A Japanese plane scored a torpedo hit on the heavy cruiser CANBERRA on the 13th, and the same thing happened to the light cruiser HOUSTON the next day. We started a retreat on the 15th, with the two cripples slowing us down. While other ships stood between the damaged cruisers and the enemy, the COWPENS and her sister ship CABOT furnished air cover. Japanese planes kept after the wounded ships, and the ensuing air battles were the fiercest to date for COWPENS. Her planes accounted for 17 of some 80 enemy planes shot down on the 15th and 16th. The HOUSTON was hit a second time by a torpedo, but all ships made it back to Ulithi.
There was little rest for the weary. Word came through on the 25th of October that the Japanese Fleet was on it’s way to the Philippines, and the now famous Second Battle of the Philippine Sea was well underway when the carriers got there. Three of the task groups destroyed the Japanese carrier force to the north, while the COWPENS flew combat air patrols and fighter sweeps over airfields in the Visayan Islands. Later, the COWPENS helped chase the remnants of the enemy battleship force back through The Sibuyan Sea. COWPENS torpedo planes scored three hits on a heavy cruiser to help finish her off, and damaged other enemy ships. With the threat to our landings removed, the carriers once more retired to Ulithi.
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.
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