of surprise in our favor. This time a Japanese plane spotted the task force still 420 miles away from the objective. They still had plenty of fleet and aircraft strength to oppose us. Nobody yet knew what would happen with aircraft carriers going up against island-based planes that were ready. The decision to fight our way in came from Vice Admiral Marc A. Mitscher, and his fame as the commander of Task Force 58 was to grow from then on. The Japanese did their best to stop us. They threw waves of torpedo planes at us all during the night before our attack without doing any damage, and the air battle grew fiercer with the dawn.
The COWPENS and the other carriers had to launch their first waves while under enemy air attack. But they couldn't stop us. 0ur planes worked Guam, Saipan and Rota through the 23rd, sinking seven Japanese ships and shooting down 51 of their planes in all. The COWPENS contribution in the air battles was the destruction of four enemy planes. From then on we knew that the carriers could go "anywhere they damn well pleased."
Things were pretty quiet for the next few weeks. The Army was getting set for new invasions in New Guinea and needed fleet support. The Japanese Fleet was still a threat. After our first Truk attack, the Japanese had moved their bigger ships back to Palau and Yap. The carriers’ assignment was to keep the enemy fleet off the necks of the Army in New Guinea. While the preparations continued, the COWPENS and the other ships of the carrier force made ready at Pearl Harbor and Majuro, an atoll anchorage in the Marshall Islands.
It was decided to go after the Japanese ships at Palau and Yap, and the COWPENS was attached to Task Group 58.1 for this operation. Again the Japanese sighted the task force, and again there were night and day air attacks before we got within striking range. The Japanese lost nine planes without doing any damage. We hit Palau on March 30th, Yap on the 31st and Woleai on the first of April. The big Japanese ships had high-tailed it away at the news of our coming. We had to be content with shooting up lesser ships, pounding the ground defenses and destroying some more planes.
Then came the Army landings in New Guinea and the easiest job of all. The carriers hit airfields to the north of the landing points, Sarmi, Wake, Sarvar and Humboldt Bay, on April 21st and 22nd. The Japanese had sighted us on the 19th, but didn't offer any serious opposition. Our pilots couldn't find enough enemy planes to keep them busy and a race to the kill developed every time one turned up. The COWPENS pilots got their share.
When the Army was secure in its new footholds, the carrier task force left for other work. They gave Truk another pasting on the 29th of April on the way home. Ground installations were the main target and the anti-aircraft fire was heavy. This COWPENS was not attacked, but other groups fought off several groups of torpedo planes and shot down 38 of them. On the way back to Majuro, the carriers rested while the battleships in the screen bombarded Ponape. During this period the COWPENS’ second skipper, Captain Hubert W. Taylor, flew aboard. He relieved Captain McConnell on May 8th. The amphibious attack on the Marianas was the biggest to date. The COWPENS was a part of Task Group 58.4; one of four carrier groups assigned to win control of the air and pave the way for the landings. It started with air attacks on the first objective, Saipan, on June 11th. The next day, while leading a fighter attack on a Japanese convoy trying to escape, the COWPENS Air Group Commander, Lieutenant Commander Robert Price, was shot down. A specially organized air search located him in the water and dropped a life raft, but night fell before he could be picked up. Other searches failed to locate him the next day and he was given up for lost. However, by great good luck he was spotted by another task group and rescued 11 days later, more dead than alive.
From the 11th to the 19th, the COWPENS’ group bombed and strafed the Marianas, with a side jaunt up to give Iwo Jima the same treatment. The enemy air opposition was feeble, but on the 27th word came through that the Japanese Fleet was on the prowl out of the Philippines.
The tide of battle ashore on Guam and Saipan was going our way, and the Japanese were making a final effort to save the day. It came on the 19th, with the Japanese carriers launching their planes at a great distance; a one way air attack of suicidal proportions with no turning back for their pilots. The ensuing air battle, later called the "Marianas Turkey Shoot", was terrific. They sent wave after wave in an effort to smash our fleet and our fighters met then head on. Not a single American ship was seriously damaged. The Japanese lost 402 planes; only 17 of ours were shot down.
The next day the COWPENS had to refuel out of the battle area and so missed the follow up attack on the Japanese Fleet known as the Battle of the Philippine Sea. The ship returned to action and continued supporting the invasion until the 6th of July. Then back to Pearl Harbor for routine repairs and to send home a very tired air group.
The Marianas operation cost Air Group 25 eight fighters and one torpedo plane in action. Four of the lost pilots were seen alive in the water, but were lost before rescue efforts could be organized. After that there was much more emphasis placed on pilot rescue. On the other hand, the air group shot down 20 enemy planes, with four others listed as ‘probable’. The pilots flew a total of 950 sorties, many of them carrying bombs against shore installations.
When the COWPENS left Pearl Harbor in August 1944, she had a new air group and a now look; a snappy job of zigzag camouflage paint to replace her solid gray. Air Group 22, under Lieutenant Commander T. H. Jenkins, reported aboard July 30th. By now, American strength in the Pacific had grown to the point where a return to the Philippines was in order. The fast carrier task force got its usual job of paving the way. The planes started off by hitting everything within air range of the invasion points. First on the list were the Palau Islands, which COWPENS' planes had visited before. The ship was a part or Task Group 38.1, under the overall command of Vice Admiral William A. Halsey. The planes hit the islands of Anguar, Ugeaebus and Malakal on the 6th, 7th and 8th of September, without running into any air opposition.
The task force then moved down to repeat the performance in the Philippines. Mindanao, Negros, Cabu and Leyte were attacked through the 14th. On the 15th the Army invaded the island of Morotai in the Netherlands Indies and there were two days of air cover for this move, as well as air sweeps over the northern Celebes to keep the Japanese planes away.
The hunting failed to flush much game, so the carriers shifted their attention back to the Philippines. Attacks on enemy shipping at Manila and other Luzon ports stirred up some opposition on the 20th. The COWPENS 40 and 20 millimeter guns helped repel the Japanese attackers.