On this day, March 19, 1945, a Japanese dive bomber hit the USS Franklin, killing 724 of her crew.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_19

• 1945 – World War II: Off the coast of Japan, a dive bomber hits the aircraft carrier USS Franklin, killing 724 of her crew. Badly damaged, the ship is able to return to the US under her own power.

Tue Mar 19, 2024: On this day, March 19, 1945, a Japanese dive bomber hit the USS Franklin, killing 724 of her crew.

[marble falls]

1. In the Navy, the fight goes on till there's no more fight ....

https://www.history.navy.mil/about-us/leadership/director/directors-corner/h-grams/h-gram-043/h-043-1.html

The casualty count for Franklin varies from source to source, some of which don’t include air group personnel or don’t include Marines, or passengers who were in transit, or a journalist, or don’t account for those who died from their wounds much later. In his History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Samuel Eliot Morison gives figures of 724 killed or missing and 265 wounded. Some sources who were aboard Franklin give figures between 824 and 832 for those who were lost or buried at sea. Given the sheer carnage, it’s also possible that different unrecognizable parts of the same body received separate burials. Ultimately, the Navy awarded 808 posthumous Purple Hearts and an additional 347 Purple Hearts to survivors. More recent research gives a number of 807 killed and 487 wounded. If the deaths on 19 March are combined with those of 30 October 1944, then Franklin lost upward of 924 crewmen, the highest of any U.S. ship in World War II except the battleship Arizona at Pearl Harbor. “Lucky 13” she was not.

Among the dead on Franklin was a passenger, Captain Arnold J. Isbell, who was on his way to take command of Yorktown (CV-10) following his highly successful tour as commander of the USS Card (CVE-11) hunter-killer task group in the Atlantic. He had been awarded a Distinguished Service Medal and the task group a Presidential Unit Citation for sinking eight German U-boats. The destroyer Arnold J. Isbell (DD-869) was named in his honor and served in commission from 1946 to 1974. Also among the dead was one of the ship’s doctors, Lieutenant Commander George W. Fox, who was killed by smoke inhalation while tending mass casualties; he would be awarded a posthumous Navy Cross. Since no ship was ever named in his honor, I’ve included his award citation:

[sl8]

2. Thanks. Good podcast episode about the event:

1:58:12 hours

Big Ben-The Story of USS Franklin-Episode 417

Unauthorized History of the Pacific War Podcast

Oct 8 2024

This week Seth and Bill take a look at one of the most famous stories of survival and bravery in all of World War II, the story of the USS Franklin. On March 19, 1945 aircraft carrier USS Franklin (CV-13) better known as Big Ben, was hit by one or two bombs dropped by a Japanese Judy dive bomber. In the ensuing inferno and chaos that followed, more than 700 American sailors and Marines were killed while the remainder of the crew underwent one of the most trying experiences in all of US Naval history. The story of Franklin is legend, and this week, we get into every aspect of it, from Big Ben's crew to her captain, to her destruction, and finally her survival.

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