The new escort carrier
got underway from Seattle on 17 January 1944 bound for San Francisco
where she was immediately pressed into service ferrying stores,
airplanes, and military personnel to Hawaii. She departed Pearl
Harbor for the homeward voyage on 29 January and arrived at San
Diego with her load of passengers on 4 February. Throughout most of
February, she participated in training exercises out of San Diego
before steaming, via the Canal Zone, for Hampton Roads, Virginia.
Following her arrival at Norfolk on 17 March, Tulagi underwent
overhaul and carrier qualification tests.
Tulagi embarked a load of Army Air Forces planes late in May and
departed New York on the 28. May 1944 in convoy with two other carriers and
their screen. On 6 June, Tulagi entered her first foreign port as
she steamed the swept channel approach to Casablanca. After
disembarking her cargo, the carrier took on passengers including a
group of 35 prisoners of war and then headed home.
After arriving at Norfolk on 17 June 1944, Tulagi got underway late
in June for Quonset Point, Rhode Island, where she embarked
personnel, planes, and equipment. On the last day of the month, she
departed Narragansett Bay with Rear Admiral Calvin T. Durgin on
board as Commander, Task Group 27.7, and steamed eastward conducting
squadron and battery training en route to Oran, Algeria. Tulagi
visited Malta on 26 July and then spent the following weeks
conducting exercises, which included a dress rehearsal out of
African and Italian ports for the coming Operation Dragoon, the
invasion of southern France.
On D-Day, Tulagi steamed in formation 45 miles off the invasion
beach; and, at 0546, she launched her first flight of F6F- Hellcats.
In the next week, aircraft from Tulagi flew a total of 68 missions
and 276 sorties, inflicting considerable damage on the enemy.
Weather was generally good as carrier-based planes conducted
spotting missions and made strikes at various targets ashore,
including gun emplacements and railway facilities. On 21 August,
Tulagi's last day in support of Operation "Dragoon", German forces
were in retreat before the Allied thrust. Tulagi's fliers conducted
a devastating attack along the line of march of a German convoy
which snarled the roads for miles around Remoulins and crowned her
achievements of the day by downing three German Junkers Ju 52s.
After taking on supplies and fuel at Oran, she got underway for home
on 6 September. Following a quick overhaul at Norfolk, the escort
carrier set her course for Panama; transited the Canal; and arrived
at San Diego on 26 October. There, she embarked two air squadrons
for transportation to Hawaii and departed the west coast on 29
October 1944.
Following her arrival at Pearl Harbor on 5 November, the carrier
participated in antisubmarine warfare and gunnery exercises. On the
24th, she got underway in company with a special antisubmarine task
group which conducted sweeps as it steamed via the Marshalls and
Ulithi for Saipan. Throughout December, Tulagi continued
antisubmarine activities in the Palaus and the southern Marianas.
On the first day of the new year, 1945, Tulagi got underway for
Lingayen Gulf and the impending invasion of Luzon. Meanwhile, the
Japanese in the Philippines had assigned more than 100 suicide
planes for a concerted attack on Tulagi's task force. The convoy
passed through Surigao Strait into the Mindanao Sea on 3 January. In
the following three days, the kamikazes took their toll. On the 4th,
reports of enemy aircraft in the area became more frequent; and,
late in the afternoon, a suicide plane crashed while trying to dive
into Lunga Point. Moments later, observers on Tulagi saw the
conflagration which marked the death throes of Ommaney Bay, the
victim of another kamikaze. On the morning of 5 January, enemy air
attackers continued to menace the convoy as it steamed through
Mindoro Strait and into the South China Sea. Although fighters from
the carrier shot down two Mitsubishi A6M Zeros, three enemy aircraft
succeeded in penetrating the defenses of the convoy. Two were shot
down, but one managed to crash into Louisville, a member of the
convoy's screen.
When landing began at Lingayen Gulf on 9 January 1945, Tulagi
launched her planes for air strikes on land targets, anti-snooper
patrols, and air cover for American vessels. On 12 January, Tulagi
supplied air support for the Lingayen Gulf beachhead; and, the next
day, her port battery shot down a suicide plane which had singled
out the carrier for destruction. Before it crashed, the attacker,
deflected from Tulagi by withering anti-aircraft fire, crossed
astern and to starboard of the escort carrier and vainly attempted
to dive into an alternate target. On 17 January, the Army Air Force
assumed responsibility for direct air support of American operations
in Lingayen Gulf; and Tulagi's fliers turned their attention toward
the Zambales coast where they provided cover for support and
protection of forces near San Narcisco. On 5 February, Tulagi
arrived at Ulithi after a grueling period of sustained flight
operations during which her planes had been in the air for all but
two of 32 days.
Tulagi departed Guam on 21 February to conduct hunter-killer
exercises in support of the assault on Iwo Jima before joining a
task unit in "area Varnish" west of Iwo Jima on 1 March. She
supplied air support and antisubmarine patrols until departing the
area on 11 March, bound for Ulithi. Arriving there on 14 March, she
prepared for the invasion of the Ryukyus.
Assigned alternately to antisubmarine and direct support activities,
Tulagi operated continuously off the coast of Okinawa from the end
of March until early June. On 3 April, four Zeros attacked her
formation, and all were shot down. On the 6th, while Tulagi was
anchored at Kerama Retto for rearming, a Japanese air attack
penetrated air space over the harbor. The carrier took one of her
attackers under fire at 4,000 yards, but the Japanese plane came
harrowingly close before turning aside to dive into a nearby LST
which burst into flames 200 feet high. Minutes later, Tulagi shot
down another attacker and chased off a third with her accurate fire.
The next day, Tulagi resumed her station off Okinawa, providing
planes for air strikes called in by ground observers and for running
photo-reconnaissance and patrol missions. On the 13th, after she
launched a special strike against the airfields of Miyako Jima, she
began antisubmarine operations along the shipping lanes approaching
Okinawa.
Following this long and arduous tour, Tulagi arrived at Guam on 6
June 1945. The carrier departed the Marianas on the 8th, bound for
San Diego. She remained on the west coast throughout the summer
undergoing overhaul, trials, and training. Peace came while she was
at San Diego, but she departed the west coast again on 4 September
and steamed via Hawaii for the Philippines. At Samar, she embarked
planes for transportation back to the United States and reached
Pearl Harbor in October. After returning to San Diego in January
1946, the veteran escort carrier reported to the 19th Fleet at Port
Angeles, Washington, on 2 February 1946 for inactivation. She was
decommissioned on 30 April 1946 and struck from the Navy List on 8
May 1946. |