This opening phase of the Philippine campaign ended on the 24th of September with attacks on the Visayas and Cebu. During the whole period, COWPENS planes shot down 41 Japanese Aircraft and damaged 20 ships, with the loss or seven of our planes.
The first phase of the Philippine campaign ended with the carriers pausing for breath at Manus Island for four days starting September 28. With 100,000 miles of cruising behind her, the COWPENS at this point began to show the first signs of wear and tear; a leaky boiler, a jammed plane elevator and a lot of vibration. However, the first Army troops would hit the beach in Leyte Gulf on the 17th of October 1944, and there wasn't time for a first-class overhaul. It was off again on the 2nd, with Formosa as the target.
It had been planned for the carriers to hit the Japanese home islands next, but the occupation forces ran into tough going in the Philippines. The Japanese were able to send in both land and air reinforcements. The carriers were called back to halt this flow. The task group, including the COWPENS, started this phase by hitting a convoy of 12 freighters off Lingayen Gulf, damaging four. Bad weather and Kamikaze attacks complicated things. Next it was a convoy of 20 ships between Cebu and Leyte, none of which escaped undamaged.
The force then headed for Central Luzon to concentrate on the enemy's air strength and shipping. This series of attacks saw COWPENS' planes destroy 38 enemy planes by bombing and strafing. The force beat off an air attack the afternoon of October 28th, shooting down 21 planes before retiring to Ulithi.
At this point Captain Taylor was relieved by Captain G. H. DeBaun; giving the COWPENS her third and last commanding officer of the war period.
The Philippines continued to occupy the attention of the COWPENS and the other fast carriers throughout the rest or 1944. The task force shuttled back and forth from Ulithi to hack away at enemy aircraft and shipping until the Army built up its strength ashore and could look after itself. It was during one or these forays that the carriers encountered a severe typhoon. For the COWPENS, the storm proved more vicious than the enemy. There had been a lot of rough weather, but the typhoon that struck off the Philippines on December 17th vas the worst of all. Winds up to 100 miles an hour buffeted the COWPENS. She wallowed in the monstrous seas for seemingly endless hours rolling as much as 45 degrees in the worst of her agony.
Topside gear tore loose. Bombs in the forward magazine broke away and rolled about crazily. Men trying to secure them had to jump up and hang to the overhead at times to avoid being crushed to death by the bombs. Tractors and planes broke loose from their lashings and careened wildly about the flight deck. A fighter belly tank caught fire from the friction. The firefighters had to lash themselves to the deck to avoid being washed overboard. They finally succeeded in pushing the flaming plane over the side, but not without a casualty. In the struggle Lieutenant Commander Price, who had escaped death by such a narrow margin six months before, disappeared. He had come back as the ship’s air officer after the relief of Air Group 25.
At the height of the storm the COWPENS surface radar went out of action, and the captain decided to try to fight his way clear alone, for fear of colliding with the other ships. The task group commander assigned two destroyers as escorts. Only one could find the COWPENS. The destroyer HALSEY POWELL guided COWPENS by radio.
The worst was over on the 18th, and the next day the COWPENS rejoined the task group. Christmas was spent at Ulithi while the damage was repaired. In so damaging the COWPENS, the typhoon had done something the Japanese never were able to do.
New Years Day 1945, found the COWPENS once more on the go. More troop landings were scheduled in the Philippines, and again the mission was to knockout the Japanese air strength from a position to interfere. Formosa was again a prime target, and for the job the COWPENS was assigned to Task Group 38.1, under Rear Admiral Arthur Radford.
Our attacks started on January 2nd, but bad weather hampered operations and the carriers moved down closer to the Philippines after three days. By the 7th, our planes were ranging over northern Luzon. But the hunting was poor, and it was decided to try again at Formosa. Still more foul weather sent the task force in search of prey elsewhere. We entered the China Sea, with the COWPENS being the first carrier through Bashi Channel. Although hampered by storms and squalls the force hit Camranh Bay, French Indo-China, and Hong Kong.
This penetration into water so close to the Japanese homeland brought a radio threat from "Tokyo Rose". She promised that the American carriers would be destroyed. But little or no opposition turned up, and it was the continued bad weather and not the Japanese that caused retirement from the China Sea on January 20th.
On the way back to Ulithi, the planes hit Formosa again on the 21st. Here the COWPENS fighter director brought about a neat interception. Fifteen of 18 enemy planes trying to attack the carriers were shot down and the others chased off. It earned the ship a special commendation from the task force commander.
The third air group to fly from the COWPENS, Air Group 46, came to the ship at Ulithi on February 6th, 1945, skippered by Commander C. W. Rooney. The Iwo Jima campaign was coming up and fresh pilots were needed.
To protect the Marines landing at Iwo Jima, it was necessary to stop the Japanese air force at the Empire itself. COWPENS was attached to Task Group 58.3, under Rear Admiral Frederick O. Sherman for the operation. The ships sortied from Ulithi on February 10th.
The attacks on the Empire were launched from a point 125 miles off Yokahama on the 16th. They continued with little opposition for two days before the task force moved back closer to Iwo Jima. Another day of strikes in the Tokyo area came on the 24th. The Japanese again failed to put up much fight, but an accident on board marred the occasion for the COWPENS.
A returning fighter bounced over the barrier and crashed into the planes spotted forward on the flight deck, smashing up 5 of them and causing two men to jump overboard and be lost. After that the task force swept down for more strikes in the Ryukyus before retiring to Ulithi. There, on March 7th, the COWPENS was ordered home.
This first return to the United States found COWPENS at San Francisco on March 28th. Her overhaul at Mare Island and the subsequent trials kept her stateside until the 21st of May. During these two months the executive officer and every department head, except the first lieutenant and the supply officer, were relieved.
COWPENS had dropped Air Group 46 in the forward area. When the ship again sailed for the warfront, she had her fourth and last group, Air Group 50, under Commander R. E. Kirkpatrick. Upon arrival, COWPENS was assigned to Task Group 38.4, under Rear Admiral Radford again, and took up where she had left off three months before. From the 10th of July until the war ended on August 15th, she pounded Japanese shipping and aircraft from Hokkaido to the Inland Sea. She helped finish off the battleships NAGATO and OYADO. COWPENS planes accounted for two enemy planes in the air and 29 on the ground, sank 31 small ships and damaged 23 others, besides damaging numerous ground targets. Only once was the task force under attack.
The COWPENS was attached to the "show of force" group sent into Sagami Bay on August 27th, the only carrier, and the next day her planes flew passengers ashore to Atsugi Airfield. These are believed to be the first Navy planes to land on Japanese soil after the war.
The task force swept down from the north, raking the Ryukyus and northern Luzon on the way. COWPENS’ planes helped sink two cargo ships and destroyed some more Japanese planes in the process. Formosa was tough. It was through this big island that the Japanese were staging planes into the Philippines. We hit it for three days starting October 12th, and the Japanese fought back with determination. The action was almost continuous night and day. Here the COWPENS’ guns brought down their first plane.