USS Bunch (DE-694) was a of the United States Navy, named after Kenneth Cecil Bunch, killed in action on 6 June 1942 while flying as radioman-gunner in an SBD Dauntless dive bomber during the Battle of Midway. Bunch was a native of Norman County, Minnesota.
Construction Bunch was launched on 29 May 1943, by the Defoe Shipbuilding Company, in Bay City, Michigan, sponsored by Mrs. Kenneth C. Bunch, widow of Aviation Radioman Kenneth Cecil Bunch; and commissioned on 21 August 1943.
Service history
Atlantic convoy escort, 1943–1944 After fitting out, Bunch departed Southwest Pass on 12 September 1943. She proceeded via Key West, Florida, and carried out her shakedown training near Bermuda until 15 October when she set course for Boston.
Following post-shakedown availability at the Boston Navy Yard, the warship moved to New York whence she began her escort work on 1 November by shepherding the New York section of Convoy UGS-23 out of coastal waters. That same day, she made a sonar contact and attacked it with two "Hedgehog" patterns, though she later evaluated it as "non-submarine." Released the following day, Bunch proceeded to Hampton Roads, where she reported for duty with Task Force (TF) 23. Over the next eight months, the destroyer escort made six round-trip voyages across the Atlantic escorting convoys between New York and Derry, punctuating that work with refresher training at Casco Bay, Maine, and availabilities at Boston.
Conversion to a high-speed transport, 1944 On 28 July, Bunch began conversion to a high speed transport at the Naval Frontier Base, Tompkinsville, Staten Island. Redesignated APD-79 on 31 July 1944, she was also fitted out as a flagship during the 11 weeks of modifications. She completed conversion on 12 October and departed New York on the 13th. Steaming first to Hampton Roads and thence up the Chesapeake Bay, Bunch briefly visited Annapolis, Maryland, before she began training duty in the Bay. Between 23 October and 10 December, Bunch helped to prepare 11 other crews for their service in high-speed transports.
Pacific Fleet, 1943–1944 Following an availability at the St. Helena Annex, Bunch departed Norfolk on 20 December 1944 in company with to escort the transports , and , to the Canal Zone. Arriving in Panama on Christmas Day 1944, she transited the canal the following day, reported to the Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet, for duty and ultimately reached San Diego on 3 January 1945. Underway for Hawaii on the 9th, she arrived in Pearl Harbor on the 15th. Bunch then exercised at Maui's Ma'alaea Bay with Underwater Demolition Teams (UDT) 18 and 21. With UDT-21 remaining on board, Bunch sailed for the Marshall Islands on 14 February, arriving at Eniwetok on the 22nd. After fueling, the high-speed transport put to sea the next day in the screen of a convoy of which part was bound for the Western Carolines and the rest for the Philippines. The convoy's Ulithi-bound portion parted company on 28 February, but Bunch remained with the Leyte-bound part and arrived in Tarraguna Anchorage near San Pedro Bay on 4 March.
Preparations for Okinawa At Leyte, the warship began preparations to carry out her part in the invasion of Okinawa. After UDT-21 received a briefing on the mission ahead on the 7th, Bunch spent the period 9 to 13 March engaged in exercises at nearby Homonhon Island with seven other high-speed transports and some landing craft. Later, she took part in landing rehearsals on the 14th, conducted tactical exercises in Leyte Gulf early on the 15th, and then joined TG 52.13 in practice lowering and recovering LCP(R)s off Cabugan Grande Island. After a final conference on the upcoming landings on the 20th, Bunch set out for the Ryukyu Islands on the 21st, screening Transport Group "Easy," Western Islands Attack Force (TG 51.1).
Invasion of Kerama Islands At 0330 on 26 March 1945, Bunch went to general quarters and proceeded into Transport Area "Easy," five miles west of Kube Shima in the Kerama Retto group of the Ryukyus. Detached at 0500, she and Hopping escorted the attack transport to her rendezvous with the control boat, SC-1328, in Area "Jig." Relieved of that task at 0600, the pair took up screening stations in the transport area and spent the remainder of the day screening the troopships. That night, she experienced a couple of desultory air attacks. At 0130 on the 27th, Bunch fired on a single enemy plane, which soon disappeared out of range. Securing from battle stations at 0210, the high-speed transport nevertheless remained on the alert. At 0338, she opened fire with her 40-millimeter battery on another intruder approaching on the port quarter. Although the ship went to general quarters, no attack developed, and she stood down at 0400.
Released from the transport screen later in the day, Bunch left TG 52.13's formation early in the first dog watch for a high-speed observation sweep of the objective beaches – White 1, 2, and 3 – on Okinawa. Delays in sweeping the waters off the beaches for mines and the consequent crowding of heavy fire support units on the outer edge of the unswept area prevented Bunch from getting closer than five miles to the objective. She retired from the scene at 1637 to permit the other ships of TG 52.13 to do their own reconnoitering.
After spending the night with the fire support night retirement unit, Bunch went to general quarters for the dawn alert at 0555 on 28 March. From her ringside seat, the fast transport observed splash two Aichi D3A "Val" carrier dive bombers and watched a suicide plane attempt to crash the nearby . Bunch secured from general quarters at 0655 and, after being detached from the night retirement group's screen, moved to cover the fire support units off the main invasion beaches. That assignment occupied her through the afternoon watch and into the first dog watch. At about 1635, the warship left the fire support units for Kerama Retto where she assumed patrol station R-16 off Mae Shima.
At 2314 on 28 March, lookouts sighted enemy planes on Bunchs starboard beam at extreme range, and she immediately went to general quarters. Still, the high-speed transport did not commence firing – on a plane that she identified as a Mitsubishi G4M "Betty" twin-engined bomber – until 0110 on the 29th. Even then, the plane fell to gunfire from the ships astern, and Bunch secured from battle stations soon thereafter. Going back to general quarters for the dawn alert at 0525 on the 29th, Bunch spotted planes at 0605, but they remained out of range.
Just seven minutes later, however, danger approached from an entirely different quarter. Her lookouts and SL radar operator picked up a small boat, 2,200 yards away on the port bow, and Bunch rang up full speed and altered course to investigate. After identifying the boat as enemy, she opened fire with .50-caliber, 20- and 40-millimeter batteries and destroyed it 500 yards away. At 0631, Bunch detected a second suicide motorboat – later judged to have come from Mae Shima, which was still in enemy hands – bearing down upon the ship. Machine gun fire from the fast transport stopped the craft dead in the water, however, and its crew jettisoned the explosive charge which immediately blew up. Bunch altered course to capture the suicide boat's crew, but a nearby destroyer "eradicated" both boat and swimmers with a well-placed 5-inch shell. After reporting the incident, Bunch resumed patrolling until detached at 0730 to await word to execute her pre-landing mission.
In the afternoon of 29 March, she carried out a reconnaissance of the "White" beaches the results of which indicated no need for demolition work there. Accordingly, Bunch retired to seaward and resumed screening until needed elsewhere. At 0645 on 30 March, the high-speed transport left that duty and steamed toward the "Orange" beaches. Lying 5,800 yards off the objective, Bunch put her boats in the water at 0905 and retired to a patrol area to await their return, while LCI(G)s gave close fire support for the demolition operations. The "Orange" beach charges went off at 1137, and Bunch recovered her boats by 1225. After standing by for further orders, she distributed passengers from the command ship among several other high-speed transports, which then transferred them to ships of the main northern and southern attack forces early the next day. Completing the task at 1700, she cleared Kerama Retto at 1930 and took up patrol station R-7.
Still patrolling her station 17 minutes into the mid-watch on the 31st, Bunch received word of an incoming air raid and reduced speed to 10 knots to hide her wake in the darkness. Not long thereafter, an enemy twin-engined bomber passed along her port side, some 150 yards away. Bunch opened fire with her .50-caliber and 40-millimeter batteries and went to general quarters, but no enemy plane attacked her at that time. Finally, her relief arrived at 0550, and Bunch proceeded with TG 52.13 to transfer a UDT-21 passenger to . From there, she returned to Kerama Retto with Crosley and and anchored there for the night with her engines on half-hour standby and with an armed watch posted against suicide swimmers.
Okinawa landings Underway again at 0254 on 1 April, Bunch cleared Kerama Retto with TG 52.13 and headed east toward the transport area off the Hagushi beaches. Once there, the formation dissolved at 0500, and Bunch steamed to the line of departure to transfer UDT-21 liaison personnel to the "White" beach control vessel, PC-578. Passing south of the transport area and north of the LST area, she accomplished the transfer at 0616 and then cleared the area rapidly to avoid the waves of landing craft forming for the run to the beach.
The warship screened the transports for the remainder of the first day of the Okinawa landings and, after being relieved of that duty the following dawn, visited "White" beach for a conference between UDT-21's commanding officer and the beachmaster on post-assault demolition needs. Bunch then left the beachhead at 1500 and took up night screening station A-20. Around dusk, however, she went to general quarters after observing a small convoy under attack by five enemy planes. Bunch took two of them under fire despite the fact that they were just out of range. One crashed the attack transport , and the other started a run on Bunch but turned away when she opened fire. Instead, he tried to bomb but missed. At that point, he turned and crashed Dickerson.
The fire on board Dickerson grew rapidly as Bunch maneuvered to help but was "fairly well under control" by 1930. Seeing that she was "receiving considerable structural damage" alongside the stricken ship, Bunch pulled away but sent a fire and rescue party over in one of her LCPRs. In the meantime, UDT-21 swimmers used their rubber boats to rescue many of the Dickerson survivors forced over the side by the flames. Back on board Dickersion where the fire had burst forth again, Bunchs fire and rescue party – aided by a contingent from Crosley – succeeded in getting gasoline-driven handy-billies in operation to battle them. Bunch passed a towline and three fire hoses across to Dickerson and began to tow her, while men cut away Dickersons port-side boats to lessen the list. Soon, however, the towline and hoses parted, and the salvagers lost their hard-won gains when the fires broke out with renewed vigor as a result. To make matters worse, a freshening wind made getting another hawser across to her even more difficult. Eventually, arrived, took Dickerson in tow, put out her fires, and brought her into Kerama Retto. After screening Arikara and Dickerson to Kerama Retto and transferring 61 survivors to PCE-852, Bunch returned to station A-20 where the rest of the day passed mercifully quietly.