If the Imperial Japanese Navy had been blessed by a Random Omnipotent Being with the same quality of damage control equipment and training right before Midway, how many if any of the fleet carriers could have been saved after the Five Lucky Minutes?
If the Japanese had managed to develop a 1000lb bomb for their dive bombers do you think it would have cause significantly more losses to American carriers? For example would Franklin have survived?
Prolly zero...see the Russian meteorite ...chelabrisk...even right in the landing zone , rocks hit almost nobody an no structures...also a stray bullets would be the same ,chunks of flying burnt iron ..would more likely be a destroyed airplane than astronomical...
The pictures taken of the Franklin as she burned and after the fact are some of the most raw and powerful pictures of a ship in distress. It's amazing that she survived, it's a testament to the crews dedication and training. Plus the fact that the Essex class was ridiculously tough and built extremely well.
The crew definitely had a crucial role in saving the ship. The ship is only as good as its crew. The IJN Taihou had new damage control systems at the time but its crew was inexperienced and their mistakes hastened the demise of the carrier.
Imagine you're a worker at Ulithi, you heard the fleet rumors of Franklin being damaged and saved, but you figure it can't be that bad. Then you see her slowly limp her way into the bay or harbor and you lay eyes on the absolute hulk that is her stern. To think of seeing it after the fact, and knowing she's still at least mechanically sea worthy, must have been both awe inspiring and absolutely horrifying
I imagine it was the same for the workers at the Vickers-Armstrong when HMS Eskimo came back from Norway with her bow blown off from a German torpedo (not just damaged, the bow of the ship was gone). Some temporary repairs and she steamed back across the North Sea back to the yard where she was built. I have an image of the workers saluting, and the crew saluting back.
I’ve read quite a bit about Captain Leslie Gehres and his career, especially his very long war assignment up in the Aleutian Islands prior to first and only ship command, the U.S.S. Franklin. Not only did he immediately foment an absolute toxic atmosphere aboard the Franklin upon taking command of the carrier, he had carried aboard a personal legacy of creating poisonous working environments within his patrol wing and the attached ground- based squadrons he was responsible for up in the Aleutian combat area. It was long known that there was something “wrong” with the man and that he had a screw or two loose. He was the perfect organizational example of a work place problem being passed off over the years to become “someone else’s” headache….
To my surprise his career wasnt over afterwards. He became a Rear Admiral (second half) and earned several awards like the Navy cross for saving the ship, and the Legion of Merit with Gold star and V device. Thats outragious.
Thank you for doing this. My father was part of the USMC detachment aboard the Franklin. He was one of the 300 crewman who were led to safety by Lt. Garys. He was taken aboard the Santa Fe when he and others were cut off by fire after their fire hose failed. He came back aboard the ship at Ulithi. He always said Captain Geheres was an incompetent ass.
I agree that captain was an ass , can you imagine getting blown off the ship by a bomb and then getting desertion charges against you , REALLY !!!!!! Thank your relative the Marine for his service for me . Please
I only have one complaint with his assessment and that being, there is absolutely no good reason to insult asses so by associating them with that walking, talking foreskin. I sincerely hope that the Navy made his remaining remnant of a career a veritable living hell.
My Grandmother-in-Law lost her brother on that ship. The sailor was from Clare, Michigan. He was a married man with two children. He graduated with a two year business from Central Michigan College (now university) and worked at the Farwell State Bank as an assistant manager. He was drafted into the US Navy, yes there was a draft for the Navy. Despite his finance degree and banking experience he was assigned as part of the flight deck crew. From what I was able to gather, he was in the initial several hundred killed in the initial blast. His remains were recovered and he was buried at sea with hundreds of others of his ship mates. His wife never remarried and the family survived on meager social security survivor benefits during the 40s to the 60s. Prior to 2016, we had a few Christmases with the grown children.
Wow, that story about the desertion charges is pure gold. How much of the captain's decision to push for charges lead to him never seeing another command?
I have to wonder, had he always been like that, or did the experience of the attack, the horrible deaths of so many officers and crew, and the struggle to save the ship cause a mental break.
It's telling that other skippers essentially ignored him who knew the truth. Also, while the men did leave the ship it was under duress and desertion charge would not have stuck in reality. Given the communication was a mess on her it is understandable that groups of men 'abandoned ship' because they did not know what was going on and had other reasonably safe course of action. A competent defense lawyer would have a field day with these charges making the prosecution look incredibly stupid. Desertion is a very serious military charge and the en-mass charging of men on the Franklin was an idiocy of the highest order. Once someone realized what was happening, the attempt was quashed. Also, desertion has a fairly specific set of actions that must be met which I doubt any of the Franklin's crew came near to meeting.
Not only that, Gehres ignored Protocol & SOP for a civilian Harbor Pilot to help navigate the carrier to the dock when arriving @ Pearl Harbor on the way back to the States afterwards. Saying he would "take her in" himself, he maneuvered into the dock area too fast. Gehres crashed Franklin into the dock, blaming the mooring details for the incident.
@@RonOhio He was a prick from the start. Just look up his name. It should also be noted that many of the crew he accused of deserting were detained and treated poorly because those holding them had no idea what really happened and thought they were actual deserters.
I was enthralled for 30+ minutes while the devastating effect of fire, explosions, smoke, menacing water and scorching heat literally passed in front of me. And, notice, I knew this story..!! 👏
The good part of that is that the damage control was good. Japanese ships suffered far less damage and foundered. The bad part is the fact that the US could have easily transitioned to armored flight decks and probably never suffered this combat loss to begin with. Its sinking would have been a propaganda victory for Japan, a +1 in carrier kills, but for all intents and purposes, she was a loss. It is really odd to think, that the largest and most expensive active USN ship that had to be scrapped or written off was done by no other then the US navy itself. Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't the Bonhomme Richard the largest and most expensive ship, but also the biggest military asset ever to be lost to the country in a single event? They are counted as amphibious ships, but to most everyone else, they are aircraft carriers with some extra abilities. Especially in modern times, the loss of one carrier is crazy as most countries have none and all but the USA have one or two, mostly far smaller then the Wasp Class. No nation has managed that since WW2, the last carrier kill in WW2 being the USA and the first destroyed after it, nearly 80 years later...the USA, and it was its own. Whoever had to pay for that debacle is not a happy sailor.
@@jlawsl you don't " easily transitio to armored flight decks", that would require an entire new design. Don't forget that the Essex is basically a pre-war design with some extras; at the time of it's design, and withing the US' requirements and threats faced, armoured decks seemed an expensive and not very usefull idea which most likely also result in smaller carriers with smaller air wings (as shown by the RN); only the 43-45 experience, and seeing what the RN carriers survived, convinced the USN to get it, but by then it was too late for WWII.
@@jlvfr I think the US didn’t build armored flight decks at first due to the reduction in air wings and to make it faster to patch holes in the flight deck.
@@jlvfr Also, wasn't most of the damage to U.S. carriers, in earlier battles, caused by torpedoes , either from planes or submarines, and so not something an armored deck would protect against?
No Essex class were ever sunk in combat, but Franklin and Bunker Hill were so heavily damaged they never saw service again after being repaired as best they could.
If the war lasts longer, they most definitely would have seen combat again. Ironically, it was because they were fully repaired that they never saw service again; all of the other Essex ships were given quick upgrades to handle early jets, but as Drach noted the ultimate upgrade never came because no upgrade would make it feasible.
@@robbarasch6472 my grandpa was in boot camp preparing for the invasion of japan when the war ended. I likely wouldn’t exist of it wasn’t for the atomic bombs,
@@thevictoryoverhimself7298 my dad was assigned to the Franklin out of boot camp during the summer of 1945. So, I'm also personally grateful that the invasion wasn't necessary
@@thevictoryoverhimself7298 That's a misconception; it may have partially contributed to it, but it was actually the Soviets that truly shook up the Japanese populace; they thought they were only primarily fighting the United States, and then all of a sudden _MANCHURIA._ or rather how the Japanese lost a vast majority of their Eastern Asian holdings in the span of two weeks. But even with _that_ in mind, the war still could have continued if not for the bravery of the Emperor (I wish I was kidding) and his aides, who barely escaped his own people from the military establishment who were planning to kill or otherwise silence him so he couldn't broadcast a surrender order to his people and the rest of the world, because to the Japanese, the Emperor was their God, and His word was law. He ultimately succeeded, and many of those in the military establishment quickly committed seppuku not long after, and the war ended. Trust me, the end of WWII wasn't as clean-cut as you think. It could have ended very, very differently if a few people in very key moments didn't succeed in the Emperor's final mission to end the war. Also worth noting that had the Emperor been killed at any point from the fire bombings of Tokyo, there's a very strong possibility that a very large proportion of the Japanese populace would have fought to the last.
The biggest shock in this one is how that captain survived the whole ordeal, I am sure more than a few onboard had plans to loose him over the side at night.
O'Callahan's story is pretty amazing. Especially the part where he first refused the Navy Cross, but then Roosevelt (Edit, Oops, meant to type Truman) stepped in and he was awarded the Medal of Honor.
Truman, not Roosevelt. FDR died on April 12, less than a month after the attack on the Franklin, and before it had even got to Panama on its trip to New York.
Just seeing how damaged Franklin was and how extreme her list was, I've always marvelled at the fact those sailors were able to save the ship. USN damage control was definitely the best in the world.
And even with all that it was for nothing. She had the most KIA/MIA fatalities of a damaged or sunken American carrier and as a result was knocked out of the war and never became an active ship again. Bunker Hill (3rd most carrier deaths for the USA) at Okinawa also had the same fate. Yet we are always lied to and told by "historians" that the bombers/kamikazes at Okinawa did nothing but flesh wounds to the American ships other than minesweepers and Liberty ships. Franklin and Bunker Hill were de facto sunken ships or total losses in all but name.
@@nogoodnameleft Who the hell EVER said that the kamikazes did only damage to minesweepers and Liberty ships? Name one. Or, you can just talk out your ass the rest of your life.
@@nogoodnameleft Technically, it wasn't for nothing. Just like the Rangers scaling Point Du Hoc, the efforts to save the ship ultimately meant she could live to fight another day. Had the planned invasions of the Japanese Home Islands gone through, Franklin and Bunker Hill would've been right there in the thick of it along side Midway and one or two of her planned Sisters. It's just unfortunate for them that the war ended when it did... though for their crews it's probably a good thing since they didn't have to go into the fires of hell one more time. I would realistically liken her to a pro athlete that finally made it to the big leagues... only to get injured in the third game in such a fashion that they had to sit out the rest of the season, the play offs, and the big victory at the end.
@@Tank50us Again, Franklin was knocked out of the war and what happened to her was no different from being sunk. The "saving her for repairs" was propaganda BS. Tell the 807 men who were killed on Franklin on that day that bringing her back to the USA was any different than being sunk. She and Bunker Hill were both knocked out of the war and never ever brought back to active duty. Hindsight says waste of money. Those repair ships should have been used on other ships that were actually able to be saved and repaired unlike the now worthless Franklin and Bunker Hill. It proves that kamikazes were effective, right from the words of Admiral Spruance. The Navy's (and her "historians") big lie from WWII was "kamikazes were ineffective". What a joke! Spruance was right! Spruance in May 1945: "This is my second experience with a suicide plane making a hit on board my own ship, and I have seen four other ships hit near me. The suicide plane is a very effective weapon, which we must not underestimate. I do not believe anyone who has not been around within its area of operations can realize its potentialities against ships. It is the opposite extreme of a lot of our Army heavy bombers who bomb safely and ineffectively from the upper atmosphere."
If the War and Navy Departments let Captain Gehres bring charges against those men the amount of letters their families would've wrote to their Congressmen and Senator's would have been legendary. The DOD would still be responding to the backlogged inquiries to this day.
I remember your old 'what do when everything is on fire' video, still sad it got taken down. Glad to see another video on how the Essexes survive a pounding. Franklin's misery with poortly-timed bombs reminds me a lot of what the Kido Butai suffered at Midway- but the famous USN damage control came to save her. Massive respect for the man of America for surviving this inferno and saving the ship! Radar getting blinded by IFF signals from planes on the flight deck, given them a blindspot the Japanese could hide in- these types of complications you'd never think of. Technology is hard.
There were plenty of US planes and ships to protect Franklin from further damage. The 3 Japanese carriers severely damaged in the first wave would surely have been sitting ducks for the USN aircraft.
@@AC_WILDCARD Not youtube. The previous Franklin video included citations to a bizarrely and aggressively litigious author, so Drach took it down a while ago.
My significant other's father was a senior naval rating aboard Franklin, and he was responsible for overseeing photo reconnaissance and on-board photography. I sit now in a room half-filled with thousands of negatives and B&W photographs from that ship and later assignments....including the first atomic test in the Pacific, OPERATION CROSSROADS. One photo behind me shows the mushroom cloud from that explosion. Other photos include but are not limited to that, and include carrier landing and takeoff photos, cockpit 'beauty' photos of pilots, sea side pictures of shore duty and other shipboard events. I have been pressing my girlfriend to scan these and get them into the hands of archivists, at present to no avail. I will continue to try for this being done.
Please do it mate. Especially for survivors families as most of the crew would have passed by now and their grown children and grand children would surely appreciate having a connection they can turn to.
Has anyone contacted the historic society? If the local chapter didn't want those photos, I'd bet they could help find someone who would want them. It sounds like you have some gems of our history there!
@@shary5165 We have a few museums in mind, BUT...a lot has to be done here before we can go through them. Hundreds of family photos and slides have her priority...I'm still attempting to get her to dispose of office clothing from a job she left six years ago when she retired. In other words....movement is slow, VERY slow. I believe in due course this will be taken care of.
From other documentaries on the Franklin, Captain Gehres was a real piece of work. He's a decent part of the reason the Franklin was such a mass casualty event in the initial explosions since he'd set the readiness condition to relaxed and thus the mass of men waiting for breakfast meeting their fate and then as Drach states, in scorning and disparaging all the men who'd left the ship with absolutely no regard for circumstances. Blown off the ship by the explosions? Remaining at your DC station until the last moment when the metal around you was glowing hot? DESERTION!
In the previous version of this video I think it was mentioned that the radar was more than a little spotty, weather was a factor, there where other ships covering, and the crew had been at stations for some time. Better to rest the crew when your not under clear threat, so stuff was manned, just not fully. Spotty radar wasn't uncommon back then, so nothing to be done there, same with weather. The breakfast casualties where just bad luck. But the stuff after with regards to desertion should have at minimum landed the captain with a psych eval.
@@nickierv13 From those other documentaries (one of them being 'USS Franklin: Honor Restored' which is also on youtube at this time and includes survivor interviews), Gehres had half the crew stood down that morning at a very inappropriate readiness condition for being 50 miles off the Japanese coast. Had they been at an actually appropriate readiness condition there wouldn't have been the many hundreds in line for a meal. Rewatching some parts... holy crap was Gehres a piece of work... and there's a good reason Drach didn't go into much detail on it since it's very much a story all its own apart from the attack and monumental effort to save the ship and which the above documentary (and some others) cover with survivor testimony.
And to be given the Navy Cross! The man should have been court martialled. Even on a tenuous reason such as the readiness condition, he should have been publicly charged and court martialled.
Thank you SO much for doing this. My father was a plank owner on the Franklin and was aboard her from commissioning until he went over the fantail onto the USS Santa Fe on March 19. Regarding her commanding officers, my father said Shoemaker was beloved by the crew and Gehres was despised from the first time he addressed them, implying the damage they sustained in October 1944 was their fault.
Amazing that he was so absolutely clueless as to blame the entire crew, given the US Navy even blames the commander for such a loss. "It was over 3000 men's fault, not me, I was only in command" really floats about as well as a lead balloon on Venus. Where lead can only exist as a liquid. If one of my teams failed at something, the very first question that I have is, "How did I fuck up a good team and how to I fix my fuck-up?", while apologizing to the team for setting them up to fail. That only happened a couple of times over 28 years, so obviously I didn't repeat mistakes. I sincerely hope that his assignments in the remainder of the remnant of his career made hell look like a vacation destination for the family!
Some of these stories of incredible heroism made me proud to be human. That one sailor who returned into the smoke-filled hallways again and again to get the other men out of there, most likely saving their lives at great personal risk, is the very epitome of a hero!
Franklin: How does one defend against such power? Enterprise: A wise master does not reveal all his secrets at once. In due time, my apprentice. (For context. Enterprise and Franklin were both assigned to TG 38.4 in late 1944 and TG 58.2 during March 1945. Both times Franklin was damage Enterprise had to fill in as TG flagship.)
My painting teacher in The National College of Art Dublin in 1979 was a survivor of this event , Charles Brady told us of how as 17 years old ensign of he struggled learn to walk again . Charles took advantage of the GI bill of rights studying painting , in 1959 he returned to the land of his ancestry specializing in minimalist still life paintings and becoming a member of the Royal Irish Academy. His death in 1988 was hastened by smoke inhalation on the USS Franklin.
When Gehres took command of the Franklin from Shoemaker he addressed the crew and, in regard to the Oct-44 kamikaze attack, supposedly said: ‘It was your fault because you didn’t shoot [the kamikaze] down. You didn’t do your duty; you’re incompetent, lazy and careless. Evidently you don’t know your jobs and I’m going to do my best to shape up this crew!’ . Read: "Inferno: The Epic Life and Death Struggle of the USS Franklin" by Joseph Springer
@@Kevin_Kennelly It happens remarkably often in bureaucracies, where those higher up the chain of command don't want to see what is happening and if they do, they make it someone else's problem. People who are manipulative can also thrive in some kinds of bureaucracies as the control subordinates who they can always fire to cover their own mistakes. For context, I worked briefly in the NHS in the UK, which has long had a problem with toxic managers. My own boss in the time I was briefly at a hospital estates department, boasted of how she got rid of my predecessor, who was 'useless'. When I said I had no experience of project management (I consider myself a technical architect), she started on a campaign of bullying against me, that saw me make a complaint about her and get asked to resign, which I happily did. I found out she had also run my successor out in short order, in a similar manner. She herself was there for years...and this was a hospital whose HR liked to proclaim 'bullying is unacceptable'. I gathered at the time I left that other managers were very clearly scared of her. I also checked over her CV on linkedin, and shall we say, she had a remarkable number of jobs in a short time? Almost like she came in, blamed everyone else for failures, then moved on when she had been there long enough, that she would be herself responsible for something. And left before this could impact on her. That she ended up in a hospital, with its entrenched bureaucracy, was in retrospect, no mistake, she was perfectly suited to be in that environment. She is now working for a university, which can similarly provide shelter for the cunning and manipulative toxic manager that she is.
@@Kevin_Kennelly - Because with guys like Gehres, being complete as*holes, well…, that’s hardwired into them from birth, from the start of their miserable lives. Now…, as far as “successfully” fu*king over subordinates in order to climb an organizational ladder; that is a learned skill. Anyone can be born an assh*le; but even an as*hole has to work and study at becoming a successful brown nose. It takes real talent to learn how step all over your peers and subordinates, damage the lives and careers of others, and at the same time successfully suck up to the proper authority in order to advance in an organization. Remember they’re naturally miserable asshol*s, but they have to learn and practice how to screw over others and successfully brown-nose those in authority over them and who can further their careers at the expense of others. Sorry, I think I just repeated myself, anyway you get my point….🧐
Sad that after what this crew did and had to suffer through they had to have their story tarnished by their Captain. Great damage control and heroism. Allot of brave men died saving that ship and their crewmates. Really great reporting Drach! Best I have seen on the Franklin. I served on the Lexington for a couple years during her role as a training carrier in the early 80's, so anything Essex class fascinates me. They were great ships. USS Lexington thankfully is now a museum ship in Corpus Christi, TX. Cheers!
Rip The original Lady Lex(CV-2) the beauty she was before having been scuttled due to extreme damage in the Battle of the Coral sea, 8th of May, 1942, hit by no less then 2 torpedoes and 3 aircraft bombs, though record states she was abandoned due to a Gasoline explosion, then scuttled by the USS Phelps(DD-218). May the Blue Ghost live in everyones hearts!
Thank you for this. I had an Uncle who was killed on the Franklin. My Dad was a Marine aviator stationed on Okinawa. Another Uncle was a Navy man, who was on two ships sunk by Japanese torpedoes. He came home a wreck, never able to have a family or hold a job. When people tell me that the atom bombs were not needed I have a far different perspective. How many lives are those people who argue that willing to have spent ending Japanese militarism?
The Ripples of Battle is one hell of a book. My wife's uncle JoJo was in USMC for Korea. Caught a round up by the Yalu and died. His parents went basically crazy and both stopped eating and started drinking. They drank themselves to death after alienating their only daughter. She is a mess and is my wife's mother. War ruins everything. My Dad fought on Iwo and my Mom Saud he had real bad dreams. My father never spoke of it.
To those people who think the atom bombs weren't needed, all you have to do is point them towards the casualty projections for Operation Downfall, specifically the projections for Japanese civilian casualties. Their attitudes tend to change extremely rapidly after that.
@@Firebolt193 There are some whose opinions and attitudes won't change no matter what information or projections are presented to them. Some had even told me to my face that the Japanese were surrendering or HAD surrendered but Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed anyway to "send a message" to the USSR. The final decision on whether or not to use the A-Bomb or conduct the "Downfall" operation was President Truman's. I think he made the correct choice even though the information even he had was necessarily incomplete. If an invasion of the Home Islands had been conducted there is a very good chance that many of us posting here today may not have been born, our fathers or grandfathers killed in that action, ending our branches of our family trees.
Similarities to the strike on Illustrious by the JU87 and the resulting hanger fires are stark. Illustrious maintained power and speed but the struggles were no less real. Illustrious survived 7 bomb hits and another one while alongside in Valletta for emergency repairs (proving the value of the armoured flight deck). One difference is that Illustrious had a captain (Dennis Boyd) with a working brain after the event.
What most civilians can never grasp is, armored anything afire becomes a metal box that's heated - an oven. At times, even to the point where even steel begins to burn. The hanger deck had to have been filled with rivers of molten and boiling aluminum quite early on! As for Illustrious, I'm not sure which caused more damage, the attack you're speaking of or the last attack on her, which was a 2200 pound bomb detonating 50 feet away in the water, cracking multiple transverse frames. Most of the bombs that did strike her, well, they only struck her, didn't penetrate. Excellent armor on that deck! Although, I don't recall that many warships that had the ship's bell shot up as much as hers was, which is telling as to the intensity of the attack.
Congress awards the medal and tends to gain an intense, service injurious dislike of such officers. As in, *really* screwing with officer authorizations and budget until said officer becomes compliant with his government's wishes. The last such was an Air Force officer, who was ordered by Congress to release retired war dogs for adoption by volunteers. Said officer kept having the dogs destroyed, the Air Force suddenly couldn't get officers appointed and funding got tangled in perpetual committees and said officer was ordered to release the animals, then reassigned to a less complicated position, where promotion was beyond unlikely. I did hear something about the chaplain refusing a Navy Cross, only to find himself overruled by Congress by being awarded the Medal of Honor. Good chaplains are worth far more than their weight in precious metals!
An incredible story to hear. That was a Midway-level critical hit that would have surely put most any other carrier on the bottom. The tenacity of the men of these crews and the ruggedness of these ships is truly legendary. And while they're on the other side of the line, credit also has to be given to the pilot of that Suisei- that was an absolutely perfect ambush. Obviously there was a degree of luck where the bombs ended up, but it was one of the most brutal dive-bomber hits of the war, surely. It's a shame all these incredible feats come at the cost of so many human lives, but that's war for you.
I would dispute the "put most any other carrier on the bottom" bit - had one of the RN's armored carriers been in _Franklin's_ place, she likely would've shrugged off the hit with few casualties (remember that the bomb that hit _Franklin's_ armor deck bounced clean off - it's just that, after that bounce, it was in the middle of a hangar full of things that liked to go BOOM). To flip that around, the _Essexes_ were fortunate to have never have had to face Fliegerkorps X - _that_ encounter would've likely resulted in a very dead carrier.
@@vikkimcdonough6153 Yeah, an armored deck would definitely have prevented a lot of the damage. I more meant that the level of damage sustained would've likely sunk most others.
When the Franklin went to the breakers, in the 60s, one of the US TV networks produced a documentary about it. Besides the archival footage, the show had several members of the crew from that day, talking about what they were doing and how they survived.
@@davidb6576 I know that it showed how a number of crew escaped thru the funnel. It was something about how the crew of the Franklin was finally redeemed after many years.
Back in 1963 my scoutmaster was Joe Pasztor. He was a survivor of USS Franklin. He had 7 children and was an honored member of our church in Lake Jackson, Texas. WOW!
I will say it is great hearing about this ship nearly 20 years after my grandfather passed away. He had never spoke much about it but told my dad several times how he helped get the Franklin back to a safe port
In 1958 my father took me and my sister to the Bayonne NJ Naval yard to visit the USS Franklin and the battleship USS New Jersey. I especially recall walking around the hangar decks and looking at the different displays, especially the electronic ones. My father told me about the history of the Franklin and about when he saw it after the battle when it made its way to Pearl Harbor. He was a Navy man serving on what he called a Large Slow Target, LST. What a fantastic generation those men and women were serving our country during the war. My mother was an Army nurse stationed in England and France. Yes, she wore combat boots and was proud of it. I miss them.
My father-in-law served aboard USS Poole (DE-151) and his ship was in port the day Franklin arrived in Brooklyn Navy Yard. He said his crew were in awe of the damage and they were told there were still dead sailors trapped in spaces that hadn't been accessed yet. He said it had a sobering effect, because after 18 convoy runs across the North Atlantic, their own ship was headed to the Pacific.
A neighbor of mine was a aircraft maintenance mechanic on the Franklin with an embarked Marine Corps squadron. Just a kid from Florence, South Carolina. He was on the flight deck when the bombs hit. I knew him forty years after the event. He never went into any details of that day beyond saying it was a very long day, and then one day when we were watching a world at war documentary he jumped off the couch, pointed at the TV and shouted “that was my gun!”. It was film from the Franklin bombing and subsequent fire. That started many sessions where he started to get it out of his system. He’d been haunted by the events for forty years and had never talked to anyone about it. He passed a few years later. I think he’d made piece with those ghosts by then.
I just visited the Yorktown last weekend and laid eyes upon a large model the Franklin post battle damage. As impressive as it was, this video helps to bring the situation to life a bit more. Thanks Drach.
Wish I had seen that model when I toured the _Yorktown_. Drach's video is superb and thorough. I had read about USS Franklin in the book _Pacific War Diary_ by a guy on the _Yorktown_. (Either Fahey or Leahy I think) Staggering loss of life, maybe the third worst on a warship ever? But this would have been without knowledge of the Japanese losses on _Taiho_, _Shinano_, , _Yamato_ or _Mushashi_. A super superstitious sailor on the _Yorktown_ made much of the _Franklin's_ unlucky number, CV13.
Well played by both the japanese airmen who did the perfect attack run (2x500pounds is not that much when it comes to bombs) and the Franklin's remaining crew which managed to keep the ship afloat and saved most of the crew.
My grandfather served on the Franklin during WWII, after fighting for the RCAF before America entered. He was a Corsair pilot. My sister asked me a little bit about the ship a few days ago, so it is a great coincidence you’ve covered it right now. Grandpa passed away before I was born, but he was on the ship during the attack and wrote to my grandmother later about how he’d been “doing a lot of swimming” since the attack knocked him off of the ship. Thank you for the video!
I was aware of the Franklin and the insane charges of desertion,but the lawyer and the brass were new to me.Thanks Drach, your story telling skills are great 👍!
Great new recap on Franklin, Drach. That Suisei dropping almost to mast level and missing gives you the chills... Thank God the guy didn't think "Well, time to go down on the forward deck". Franklin got the right crew and the wrong captain. Santa Fe? MVP of the day. Cheers.
The story of the survival of the Franklin was taught and used as the pre-eminent example in damage control & fire fighting when I was in the navy in the early to mid 70s. The chief in charge of the damage control party I was assigned to had pictures of her on the inside of the doors of our equipment lockers.
These stories never fail to instill an awe in me for the bravery and competence of the Naval crews who dealt with catastrophes. One more confirmation about a true "Greatest Generation"...
USS Franklin was one tough lady (yes, ships are traditionally referred to with female pronouns), and in the heat of disaster her entire crew acted in the finest traditions of the United States Navy to save her. Absolutely incredible story. Equally amazing is that her crew didn't take the opportunity to throw their dud of a captain overboard with the rest of the hazards and ordnance. Thank you, Drach!
"The captain? I'm not sure what happened to him. The last I saw of him, he was smoking a cigar watching planes taking off. When the bombs went off he was no where to be seen. Probably became pink mist."
My dad was a gunners mate (40 mm loader) on the Franklin when it was hit. He was only 18 at the time. He was supposed to be relieved to go to the mess hall and his relief did not come. Most of the men in that mess hall were killed. He said after the ship was hit everything was on fire above them and there was no way to get out. So he and his shipmate said either we burn or drown. So both went over the side. They were picked up by the Pittsburgh. They wanted to give him a purple heart because he had some minor flash burns but refused because he said the men who were killed or badly burnt deserved it. He never had a kind word to say about the Captain and said they should have court martialed the Captain for securing general quarters so close to Japan. He was so proud to have served on "The Big Ben".
A story of pure heroics almost ruined by a toxic commander. What is unbelievable, is that he actually has a monument dedicated to him in his home town.
Funny how history works,,,,, its written by the conquorers that pilliaged thier way to the top ,, therefore ,thier truth is the truth that has been written.has nothing to do with REALITY.
In my time as a nuclear operator on a submarine, I was required to commit to a 6-year hitch, the navy knowing it would take years to train me and wanted to get some return on their investment. The boat I was assigned to had an exceptional CO. About halfway through my time on board, he was replaced by a man the crew accurately described as a pompous ass. The navy was keen for me to re-enlist and had the first CO asked me, I might have. By the time the second CO was threatening me with bad duty assignments if I didn't reup, everyone on board including officers were making plans to get out at first opportunity. Interestingly, the second CO had put a book in the boat's library, Who's Who in the US Navy, and his father, grandfather and so on had been admirals of some repute. We took it that his daddy was putting in good words for him, advancing his career.
Threatening me with a bad assignment if I don't reup will fucking guarantee I won't reup. Who the hell thinks that will work? I hope that sub wasn't a boomer.
@@marckyle5895 Yes, it was a boomer but it's ancient history now. That boat's been recycled into dog food cans. I waved goodbye in 1978. I was just pointing out that they didn't stop making bad CO's in the war years. I don't know how things are now but it seems to me that at least then, an officer could cash in some of the credit his father earned. I'm sure that was far worse during the war when the rapid expansion of the fleet created the need for shoulders to put stripes on.
@@moo5289 it's still like that a bit, but word spreads fast and usually we keep in touch with other guys from duty stations we met along the way. Any rate is a small rate when your OICs are bad and we have the benefit of emails and phones.
As a side note the famous marine vmf 214 black sheep squadron was aboard as the Franklin's corsair squadron losing 32 men in the attack two of the squadrons corsairs who were airborne at the time were credited with shooting down the Judy which had attracted the Franklin !!!
Wow. I'd known about this crippling lone air attack on Franklin for a long time, but the telling of the story was first-class, with many details new to me. Excellent job, Drach! However, I noticed that you kept pronouncing the Captain's name wrong: It's actually pronounced "Kun"-*sound of needle being dragged from a record*
I have made a number of visits to CV-10 at Patriots Point. Seeing story of the Franklin and touching its bell gets me every time. Thanks for your recount of their story.
That was a pretty sobering thing to see. It had cracked from the immense heat. The platform they built to stand on to demonstrate what it was like to be on the Franklin with its 22 degree list was also eye opening.
I had a distance uncle who was part of the surviving crew that stayed aboard and saved the ship. He told me his story about his service aboard her at the time I was joining the Navy. Hearing first hand stories like this, is becoming a lost art, as few WWII veterans remain. Turns out my first ship, I served on was the USS Coral Sea CV-43, a WWII designed ship.
Wow. This is such an incredible piece of work. It’s like a movie you see but takes years to make and years to delve into the actual history. Thank you Drachinifel!
USS Franklin - a blazing torture chamber of twisted steel and burning ordnance. Meanwhile, Captain Geheres is in the ships stores, counting strawberries.
This is an amazing tale of heroism. I've been involved in fighting a major shipboard fire, and it was bad enough for us with the ship in drydock at the time, I cannot begin to imagine how terrifying it must have been for these men having to do it while at sea with live ordnance all around and at the same time still being under threat of enemy attack.
I think the real hero is the Japanese pilot. Alone, flying an inferior plane, against an entire fleet. He managed to sneak up, avoiding hundreds of enemh fighters and AAA guns, place two solid hits on a major carrier, and escape safely. What a feat!!!!
26:37, one of the men in the party the chaplain organized was Aviation Boatswains Mate Don Prather, he helped O'Callahan fighting fires, and helped break open the ammunition locker and throw the ammunition over the side. he went to the church my family attended growing up, but sadly passed away before i was old enough to really know him, from what my father has told me he was a very calm and quiet man, and helped my dad deal with some ptsd he picked up serving in the Navy in the late 80's. Franklin's survival has always amazed me, from photos of the list and carnage on the flight deck, to the brave sailors who rallied to save their ship, and the captain of the Santa Fe linking the fate of his ship with the Franklin's providing critical aid when it was desperately needed. Excellent video Drach!
Can't help remembering that my father and many of his friends left high-school before graduation to go fight in the war . Damn great men each and every one .
Terrific video. My father was in the Brooklyn Navy Yard when the Franklin arrived. He said it looked like a pike of floating rust. Guys were wondering what had kept her afloat.
I remember seeing film of this ship on fire, but never knew in detail the actual tale of the Franklin? After seeing your original fine vid on this ship, I never understood how she survived at all? With this, I now know more of the brave men and ships that helped in saving her. Thanks, Drach.
My father's destroyer was just leaving Pearl Harbor when the Franklin limped into port. It was a very sobering experience for everyone, especially those like my father who were just for their first foray into the war zone. So many heroes those critical days who were involved with saving lives and their ship. May we never forget them.
Suisei is indeed comet in english. Meteor is Ryuusei in japanese, which would be the B7A, while Suisei reffers to the D4Y. Also nice to see the Franklin video back, after all this time.
This is probably the most moving video you've done and I thank you for the great presentation. It amazes me there isn't a Hollywood movie on this story, just a couple of short films and one hour long documentary.
I'm glad there isn't a Hollywood movie on this story because it would be gun toting yee-haw marines blitzing 100500 japanese bombers out of the sky with sidearms and putting out fires with a spit and a quick piss. Hollywood makes spectacles.
@@jlvfr oh yes, absolutely. My Dad was aboard her and always spoke well of the move. They used mattresses and timbers to make temporary repairs and restore some semblance of seakeeping, and continuse with fire fighting and rescue efforts.
I'm so happy to see another video on the Franklin after your other one got taken down. Whenever I would reference your channel, I would mention that one because of the extraordinarily high quality it
The story of the SoB/Captain charging everyone in sight with Desertion reminds me of a individual I had the profound displeasure to serve with. Some things don't change.
As a small child in 1968ish I had some small bubble gum collectors cards of the WW2 Pacific war series, including the damage and fire of the Franklin etc. Some good quality photos and stories on the back as remember. The Franklin, A story not often heard. Well done Drachinifel for presenting in full, warts and all.
The title is not click bait. The general consensus is that a single Yokosuka D4Y Suisei (Comet) dive bomber knocked the Franklin out of the war. Also of interest a single D4Y Suisei sank the carrier USS Princeton.
A very good friend of my stepdad was a cook on the Franklin during WWII Roe Woody was his name. He was one of the nicest people I'd ever met. I always enjoyed his talks about the aircraft carrier and what he did
In 1961 or so, I read an article about the Franklin’s ordeal in one of my grandmother’s _Reader’s Digest_ issues. Much was made of the heroic chaplain and his organization of a club of the men who stayed on the ship all the way back to Brooklyn. (The 735 club?) The captain was mentioned (positively but not much, I think) but not those c-s-t desertion charges. Thank you, Drach, for retelling this story so well.
Lt Commander Patrick: Rides a supply elevator as it crashes into an inferno after a massive explosion Hangs out in said massive inferno for everal hours Appears on deck later and grabs a fire hose Refuses to elaborate further Forcefully made to Leave What an absolute Chad
Sir, your presentation is the best kind of film making. To fix these events in the mind of those who could not be there to truly understand the courage and bravery of a United States sailor. My hat is off to you, and may you ever rise to greater heights. 😊
Excellent video, well done. So a U.S. navy ship can survive catastrophic explosion's off the coast of a hostile nation but a modern carrier (USS Bonhomme Richard) can burn out at the dock of a major naval base. Something has been lost over the years.
BHR only had minimal crew aboard, and many systems were shut off for maintenance. But fire doesn't need a war ... The BHR fire is sure gonna change a few things
Some interesting things i remember from te taken down video(tho i might misremember some of the details): -One of the guys in the overhanging(hanger) damagecontroll stations was passing through a bulkhead when the bombs struck. evereyone in the room was floor, and most badly injured. the guy himself was knocked off his feet, but due the more rigidity of the area around the bulkhead safed him from worse injury. -a small group sailors were in the hangar, fleeing from the fires, and found a hatch going down in the ship. the person behind the guy telling the strory, shut the hatch, and shortly after that a lot more ordenance exploded. So hail to the sailor that safed the group by sacreficing him self. After the fires had died down, the group tried to exit their hiding place, but found that they could not open the hatch...... It had welded itself shut by the extreme heat in the hangar. -On flightdeck(i think) one of the men went to the planes, and de-armed a lot of ordenance. that made sure either less or it took longer before the ordenance on the planes fired/exploded. -the cruiser helping fight the fire, had to move away from franklin, becouse at some point word had gone out to abandon ship. That ment that to manny personel were fleeing the franklin to the cruiser. and thus she had to brake away. i hope this was somwhat interesting
Damm, a literal case of someone choosing to stay on the wrong side of a hatch so it could be secured. Is it known who that person was and were they officially recognized afterwards?
This ship or USS Bunker Hill (CV-17) should have been kept as a museum, they were both still in their WWII configuration and would have been a living testament to the tenacity of the US Navy, much like USS Laffey (DD-724)
My father was drafted into the Marines in 1943. After boot camp and training he was designated a sea going marine. His group were lined up and called off numbers. 1, 2, 1, 2 and so on. One number went to the heavy cruiser USS St Paul, The other number went to the Franklin. My father went to the St Paul. Had he went to the Franklin It's quite possible I wouldn't have been born to tell this story.
Glad there is a video back on this channel about Franklin. The original from three years ago and its grave presentation was exceptional in the history of this channel though, and I miss it.
Great post here about USS Franklin. Its story is proof that lessons were indeed learned from the desperate days of 1942. Your account parallels one written soon after the fact in 1945. It was named "The Ship That Wouldn't Die" and was written by C.S. Forester for True magazine.
My father, aboard the USS Bunker Hill, watched the Franklin burning and exploding on the horizon. He and his ship would share a similar fate on 11 May.
Fantastically detailed descriptions of the physical effects of the bombs and fires. The floor exploding upward with multiple head injury fatalities to all but the single man with the presense of mind to be wearing his helmet. The miracle survivor being in an elevator that blew out the ship to safety. The heroic man who saved 300 men in the mess room guiding them hand in hand in the dark to safety. The chaplain who didn't just pray for a miracle but led men into removing the cooking bombs that any minute would have blown them all straight to hell (heaven?) but they kept throwing the frying bombs overboard literally saving the ship. The Santa Fe tirelessly helping their fallen sister ship. Thebother cruisers taking out wave after wave of kamikazes hell bent on finishing her off. And happily the Admiral who accused his valiant men with desertion never getting another posted to captain another US ship. This story from beginning to end was riveting. Great story!
Pinned post for Q&A :)
If the Imperial Japanese Navy had been blessed by a Random Omnipotent Being with the same quality of damage control equipment and training right before Midway, how many if any of the fleet carriers could have been saved after the Five Lucky Minutes?
If the Japanese had managed to develop a 1000lb bomb for their dive bombers do you think it would have cause significantly more losses to American carriers? For example would Franklin have survived?
Is HMS Zubian the single most extreme example of a damaged warship returning to service?
Why didn't the USN used the USS Ranger in more combat actions in the Atlantic outside of North Africa and Norway?
Favourite naval battle ever?
Anyone else think comet strike, as in an actual comet for a moment? Wondering now if any ships have been hit by meteorites
Prolly zero...see the Russian meteorite ...chelabrisk...even right in the landing zone , rocks hit almost nobody an no structures...also a stray bullets would be the same ,chunks of flying burnt iron ..would more likely be a destroyed airplane than astronomical...
That gives me the image of a meteor slamming into the British fleet during Trafalgar
Yes
@@sgtmarcusharris4260 did it? Cause el meteoro failed.
A ship gets hit my a few million meteroites every day ... almost all of them dust sized. About 200 tonnes of space dust etc arrive on Earth every day.
The pictures taken of the Franklin as she burned and after the fact are some of the most raw and powerful pictures of a ship in distress.
It's amazing that she survived, it's a testament to the crews dedication and training. Plus the fact that the Essex class was ridiculously tough and built extremely well.
Aside from doing away with the treaty limits they are descendants of the Yorktowns and we all know how much punishment they can take.
The crew definitely had a crucial role in saving the ship. The ship is only as good as its crew. The IJN Taihou had new damage control systems at the time but its crew was inexperienced and their mistakes hastened the demise of the carrier.
American damage control training was stellar, the doctrine still in use in navies all over the world today.
@@MisterSplendy USS Bonnehomme Richard says "HI" :)
@@keithskelhorne3993 "was" is past tense.
Imagine you're a worker at Ulithi, you heard the fleet rumors of Franklin being damaged and saved, but you figure it can't be that bad. Then you see her slowly limp her way into the bay or harbor and you lay eyes on the absolute hulk that is her stern. To think of seeing it after the fact, and knowing she's still at least mechanically sea worthy, must have been both awe inspiring and absolutely horrifying
If they didn't see worse then their leadership certainly did.
Beats swimming back
And then she proceeds to smash into the dock.
I imagine it was the same for the workers at the Vickers-Armstrong when HMS Eskimo came back from Norway with her bow blown off from a German torpedo (not just damaged, the bow of the ship was gone). Some temporary repairs and she steamed back across the North Sea back to the yard where she was built.
I have an image of the workers saluting, and the crew saluting back.
@@iansneddon2956 And according to Dr Clarke, she made a habit, of losing her bow lol
I’ve read quite a bit about Captain Leslie Gehres and his career, especially his very long war assignment up in the Aleutian Islands prior to first and only ship command, the U.S.S. Franklin.
Not only did he immediately foment an absolute toxic atmosphere aboard the Franklin upon taking command of the carrier, he had carried aboard a personal legacy of creating poisonous working environments within his patrol wing and the attached ground- based squadrons he was responsible for up in the Aleutian combat area.
It was long known that there was something “wrong” with the man and that he had a screw or two loose.
He was the perfect organizational example of a work place problem being passed off over the years to become “someone else’s” headache….
Could you please provide some examples and a source please? I think I know what your source is from 2 of the words you used.
Was his career an influence on the famous Humphrey Bogart film "The Caine Mutiny"?
To my surprise his career wasnt over afterwards. He became a Rear Admiral (second half) and earned several awards like the Navy cross for saving the ship, and the Legion of Merit with Gold star and V device. Thats outragious.
Unfortunately you run into people like this captain sometimes, that can parse and prioritize situations well, they usually make things a lot worse.
Gehres was the technical advisor on the film "Flat Top" (1952) source: Imdb
Thank you for doing this. My father was part of the USMC detachment aboard the Franklin. He was one of the 300 crewman who were led to safety by Lt. Garys. He was taken aboard the Santa Fe when he and others were cut off by fire after their fire hose failed. He came back aboard the ship at Ulithi. He always said Captain Geheres was an incompetent ass.
I agree that captain was an ass , can you imagine getting blown off the ship by a bomb and then getting desertion charges against you , REALLY !!!!!! Thank your relative the Marine for his service for me . Please
I only have one complaint with his assessment and that being, there is absolutely no good reason to insult asses so by associating them with that walking, talking foreskin.
I sincerely hope that the Navy made his remaining remnant of a career a veritable living hell.
You should read the book Lucky Lady about the incident involving the Franklin and the Santa Fe
My Grandmother-in-Law lost her brother on that ship. The sailor was from Clare, Michigan. He was a married man with two children. He graduated with a two year business from Central Michigan College (now university) and worked at the Farwell State Bank as an assistant manager. He was drafted into the US Navy, yes there was a draft for the Navy. Despite his finance degree and banking experience he was assigned as part of the flight deck crew. From what I was able to gather, he was in the initial several hundred killed in the initial blast. His remains were recovered and he was buried at sea with hundreds of others of his ship mates. His wife never remarried and the family survived on meager social security survivor benefits during the 40s to the 60s. Prior to 2016, we had a few Christmases with the grown children.
name?
@@badgerattoadhall Dwyer
@@badgerattoadhall Raymond A.
Thank you for sharing. The true costs of war are suffered for decades after it is over and most have moved on.
@@Easy-Eight i looked him up on findagrave. there is a photo of him there.
Wow, that story about the desertion charges is pure gold. How much of the captain's decision to push for charges lead to him never seeing another command?
I have to wonder, had he always been like that, or did the experience of the attack, the horrible deaths of so many officers and crew, and the struggle to save the ship cause a mental break.
It's telling that other skippers essentially ignored him who knew the truth. Also, while the men did leave the ship it was under duress and desertion charge would not have stuck in reality. Given the communication was a mess on her it is understandable that groups of men 'abandoned ship' because they did not know what was going on and had other reasonably safe course of action. A competent defense lawyer would have a field day with these charges making the prosecution look incredibly stupid.
Desertion is a very serious military charge and the en-mass charging of men on the Franklin was an idiocy of the highest order. Once someone realized what was happening, the attempt was quashed. Also, desertion has a fairly specific set of actions that must be met which I doubt any of the Franklin's crew came near to meeting.
@@RonOhio he was an asshole who should never have made it that far
Not only that, Gehres ignored Protocol & SOP for a civilian Harbor Pilot to help navigate the carrier to the dock when arriving @ Pearl Harbor on the way back to the States afterwards. Saying he would "take her in" himself, he maneuvered into the dock area too fast. Gehres crashed Franklin into the dock, blaming the mooring details for the incident.
@@RonOhio He was a prick from the start. Just look up his name.
It should also be noted that many of the crew he accused of deserting were detained and treated poorly because those holding them had no idea what really happened and thought they were actual deserters.
Drach - This is by far the best explanation of the story of Franklin. Well done, my friend, well done indeed.
I was enthralled for 30+ minutes while the devastating effect of fire, explosions, smoke, menacing water and scorching heat literally passed in front of me. And, notice, I knew this story..!! 👏
There was an one hour + video on the story of USS Franklin, but it got taken down
The story itself is amazing, and Drach really has a way with script-writing and delivery on these more dramatic and intense story-based videos.
Indeed, I was thinking as I listened to the narration, what a excellent account of what occurred. Well Done Sir.
@@ivangenov6782 , Witch-in-town DC has been Captured by the enemy. As has Oregon.
It has returned! A fine example of the tenacity of US damage control and the solidness of the Essex-class.
As a 20 yea ( retired ) US Navy Damage Control man I agree
The good part of that is that the damage control was good. Japanese ships suffered far less damage and foundered. The bad part is the fact that the US could have easily transitioned to armored flight decks and probably never suffered this combat loss to begin with. Its sinking would have been a propaganda victory for Japan, a +1 in carrier kills, but for all intents and purposes, she was a loss.
It is really odd to think, that the largest and most expensive active USN ship that had to be scrapped or written off was done by no other then the US navy itself. Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't the Bonhomme Richard the largest and most expensive ship, but also the biggest military asset ever to be lost to the country in a single event? They are counted as amphibious ships, but to most everyone else, they are aircraft carriers with some extra abilities.
Especially in modern times, the loss of one carrier is crazy as most countries have none and all but the USA have one or two, mostly far smaller then the Wasp Class. No nation has managed that since WW2, the last carrier kill in WW2 being the USA and the first destroyed after it, nearly 80 years later...the USA, and it was its own. Whoever had to pay for that debacle is not a happy sailor.
@@jlawsl you don't " easily transitio to armored flight decks", that would require an entire new design. Don't forget that the Essex is basically a pre-war design with some extras; at the time of it's design, and withing the US' requirements and threats faced, armoured decks seemed an expensive and not very usefull idea which most likely also result in smaller carriers with smaller air wings (as shown by the RN); only the 43-45 experience, and seeing what the RN carriers survived, convinced the USN to get it, but by then it was too late for WWII.
@@jlvfr I think the US didn’t build armored flight decks at first due to the reduction in air wings and to make it faster to patch holes in the flight deck.
@@jlvfr Also, wasn't most of the damage to U.S. carriers, in earlier battles, caused by torpedoes , either from planes or submarines, and so not something an armored deck would protect against?
No Essex class were ever sunk in combat, but Franklin and Bunker Hill were so heavily damaged they never saw service again after being repaired as best they could.
If the war lasts longer, they most definitely would have seen combat again. Ironically, it was because they were fully repaired that they never saw service again; all of the other Essex ships were given quick upgrades to handle early jets, but as Drach noted the ultimate upgrade never came because no upgrade would make it feasible.
The Franklin was being repaired, so it could participate in the invasion of Japan, which, fortunately, never happened.
@@robbarasch6472 my grandpa was in boot camp preparing for the invasion of japan when the war ended. I likely wouldn’t exist of it wasn’t for the atomic bombs,
@@thevictoryoverhimself7298 my dad was assigned to the Franklin out of boot camp during the summer of 1945. So, I'm also personally grateful that the invasion wasn't necessary
@@thevictoryoverhimself7298 That's a misconception; it may have partially contributed to it, but it was actually the Soviets that truly shook up the Japanese populace; they thought they were only primarily fighting the United States, and then all of a sudden _MANCHURIA._ or rather how the Japanese lost a vast majority of their Eastern Asian holdings in the span of two weeks.
But even with _that_ in mind, the war still could have continued if not for the bravery of the Emperor (I wish I was kidding) and his aides, who barely escaped his own people from the military establishment who were planning to kill or otherwise silence him so he couldn't broadcast a surrender order to his people and the rest of the world, because to the Japanese, the Emperor was their God, and His word was law. He ultimately succeeded, and many of those in the military establishment quickly committed seppuku not long after, and the war ended.
Trust me, the end of WWII wasn't as clean-cut as you think. It could have ended very, very differently if a few people in very key moments didn't succeed in the Emperor's final mission to end the war. Also worth noting that had the Emperor been killed at any point from the fire bombings of Tokyo, there's a very strong possibility that a very large proportion of the Japanese populace would have fought to the last.
The biggest shock in this one is how that captain survived the whole ordeal, I am sure more than a few onboard had plans to loose him over the side at night.
Or launch him from one of the ship’s catapults.
Old joke The U.S. Navy doesn't frag its officers. That's what Marines are for. Heard that as a teen from a vet .
@@danielbackley9301 Too bad there were no Marines where I was stationed.
"The skipper? Last time I seen 'I'm he was walkin' the deck in a heavy sea. You wanna stay healthy, you ain't seem 'I'm either"
@@danielbackley9301 Yep and sailors I imagine more throw them off in deep water types shooting people Marines job.
O'Callahan's story is pretty amazing. Especially the part where he first refused the Navy Cross, but then Roosevelt (Edit, Oops, meant to type Truman) stepped in and he was awarded the Medal of Honor.
Truman, not Roosevelt. FDR died on April 12, less than a month after the attack on the Franklin, and before it had even got to Panama on its trip to New York.
@@phytonso9877 You are very much correct, that was a typo on my part.
Truman asked him, do ya feel lucky punk? Well do ya?
My dad was on the Franklin that day. He was blown off the fantail and wounded by shrapnel. Fortunately he was picked up by the USS Santa Fe.
did the Idiot in charge of Franklin try to charge him as well?
@@Tank50us no because he was wet and bloody. He still wasn't allowed to sail back with the Franklin, dad very much disliked the drunk captain.
Just seeing how damaged Franklin was and how extreme her list was, I've always marvelled at the fact those sailors were able to save the ship. USN damage control was definitely the best in the world.
The USS Franklin was at a jaunty angle to starboard and then to port!
And even with all that it was for nothing. She had the most KIA/MIA fatalities of a damaged or sunken American carrier and as a result was knocked out of the war and never became an active ship again. Bunker Hill (3rd most carrier deaths for the USA) at Okinawa also had the same fate. Yet we are always lied to and told by "historians" that the bombers/kamikazes at Okinawa did nothing but flesh wounds to the American ships other than minesweepers and Liberty ships.
Franklin and Bunker Hill were de facto sunken ships or total losses in all but name.
@@nogoodnameleft Who the hell EVER said that the kamikazes did only damage to minesweepers and Liberty ships? Name one. Or, you can just talk out your ass the rest of your life.
@@nogoodnameleft Technically, it wasn't for nothing. Just like the Rangers scaling Point Du Hoc, the efforts to save the ship ultimately meant she could live to fight another day. Had the planned invasions of the Japanese Home Islands gone through, Franklin and Bunker Hill would've been right there in the thick of it along side Midway and one or two of her planned Sisters. It's just unfortunate for them that the war ended when it did... though for their crews it's probably a good thing since they didn't have to go into the fires of hell one more time.
I would realistically liken her to a pro athlete that finally made it to the big leagues... only to get injured in the third game in such a fashion that they had to sit out the rest of the season, the play offs, and the big victory at the end.
@@Tank50us Again, Franklin was knocked out of the war and what happened to her was no different from being sunk. The "saving her for repairs" was propaganda BS. Tell the 807 men who were killed on Franklin on that day that bringing her back to the USA was any different than being sunk. She and Bunker Hill were both knocked out of the war and never ever brought back to active duty. Hindsight says waste of money. Those repair ships should have been used on other ships that were actually able to be saved and repaired unlike the now worthless Franklin and Bunker Hill.
It proves that kamikazes were effective, right from the words of Admiral Spruance. The Navy's (and her "historians") big lie from WWII was "kamikazes were ineffective". What a joke! Spruance was right!
Spruance in May 1945:
"This is my second experience with a suicide plane making a hit on board my own ship, and I have seen four other ships hit near me. The suicide plane is a very effective weapon, which we must not underestimate. I do not believe anyone who has not been around within its area of operations can realize its potentialities against ships. It is the opposite extreme of a lot of our Army heavy bombers who bomb safely and ineffectively from the upper atmosphere."
If the War and Navy Departments let Captain Gehres bring charges against those men the amount of letters their families would've wrote to their Congressmen and Senator's would have been legendary. The DOD would still be responding to the backlogged inquiries to this day.
I remember your old 'what do when everything is on fire' video, still sad it got taken down. Glad to see another video on how the Essexes survive a pounding. Franklin's misery with poortly-timed bombs reminds me a lot of what the Kido Butai suffered at Midway- but the famous USN damage control came to save her. Massive respect for the man of America for surviving this inferno and saving the ship!
Radar getting blinded by IFF signals from planes on the flight deck, given them a blindspot the Japanese could hide in- these types of complications you'd never think of. Technology is hard.
Wait, that was taken down? Sad day
Wait what nonsense is youtube on to taking diwn such a video?!
There were plenty of US planes and ships to protect Franklin from further damage. The 3 Japanese carriers severely damaged in the first wave would surely have been sitting ducks for the USN aircraft.
@@AC_WILDCARD Not youtube. The previous Franklin video included citations to a bizarrely and aggressively litigious author, so Drach took it down a while ago.
@@gazeboist4535 Thanks for your response, I was second guessing myself because thought I had seen this video before.
My significant other's father was a senior naval rating aboard Franklin, and he was responsible for overseeing photo reconnaissance and on-board photography. I sit now in a room half-filled with thousands of negatives and B&W photographs from that ship and later assignments....including the first atomic test in the Pacific, OPERATION CROSSROADS. One photo behind me shows the mushroom cloud from that explosion.
Other photos include but are not limited to that, and include carrier landing and takeoff photos, cockpit 'beauty' photos of pilots, sea side pictures of shore duty and other shipboard events.
I have been pressing my girlfriend to scan these and get them into the hands of archivists, at present to no avail.
I will continue to try for this being done.
Oh, and Captain Gehres? Universally reviled, something along the line of "would not piss on him if he was afire" and much more in that vein.
Please do it mate. Especially for survivors families as most of the crew would have passed by now and their grown children and grand children would surely appreciate having a connection they can turn to.
Has anyone contacted the historic society? If the local chapter didn't want those photos, I'd bet they could help find someone who would want them. It sounds like you have some gems of our history there!
@@shary5165 We have a few museums in mind, BUT...a lot has to be done here before we can go through them.
Hundreds of family photos and slides have her priority...I'm still attempting to get her to dispose of office clothing from a job she left six years ago when she retired.
In other words....movement is slow, VERY slow.
I believe in due course this will be taken care of.
Contact Don Shipley ( retired Navy Seal), he has a channel on RUclips, I'm sure he can help you.
From other documentaries on the Franklin, Captain Gehres was a real piece of work. He's a decent part of the reason the Franklin was such a mass casualty event in the initial explosions since he'd set the readiness condition to relaxed and thus the mass of men waiting for breakfast meeting their fate and then as Drach states, in scorning and disparaging all the men who'd left the ship with absolutely no regard for circumstances. Blown off the ship by the explosions? Remaining at your DC station until the last moment when the metal around you was glowing hot? DESERTION!
In the previous version of this video I think it was mentioned that the radar was more than a little spotty, weather was a factor, there where other ships covering, and the crew had been at stations for some time.
Better to rest the crew when your not under clear threat, so stuff was manned, just not fully. Spotty radar wasn't uncommon back then, so nothing to be done there, same with weather. The breakfast casualties where just bad luck.
But the stuff after with regards to desertion should have at minimum landed the captain with a psych eval.
@@nickierv13 From those other documentaries (one of them being 'USS Franklin: Honor Restored' which is also on youtube at this time and includes survivor interviews), Gehres had half the crew stood down that morning at a very inappropriate readiness condition for being 50 miles off the Japanese coast. Had they been at an actually appropriate readiness condition there wouldn't have been the many hundreds in line for a meal.
Rewatching some parts... holy crap was Gehres a piece of work... and there's a good reason Drach didn't go into much detail on it since it's very much a story all its own apart from the attack and monumental effort to save the ship and which the above documentary (and some others) cover with survivor testimony.
What a horrible captain
And to be given the Navy Cross! The man should have been court martialled. Even on a tenuous reason such as the readiness condition, he should have been publicly charged and court martialled.
Thank you SO much for doing this. My father was a plank owner on the Franklin and was aboard her from commissioning until he went over the fantail onto the USS Santa Fe on March 19.
Regarding her commanding officers, my father said Shoemaker was beloved by the crew and Gehres was despised from the first time he addressed them, implying the damage they sustained in October 1944 was their fault.
Cant recall my grandfather's post on the Franklin, but he state he helped her back to port
Steven, who was your dad? And do you recall his job? I may have interviewed him.
Amazing that he was so absolutely clueless as to blame the entire crew, given the US Navy even blames the commander for such a loss.
"It was over 3000 men's fault, not me, I was only in command" really floats about as well as a lead balloon on Venus.
Where lead can only exist as a liquid.
If one of my teams failed at something, the very first question that I have is, "How did I fuck up a good team and how to I fix my fuck-up?", while apologizing to the team for setting them up to fail. That only happened a couple of times over 28 years, so obviously I didn't repeat mistakes.
I sincerely hope that his assignments in the remainder of the remnant of his career made hell look like a vacation destination for the family!
If he is alive, please ask him how he got aboard the Santa Fe. My Dad was on the fantail of the Santa Fe, throwing a rope to men in the water.
Some of these stories of incredible heroism made me proud to be human. That one sailor who returned into the smoke-filled hallways again and again to get the other men out of there, most likely saving their lives at great personal risk, is the very epitome of a hero!
Donald Arthur GARY
Franklin: How does one defend against such power?
Enterprise: A wise master does not reveal all his secrets at once. In due time, my apprentice.
(For context. Enterprise and Franklin were both assigned to TG 38.4 in late 1944 and TG 58.2 during March 1945. Both times Franklin was damage Enterprise had to fill in as TG flagship.)
Franklin after tanking 2 bomb hits: Hey "Wise Master" I could really use some of those secrets of yours about now.
@@jeffreyskoritowski4114 Enterprise: You seem to be doing fine by yourself.
Enterprise: *Little do they know, I'm too stubborn to go out by enemy actions.*
Franklin: "is it possible to learn this power?"
Enterprise: "not from Captain Gehres."
That does not surprise me, After all it's the Enterprise!
My painting teacher in The National College of Art Dublin in 1979 was a survivor of this event , Charles Brady told us of how as 17 years old ensign of he struggled learn to walk again . Charles took advantage of the GI bill of rights studying painting , in 1959 he returned to the land of his ancestry specializing in minimalist still life paintings and becoming a member of the Royal Irish Academy. His death in 1988 was hastened by smoke inhalation on the USS Franklin.
When Gehres took command of the Franklin from Shoemaker he addressed the crew and, in regard to the Oct-44 kamikaze attack, supposedly said:
‘It was your fault because you didn’t shoot [the kamikaze] down. You didn’t do your duty; you’re incompetent, lazy and careless.
Evidently you don’t know your jobs and I’m going to do my best to shape up this crew!’
.
Read: "Inferno: The Epic Life and Death Struggle of the USS Franklin" by Joseph Springer
A speech worthy of a jackass
@@stevenhall8891
I don't understand how such a toxic personality made its way up the ladder of command.
How did the USN not see him for what he was?
@@Kevin_Kennelly he should of been executed by firing squad for that shit
@@Kevin_Kennelly It happens remarkably often in bureaucracies, where those higher up the chain of command don't want to see what is happening and if they do, they make it someone else's problem. People who are manipulative can also thrive in some kinds of bureaucracies as the control subordinates who they can always fire to cover their own mistakes.
For context, I worked briefly in the NHS in the UK, which has long had a problem with toxic managers.
My own boss in the time I was briefly at a hospital estates department, boasted of how she got rid of my predecessor, who was 'useless'. When I said I had no experience of project management (I consider myself a technical architect), she started on a campaign of bullying against me, that saw me make a complaint about her and get asked to resign, which I happily did.
I found out she had also run my successor out in short order, in a similar manner.
She herself was there for years...and this was a hospital whose HR liked to proclaim 'bullying is unacceptable'.
I gathered at the time I left that other managers were very clearly scared of her.
I also checked over her CV on linkedin, and shall we say, she had a remarkable number of jobs in a short time? Almost like she came in, blamed everyone else for failures, then moved on when she had been there long enough, that she would be herself responsible for something. And left before this could impact on her.
That she ended up in a hospital, with its entrenched bureaucracy, was in retrospect, no mistake, she was perfectly suited to be in that environment. She is now working for a university, which can similarly provide shelter for the cunning and manipulative toxic manager that she is.
@@Kevin_Kennelly - Because with guys like Gehres, being complete as*holes, well…, that’s hardwired into them from birth, from the start of their miserable lives.
Now…, as far as “successfully” fu*king over subordinates in order to climb an organizational ladder; that is a learned skill. Anyone can be born an assh*le; but even an as*hole has to work and study at becoming a successful brown nose. It takes real talent to learn how step all over your peers and subordinates, damage the lives and careers of others, and at the same time successfully suck up to the proper authority in order to advance in an organization.
Remember they’re naturally miserable asshol*s, but they have to learn and practice how to screw over others and successfully brown-nose those in authority over them and who can further their careers at the expense of others.
Sorry, I think I just repeated myself, anyway you get my point….🧐
Sad that after what this crew did and had to suffer through they had to have their story tarnished by their Captain. Great damage control and heroism. Allot of brave men died saving that ship and their crewmates. Really great reporting Drach! Best I have seen on the Franklin. I served on the Lexington for a couple years during her role as a training carrier in the early 80's, so anything Essex class fascinates me. They were great ships. USS Lexington thankfully is now a museum ship in Corpus Christi, TX. Cheers!
Lady Lex 1982--86.
Rip The original Lady Lex(CV-2) the beauty she was before having been scuttled due to extreme damage in the Battle of the Coral sea, 8th of May, 1942, hit by no less then 2 torpedoes and 3 aircraft bombs, though record states she was abandoned due to a Gasoline explosion, then scuttled by the USS Phelps(DD-218). May the Blue Ghost live in everyones hearts!
Thank you for this. I had an Uncle who was killed on the Franklin. My Dad was a Marine aviator stationed on Okinawa. Another Uncle was a Navy man, who was on two ships sunk by Japanese torpedoes. He came home a wreck, never able to have a family or hold a job. When people tell me that the atom bombs were not needed I have a far different perspective. How many lives are those people who argue that willing to have spent ending Japanese militarism?
The Ripples of Battle is one hell of a book. My wife's uncle JoJo was in USMC for Korea. Caught a round up by the Yalu and died. His parents went basically crazy and both stopped eating and started drinking. They drank themselves to death after alienating their only daughter. She is a mess and is my wife's mother. War ruins everything. My Dad fought on Iwo and my Mom Saud he had real bad dreams. My father never spoke of it.
Our greatest generation is ravaged by combat. Or was I should say.
My grandfather was a shipmate of your late uncle. Sorry your uncle was part of Franklin's losses.
To those people who think the atom bombs weren't needed, all you have to do is point them towards the casualty projections for Operation Downfall, specifically the projections for Japanese civilian casualties. Their attitudes tend to change extremely rapidly after that.
@@Firebolt193 There are some whose opinions and attitudes won't change no matter what information or projections are presented to them. Some had even told me to my face that the Japanese were surrendering or HAD surrendered but Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed anyway to "send a message" to the USSR.
The final decision on whether or not to use the A-Bomb or conduct the "Downfall" operation was President Truman's. I think he made the correct choice even though the information even he had was necessarily incomplete.
If an invasion of the Home Islands had been conducted there is a very good chance that many of us posting here today may not have been born, our fathers or grandfathers killed in that action, ending our branches of our family trees.
Similarities to the strike on Illustrious by the JU87 and the resulting hanger fires are stark. Illustrious maintained power and speed but the struggles were no less real. Illustrious survived 7 bomb hits and another one while alongside in Valletta for emergency repairs (proving the value of the armoured flight deck).
One difference is that Illustrious had a captain (Dennis Boyd) with a working brain after the event.
Illustrious may have had a different experience if there'd been 50 armed and fueled aircraft on the flight deck, armored or not.
What most civilians can never grasp is, armored anything afire becomes a metal box that's heated - an oven. At times, even to the point where even steel begins to burn.
The hanger deck had to have been filled with rivers of molten and boiling aluminum quite early on!
As for Illustrious, I'm not sure which caused more damage, the attack you're speaking of or the last attack on her, which was a 2200 pound bomb detonating 50 feet away in the water, cracking multiple transverse frames. Most of the bombs that did strike her, well, they only struck her, didn't penetrate. Excellent armor on that deck!
Although, I don't recall that many warships that had the ship's bell shot up as much as hers was, which is telling as to the intensity of the attack.
I have heard that the captain of the Franklin tried to keep the chaplain, who had delivered such good service, from being awarded his medal.
Congress awards the medal and tends to gain an intense, service injurious dislike of such officers. As in, *really* screwing with officer authorizations and budget until said officer becomes compliant with his government's wishes.
The last such was an Air Force officer, who was ordered by Congress to release retired war dogs for adoption by volunteers. Said officer kept having the dogs destroyed, the Air Force suddenly couldn't get officers appointed and funding got tangled in perpetual committees and said officer was ordered to release the animals, then reassigned to a less complicated position, where promotion was beyond unlikely.
I did hear something about the chaplain refusing a Navy Cross, only to find himself overruled by Congress by being awarded the Medal of Honor.
Good chaplains are worth far more than their weight in precious metals!
"Somewhat less popular Captain Gehres" Drach with that trademark British understated snark.
An incredible story to hear. That was a Midway-level critical hit that would have surely put most any other carrier on the bottom. The tenacity of the men of these crews and the ruggedness of these ships is truly legendary.
And while they're on the other side of the line, credit also has to be given to the pilot of that Suisei- that was an absolutely perfect ambush. Obviously there was a degree of luck where the bombs ended up, but it was one of the most brutal dive-bomber hits of the war, surely.
It's a shame all these incredible feats come at the cost of so many human lives, but that's war for you.
I mean, flip the story around 180 degrees. US Navy pilot bombs Japanese carrier and knocks it out of the war, that's gotta be worth a Navy Cross.
I would dispute the "put most any other carrier on the bottom" bit - had one of the RN's armored carriers been in _Franklin's_ place, she likely would've shrugged off the hit with few casualties (remember that the bomb that hit _Franklin's_ armor deck bounced clean off - it's just that, after that bounce, it was in the middle of a hangar full of things that liked to go BOOM).
To flip that around, the _Essexes_ were fortunate to have never have had to face Fliegerkorps X - _that_ encounter would've likely resulted in a very dead carrier.
@@vikkimcdonough6153 Yeah, an armored deck would definitely have prevented a lot of the damage. I more meant that the level of damage sustained would've likely sunk most others.
@@Talguy21 Ah. Agreed.
@@TomLuTon Do we know the names of the crew of the Judy who accomplished this impressive feat?
When the Franklin went to the breakers, in the 60s, one of the US TV networks produced a documentary about it. Besides the archival footage, the show had several members of the crew from that day, talking about what they were doing and how they survived.
This can be found on YT. It was televised around 1968 or 69..
@@alantoon5708 Any hint as to the title, so searching succeeds?
@@davidb6576 I know that it showed how a number of crew escaped thru the funnel. It was something about how the crew of the Franklin was finally redeemed after many years.
@@davidb6576 USS Franklin Honor Restored.
@@alantoon5708 Thanks, Alan!
Back in 1963 my scoutmaster was Joe Pasztor. He was a survivor of USS Franklin. He had 7 children and was an honored member of our church in Lake Jackson, Texas. WOW!
I will say it is great hearing about this ship nearly 20 years after my grandfather passed away. He had never spoke much about it but told my dad several times how he helped get the Franklin back to a safe port
In 1958 my father took me and my sister to the Bayonne NJ Naval yard to visit the USS Franklin and the battleship USS New Jersey. I especially recall walking around the hangar decks and looking at the different displays, especially the electronic ones. My father told me about the history of the Franklin and about when he saw it after the battle when it made its way to Pearl Harbor. He was a Navy man serving on what he called a Large Slow Target, LST. What a fantastic generation those men and women were serving our country during the war. My mother was an Army nurse stationed in England and France. Yes, she wore combat boots and was proud of it. I miss them.
My father-in-law served aboard USS Poole (DE-151) and his ship was in port the day Franklin arrived in Brooklyn Navy Yard. He said his crew were in awe of the damage and they were told there were still dead sailors trapped in spaces that hadn't been accessed yet. He said it had a sobering effect, because after 18 convoy runs across the North Atlantic, their own ship was headed to the Pacific.
A neighbor of mine was a aircraft maintenance mechanic on the Franklin with an embarked Marine Corps squadron. Just a kid from Florence, South Carolina. He was on the flight deck when the bombs hit. I knew him forty years after the event. He never went into any details of that day beyond saying it was a very long day, and then one day when we were watching a world at war documentary he jumped off the couch, pointed at the TV and shouted “that was my gun!”. It was film from the Franklin bombing and subsequent fire. That started many sessions where he started to get it out of his system. He’d been haunted by the events for forty years and had never talked to anyone about it. He passed a few years later. I think he’d made piece with those ghosts by then.
See, this is why I watch your videos often as I can. You bring us into the Franklin without being covered in burning oil and blood. Well told story.
I just visited the Yorktown last weekend and laid eyes upon a large model the Franklin post battle damage. As impressive as it was, this video helps to bring the situation to life a bit more. Thanks Drach.
Wish I had seen that model when I toured the _Yorktown_. Drach's video is superb and thorough. I had read about USS Franklin in the book _Pacific War Diary_ by a guy on the _Yorktown_. (Either Fahey or Leahy I think) Staggering loss of life, maybe the third worst on a warship ever? But this would have been without knowledge of the Japanese losses on _Taiho_, _Shinano_, , _Yamato_ or _Mushashi_. A super superstitious sailor on the _Yorktown_ made much of the _Franklin's_ unlucky number, CV13.
@hallmobility If you have a chance to go back to Yorktown, it is currently located on the hangar deck in front of the prop powered warbirds.
Well played by both the japanese airmen who did the perfect attack run (2x500pounds is not that much when it comes to bombs) and the Franklin's remaining crew which managed to keep the ship afloat and saved most of the crew.
My grandfather served on the Franklin during WWII, after fighting for the RCAF before America entered. He was a Corsair pilot. My sister asked me a little bit about the ship a few days ago, so it is a great coincidence you’ve covered it right now. Grandpa passed away before I was born, but he was on the ship during the attack and wrote to my grandmother later about how he’d been “doing a lot of swimming” since the attack knocked him off of the ship. Thank you for the video!
I was aware of the Franklin and the insane charges of desertion,but the lawyer and the brass were new to me.Thanks Drach, your story telling skills are great 👍!
A crew that out performs it's Captain.
Geheris was quite the horse's a$$. Proving that there are many more horse's a$$as, than horses.
Well said!
The survival of the Franklin is one of the greatest "What do we say to the God of Death? Not today!" moments in WW2.
USAF firefighter ('89-'93) here. This experience of theirs is stunning in its heroism and sheer balls. Them's some firedogs, right there.
Much respect to the men of the Franklin and of those ships that helped. What a riveting story!
Great new recap on Franklin, Drach.
That Suisei dropping almost to mast level and missing gives you the chills... Thank God the guy didn't think "Well, time to go down on the forward deck".
Franklin got the right crew and the wrong captain. Santa Fe? MVP of the day.
Cheers.
My Grandfather served aboard the Franklin, heard many first hand stories from my Grandfather,he was a AA gunner on Big Ben. Well done sir!
My Father was an AA gunner on the Santa Fe. He helped rescue men off of the Frankin.
The story of the survival of the Franklin was taught and used as the pre-eminent example in damage control & fire fighting when I was in the navy in the early to mid 70s. The chief in charge of the damage control party I was assigned to had pictures of her on the inside of the doors of our equipment lockers.
These stories never fail to instill an awe in me for the bravery and competence of the Naval crews who dealt with catastrophes. One more confirmation about a true "Greatest Generation"...
USS Franklin was one tough lady (yes, ships are traditionally referred to with female pronouns), and in the heat of disaster her entire crew acted in the finest traditions of the United States Navy to save her. Absolutely incredible story. Equally amazing is that her crew didn't take the opportunity to throw their dud of a captain overboard with the rest of the hazards and ordnance. Thank you, Drach!
"The captain? I'm not sure what happened to him. The last I saw of him, he was smoking a cigar watching planes taking off. When the bombs went off he was no where to be seen. Probably became pink mist."
My dad was a gunners mate (40 mm loader) on the Franklin when it was hit. He was only 18 at the time. He was supposed to be relieved to go to the mess hall and his relief did not come. Most of the men in that mess hall were killed. He said after the ship was hit everything was on fire above them and there was no way to get out. So he and his shipmate said either we burn or drown. So both went over the side. They were picked up by the Pittsburgh. They wanted to give him a purple heart because he had some minor flash burns but refused because he said the men who were killed or badly burnt deserved it. He never had a kind word to say about the Captain and said they should have court martialed the Captain for securing general quarters so close to Japan. He was so proud to have served on "The Big Ben".
Who was your dad? I may have interviewed him.
A story of pure heroics almost ruined by a toxic commander. What is unbelievable, is that he actually has a monument dedicated to him in his home town.
Funny how history works,,,,, its written by the conquorers that pilliaged thier way to the top ,, therefore ,thier truth is the truth that has been written.has nothing to do with REALITY.
Where is that?
Heard he went into politics. Imagine that! Lol. Prob had the monument put up himself.
Unbelievable...
In my time as a nuclear operator on a submarine, I was required to commit to a 6-year hitch, the navy knowing it would take years to train me and wanted to get some return on their investment. The boat I was assigned to had an exceptional CO. About halfway through my time on board, he was replaced by a man the crew accurately described as a pompous ass. The navy was keen for me to re-enlist and had the first CO asked me, I might have. By the time the second CO was threatening me with bad duty assignments if I didn't reup, everyone on board including officers were making plans to get out at first opportunity. Interestingly, the second CO had put a book in the boat's library, Who's Who in the US Navy, and his father, grandfather and so on had been admirals of some repute. We took it that his daddy was putting in good words for him, advancing his career.
One of the things they track about officers is the re-up rate of those under them. You and others not accepting gives him a black mark. Good job.
Threatening me with a bad assignment if I don't reup will fucking guarantee I won't reup. Who the hell thinks that will work? I hope that sub wasn't a boomer.
@@marckyle5895 Yes, it was a boomer but it's ancient history now. That boat's been recycled into dog food cans. I waved goodbye in 1978. I was just pointing out that they didn't stop making bad CO's in the war years. I don't know how things are now but it seems to me that at least then, an officer could cash in some of the credit his father earned. I'm sure that was far worse during the war when the rapid expansion of the fleet created the need for shoulders to put stripes on.
@@moo5289 it's still like that a bit, but word spreads fast and usually we keep in touch with other guys from duty stations we met along the way. Any rate is a small rate when your OICs are bad and we have the benefit of emails and phones.
As a side note the famous marine vmf 214 black sheep squadron was aboard as the Franklin's corsair squadron losing 32 men in the attack two of the squadrons corsairs who were airborne at the time were credited with shooting down the Judy which had attracted the Franklin !!!
Wow. I'd known about this crippling lone air attack on Franklin for a long time, but the telling of the story was first-class, with many details new to me.
Excellent job, Drach!
However, I noticed that you kept pronouncing the Captain's name wrong:
It's actually pronounced "Kun"-*sound of needle being dragged from a record*
I have made a number of visits to CV-10 at Patriots Point. Seeing story of the Franklin and touching its bell gets me every time. Thanks for your recount of their story.
That was a pretty sobering thing to see. It had cracked from the immense heat. The platform they built to stand on to demonstrate what it was like to be on the Franklin with its 22 degree list was also eye opening.
I had a distance uncle who was part of the surviving crew that stayed aboard and saved the ship. He told me his story about his service aboard her at the time I was joining the Navy. Hearing first hand stories like this, is becoming a lost art, as few WWII veterans remain. Turns out my first ship, I served on was the USS Coral Sea CV-43, a WWII designed ship.
"Surviving a Comet Strike"
I see what _Judy_ -id there
Sui Chan waaaaaaaaaaa!
(Boom)
@@thevictoryoverhimself7298 D4Y diving out of nowhere: HI HONEY~
@@Big_E_Soul_Fragment Enterprise (nearby): Anyone getting a sense of Deja Vu?
@@ph89787"You dare use my own spells against me"
A tube strike forced me to stay in bed, so cracking time in posting this. Thank you.
A tube strike? How misfortunate!
Not got legs?
Tube strike? Hope that's UK slang and not the aftermath of being beaten with a lead pipe.
@@richmcgee434 isn't that doing a Tonya?
I was unaware of this U.S. Navy chapter. Being a military veteran, the captain’s charging the crew with desertion is no surprise to me.
What a genuine nightmare listening to Drach tell this story in detail.
Absolutely can’t imagine living through this.
Wow. This is such an incredible piece of work. It’s like a movie you see but takes years to make and years to delve into the actual history. Thank you Drachinifel!
Thanks for finally re-uploading this video. I have been looking for it for months and I wasn't sure If I had just hallucinated it's existence
The old one was taken down and this is a replacement.
USS Franklin - a blazing torture chamber of twisted steel and burning ordnance.
Meanwhile, Captain Geheres is in the ships stores, counting strawberries.
The sheer courage shown by many during this event is quite humbling.
This is an amazing tale of heroism. I've been involved in fighting a major shipboard fire, and it was bad enough for us with the ship in drydock at the time, I cannot begin to imagine how terrifying it must have been for these men having to do it while at sea with live ordnance all around and at the same time still being under threat of enemy attack.
I think the real hero is the Japanese pilot.
Alone, flying an inferior plane, against an entire fleet.
He managed to sneak up, avoiding hundreds of enemh fighters and AAA guns, place two solid hits on a major carrier, and escape safely.
What a feat!!!!
26:37, one of the men in the party the chaplain organized was Aviation Boatswains Mate Don Prather, he helped O'Callahan fighting fires, and helped break open the ammunition locker and throw the ammunition over the side. he went to the church my family attended growing up, but sadly passed away before i was old enough to really know him, from what my father has told me he was a very calm and quiet man, and helped my dad deal with some ptsd he picked up serving in the Navy in the late 80's. Franklin's survival has always amazed me, from photos of the list and carnage on the flight deck, to the brave sailors who rallied to save their ship, and the captain of the Santa Fe linking the fate of his ship with the Franklin's providing critical aid when it was desperately needed.
Excellent video Drach!
My Dad served on the CB-2 Guam and talked about this
Can't help remembering that my father and many of his friends left high-school before graduation to go fight in the war . Damn great men each and every one .
What my grandfather did. Served on the Franklin
Terrific video. My father was in the Brooklyn Navy Yard when the Franklin arrived. He said it looked like a pike of floating rust. Guys were wondering what had kept her afloat.
I remember seeing film of this ship on fire, but never knew in detail the actual tale of the Franklin? After seeing your original fine vid on this ship, I never understood how she survived at all? With this, I now know more of the brave men and ships that helped in saving her. Thanks, Drach.
My father's destroyer was just leaving Pearl Harbor when the Franklin limped into port. It was a very sobering experience for everyone, especially those like my father who were just for their first foray into the war zone. So many heroes those critical days who were involved with saving lives and their ship. May we never forget them.
Thanks for this video Drach - A great story, and having served on USS O'Callahan, one of the best descriptions of the Father's actions!
Suisei is indeed comet in english. Meteor is Ryuusei in japanese, which would be the B7A, while Suisei reffers to the D4Y. Also nice to see the Franklin video back, after all this time.
This is probably the most moving video you've done and I thank you for the great presentation. It amazes me there isn't a Hollywood movie on this story, just a couple of short films and one hour long documentary.
There was a movie made in the mid-1950s called "Battle Stations," that was based on this incident. But you're right, there should be another made.
I'm glad there isn't a Hollywood movie on this story because it would be gun toting yee-haw marines blitzing 100500 japanese bombers out of the sky with sidearms and putting out fires with a spit and a quick piss. Hollywood makes spectacles.
Much praise as well to the captain and crew of the _USS Santa Fe_ ; stunning manouver and huge risks undertaken in the course of the action.
That manouver tore a 60 foot gash in the hull of the Santa Fe, right at the water line.
@@jacobmccandles1767 but she got the job done.
@@jlvfr oh yes, absolutely. My Dad was aboard her and always spoke well of the move. They used mattresses and timbers to make temporary repairs and restore some semblance of seakeeping, and continuse with fire fighting and rescue efforts.
@@jacobmccandles1767 outstanding.
I'm so happy to see another video on the Franklin after your other one got taken down. Whenever I would reference your channel, I would mention that one because of the extraordinarily high quality it
21:34 I can only conclude that he's a Rogue and succeeded on his Reflex save. Or he's an action hero with incredible plot armor.
Plot armor is a hell of a drug
I remember you had an excellent video that went super in depth on USS Franklin and it got a DMCA strike by a book author right?
Yes, the DMCA strike was utterly ridiculous, especially having to remove such an excellent and informative video.
The story of the SoB/Captain charging everyone in sight with Desertion reminds me of a individual I had the profound displeasure to serve with. Some things don't change.
Franklin to Taiho: THIS is how its done
As a small child in 1968ish I had some small bubble gum collectors cards of the WW2 Pacific war series, including the damage and fire of the Franklin etc. Some good quality photos and stories on the back as remember. The Franklin, A story not often heard. Well done Drachinifel for presenting in full, warts and all.
The title is not click bait. The general consensus is that a single Yokosuka D4Y Suisei (Comet) dive bomber knocked the Franklin out of the war. Also of interest a single D4Y Suisei sank the carrier USS Princeton.
A very good friend of my stepdad was a cook on the Franklin during WWII Roe Woody was his name. He was one of the nicest people I'd ever met. I always enjoyed his talks about the aircraft carrier and what he did
In 1961 or so, I read an article about the Franklin’s ordeal in one of my grandmother’s _Reader’s Digest_ issues. Much was made of the heroic chaplain and his organization of a club of the men who stayed on the ship all the way back to Brooklyn. (The 735 club?) The captain was mentioned (positively but not much, I think) but not those c-s-t desertion charges.
Thank you, Drach, for retelling this story so well.
Lt Commander Patrick:
Rides a supply elevator as it crashes into an inferno after a massive explosion
Hangs out in said massive inferno for everal hours
Appears on deck later and grabs a fire hose
Refuses to elaborate further
Forcefully made to Leave
What an absolute Chad
Sir, your presentation is the best kind of film making. To fix these events in the mind of those who could not be there to truly understand the courage and bravery of a United States sailor. My hat is off to you, and may you ever rise to greater heights. 😊
Excellent video, well done. So a U.S. navy ship can survive catastrophic explosion's off the coast of a hostile nation but a modern carrier (USS Bonhomme Richard) can burn out at the dock of a major naval base. Something has been lost over the years.
It's saddening at how much the USN had lost over the years.
BHR only had minimal crew aboard, and many systems were shut off for maintenance.
But fire doesn't need a war ...
The BHR fire is sure gonna change a few things
Some interesting things i remember from te taken down video(tho i might misremember some of the details):
-One of the guys in the overhanging(hanger) damagecontroll stations was passing through a bulkhead when the bombs struck. evereyone in the room was floor, and most badly injured. the guy himself was knocked off his feet, but due the more rigidity of the area around the bulkhead safed him from worse injury.
-a small group sailors were in the hangar, fleeing from the fires, and found a hatch going down in the ship. the person behind the guy telling the strory, shut the hatch, and shortly after that a lot more ordenance exploded. So hail to the sailor that safed the group by sacreficing him self. After the fires had died down, the group tried to exit their hiding place, but found that they could not open the hatch...... It had welded itself shut by the extreme heat in the hangar.
-On flightdeck(i think) one of the men went to the planes, and de-armed a lot of ordenance. that made sure either less or it took longer before the ordenance on the planes fired/exploded.
-the cruiser helping fight the fire, had to move away from franklin, becouse at some point word had gone out to abandon ship. That ment that to manny personel were fleeing the franklin to the cruiser. and thus she had to brake away.
i hope this was somwhat interesting
Damm, a literal case of someone choosing to stay on the wrong side of a hatch so it could be secured. Is it known who that person was and were they officially recognized afterwards?
No I dont think so
This ship or USS Bunker Hill (CV-17) should have been kept as a museum, they were both still in their WWII configuration and would have been a living testament to the tenacity of the US Navy, much like USS Laffey (DD-724)
My father was drafted into the Marines in 1943. After boot camp and training he was designated a sea going marine. His group were lined up and called off numbers. 1, 2, 1, 2 and so on. One number went to the heavy cruiser USS St Paul, The other number went to the Franklin. My father went to the St Paul. Had he went to the Franklin It's quite possible I wouldn't have been born to tell this story.
Glad there is a video back on this channel about Franklin. The original from three years ago and its grave presentation was exceptional in the history of this channel though, and I miss it.
incredible. thank you for publishing this footage and the narration
These type of videos are your absolute BEST! Thank you Admiral Drach
Great post here about USS Franklin. Its story is proof that lessons were indeed learned from the desperate days of 1942. Your account parallels one written soon after the fact in 1945. It was named "The Ship That Wouldn't Die" and was written by C.S. Forester for True magazine.
An account by Forester! Imma have to look for that!!
My father, aboard the USS Bunker Hill, watched the Franklin burning and exploding on the horizon. He and his ship would share a similar fate on 11 May.
Thank you Drach been waiting for this to be reloaded. Great work.
Fantastically detailed descriptions of the physical effects of the bombs and fires. The floor exploding upward with multiple head injury fatalities to all but the single man with the presense of mind to be wearing his helmet. The miracle survivor being in an elevator that blew out the ship to safety. The heroic man who saved 300 men in the mess room guiding them hand in hand in the dark to safety. The chaplain who didn't just pray for a miracle but led men into removing the cooking bombs that any minute would have blown them all straight to hell (heaven?) but they kept throwing the frying bombs overboard literally saving the ship. The Santa Fe tirelessly helping their fallen sister ship. Thebother cruisers taking out wave after wave of kamikazes hell bent on finishing her off. And happily the Admiral who accused his valiant men with desertion never getting another posted to captain another US ship. This story from beginning to end was riveting. Great story!
14:27 - that might be the most chilling and raw war moment I've ever seen.
Incredible, incredible video. Tremendous bravery and dedication displayed by all of the sailors involved (save the Captain).