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Following shakedown off
San Diego, Saginaw Bay loaded aircraft and their pilots for
transport to Hawaii and departed on 15 April 1944. She reached Pearl
Harbor on 21 April, exchanged her cargo for damaged planes, and
returned to Alameda, California. She conducted pilot qualifications
off San Diego during May and early June, and completed a second
ferry mission to Pearl Harbor by 5 July.
Departing Pearl Harbor on 9 July, she proceeded to Eniwetok and
Majuro atolls transporting aircraft. In August, she joined the
expeditionary force forming in the Solomon Islands for the invasion
of the Palaus and, as flagship of the escort carrier task force,
provided air cover for the amphibious landings at Peleliu and Anguar.
She then steamed for Seeadler Harbor, Manus, where she became
flagship of a task force which sailed on 14. October 1944 to begin the
liberation of the Philippine Islands with landings at Leyte. She
joined the carrier task group "Taffy 1" under Rear Admiral Thomas L.
Sprague, and was assigned to guarding the southeast entrance to
Leyte Gulf. As the Japanese Fleet closed, on 24 October she was
ordered to transfer her aircraft to other carriers and proceed to
Morotai for replacements. Thus, she missed the Battle for Leyte Gulf.
She rejoined her task unit on 28 October as it retired to Manus.
Saginaw Bay was anchored in Seeadler Harbor on 10 November when the
ammunition ship Mount Hood was literally blown to pieces by an
internal explosion. Saginaw Bay suffered minor damage to her
exterior from the force of the blast and helped to care for men of
various ships in the fleet base area who had been struck by debris
from the disintegrated ship.
Saginaw Bay next participated in training for amphibious landing
support missions in preparation for operations in Lingayen Gulf and
supported the actual invasion from 2 January through 21 January
1945. She then steamed to Ulithi for rehearsal of the Iwo Jima
assault; covered the invasion force en route; provided support to
the landings on 19 February; and supported operations on that
bitterly contested island until 11 March. Saginaw Bay next
participated in the pre-invasion strikes against Okinawa which began
on 25 March; continued her support through the invasion on 1 April;
and then supported American forces ashore until she was ordered to
the U.S. on 29 April.
The carrier arrived at San Diego on 22 May; underwent repairs;
returned to Guam transporting aircraft in August; and was back in
San Diego by 20 August. By the end of the month, she was engaged in
training operations in the Hawaiian area until she reported for
"Operation Magic Carpet" duty, the return of combat veterans from
the Pacific. She departed Hawaii on 14 September and called at
Guiuan Roadstead, Samar, and San Pedro Bay, Leyte, in the
Philippines to embark veterans for return to San Francisco. She made
a second "Magic Carpet" voyage to Buckner Bay, Okinawa, and back,
before sailing on 1 February 1946 for the eastern seaboard. |
