Intrepid War YEARS
Continued
With CAPT Short now in command, INTREPID embarked Air Group 10 and stood out for Pearl Harbor on June 29, 1945, arriving on July 5th. On July 30, she departed Pearl for Eniwetok. On August 15, 1945, the long awaited " cease offensive operations" message came to INTREPID at Eniwetok.
A job remained to be done however, that of occupying territory that was still in the hands of the Japanese, and to that end, INTREPID, as a part of Task Unit 30.3.9, stood out of Eniwetok on August 21st to rendezvous at a point east of Japan with Task Force 38.
INTREPID was than detached from TF 38 and sent to Okinawa where she joined Task Force 72, on August 30th to help provide support against hostile air and surface action, and for amphibious operations of the Third Amphibious Corps. On Sept 1st, She sortied from Okinawa with Task Group 72.1 for the Yellow Sea.
On September 2, 1945, the Japanese signed the formal surrender documents for the Japanese aboard the battleship MISSOURI.
The months of Sept and the early part of Oct found INTREPID operating in the Yellow Sea, covering the landings and occupations of Jinsen and Keijo (Seoul), Korea on the 8th & 9th of Sept; Taku, China on Sept 30th; and the ara extending from Tientsin to Peking, China on 7 & * Oct as the Marines advanced over this route. During this same period Air Group 10 made a show of American strength over the Chinese cities of Shanghai, Chinwangtao, tangshan, Tientsin, Tsingtao and Peking.
On Oct 8th, INTREPID left the Gulf of Pohai, China bound for Saipan, and continued shows of strength and mine hunting operations in the Marianas until the 21st, when she made a return visit to Japan.
On Dec 2, 1945, INTREPID sortied from Yokosuka, Japan, and set her course for the long, and final voyage home.
Upon arrival at San Pedro, California, on Dec 15th, INTREPID was relegated to inactive status. Air Group 10 departed the ship at this time, their final tally of 160 enemy planes shot down and another 86 destroyed on the ground, 11 ships sunk, 2 probably sunk, and 41 damaged, remained on INTREPID's scoreboard. The cost to Air Group 10, of this destruction to the Japanese, was a loss of 88 aircraft (40 lost in the hangar bay fire) 12 pilots and 3 aircrewmen.
INTREPID had earned five engagement stars.
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The Occupation of Kwajalein and Majuro Atolls : 29 Jan - 8 Feb, 1944
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The Truk attack : 16-17 Feb, 1944
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The capture and occupation of Southern Palau Islands andassaults on the Philiippine Islands : 6 Sept-14 Oct 1944, and 9-24 Sept 1944
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The Third Fleet supporting operations in the Okinawa attack, Northern Luzon and Formosa attacks, Luzon attacks, Visayas attacks, Battle of Leyte Gulf and Luzon attacks : 10 Oct 1944, 13-14 Oct 1944, 15 Oct 1944, 17-19 Oct 1944, 21 Oct 1944, 24-26 Oct 1944, 5-6 Nov 1944, 19-25 Nov 1944. and ... One star for the 5th & 3rd Fleet raids in support of the Okinawa, Gunto ("Gunto" simply means a group of islands in Japanese) : 17 Mar to 16 April 1945.
INTREPID's gunners had also accounted for a total of 13 enemy planes shot down and were given credit for assisting in the downing of an additional 5. Official records make no mention of the four Japanese planes stopped the hard way; with her flight deck (sic).
CAPT Short was relieved in January 1946, by CAPT Robert E. Blick until she was designated a unit of the San Francisco Group, Pacific Reserve Fleet, " in commission in reserve " on August 15, 1946.
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INTREPID earned many nicknames during the war. She was called the "Drydock I" because of the many times her damages had forced her to retire to one. She was called the "Evil I" because of her propensity to collect Japanese torpedoes, bombs and Kamikazes, which she did more often than any other carrier that stayed afloat. But more than any nickname, her own name, INTREPID best described her behavior throughout the war.
She was bombed, torpedoed, strafed, and crashed by Kamikazes; she had been ripped open, burned and twisted; she had lost a great many men on her decks and in the air, but she always came back and fought again, boldly, undaunted, fearlessly and courageously, again and again and again ... Every time the Japanese sighted her it was though a ghost had appeared. They had reported her as sunk several times, and yet it seemed she was always back to hurt them, and hurt them she did. For every wound she took she repaid the Japanese with hundredfold. She would not die and she could not be shaken off the Japanese throat that she had come to get. She would not quit. In the end it was INTREPID that sat quietly in Tokyo Bay ... after the Japanese had surrendered. INTREPID was one (there were many others) this happened to have been her chapter - INTREPID LIVED UP TO HER NAME -
LETS NOT FORGET THOSE WHO HAVE GONE BEFORE US