One of the biggest days for the squadron turned out to be April 7. That was when the Japanese decided to make a move on Okinawa with a fleet of ships. It was really a Kamikaze effort' The fleet was comprised of the battleship Yamato; one Agano class Light Cruiser the Yahagi ; another Cruiser, class unidentified; and a number of Destroyers. The Yamato it was learned later had only fuel enough for a one way trip to Okinawa...it was planned that the crew would beach itself and then destroy as much of the invading forces as possible with it's huge 18 inch guns. These guns could hurl a shell heavier than a bus, some 35 miles. When fired, the whole ship, all 70,000 tons shook. The enemy force had sailed out of the inland sea of Japan through the Bungo channel and south around the southern tip of Kyushu. Initial contact was made by U.S. submarines who made the initial identification of the force.

Jim Young, Crew 10 and Dick Simms, Crew 8 were nearby on an antishipping patrol and at 0957 made contact with the Japanese fleet. For five long hours, the PBM's shadowed the ships despite heavy anti-aircraft fire (The Yamato alone had 146 AA guns!) and helped coordinate the Carrier fighter bombers, torpedo planes and dive bombers from Marc Mitscher's Task Force 58. The carrier planes decimated the enemy ships, sinking the battleship Yamato (Taking 2300 sailors to their death, only 250 survived the attack), the cruiser Yahagi, one smaller Cruiser or large Destroyer and three other Destroyers. In addition, three more Destroyers were left burning, and three enemy Destroyers escaped.

At this point, Simms continued to circle the area to provide protection from any enemy planes and try to keep the attention of the damaged ships to allow Jim Young to effect an open sea landing to pick up the pilot of a carrier plane they had spotted on a life raft. He was in real danger from the remaining enemy ships and was also drifting towards the several hundred Japanese survivors from the sinking ships. While taxiing towards to the downed pilot, the plane was splashed by enemy fire just a hundred yards or so ahead of them. The sea was fortunately in good condition and Young made a successful pick up of the pilot and took off minutes after touching down. The survivor, Torpedo Bomber pilot, Ltjg Wiliam Delaney. I Jim Young, Another Hero in my interpretation of the word I Delaney had laid four 500 pound bombs on the Yamato when his plane was hit by AA fire and he and his crew parachuted from the smoking plane. After Young made a JATO takeoff, both planes low on fuel, made it imperative that they return to base immediately, which they did without further incident. (Jim Young, and Crew 10, Heroes in my definition)

About two hours later another PBM searching the area saw a mass of wreckage and a number of survivors. They made an open sea landing and rescued some survivors who assured them that the Yamato, "Was no more."

Admiral Marc Mitscher sent a highly commendatory dispatch concerning the actions of Crews 8 and 10: "Again Task Force 58 is indebted to submarines and search planes for your whole hearted support and cooperation X your reports enabled the task force to do extensive damage X your daring rescue of our personnel earns our deepest gratitude XX Mitscher X."

"VPB-21 Alumni Association Newsletter Summary Page"

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