After her first six months, the Mobile's crew began calling their ship the "Mighty Moe" (not to be confused with "The Mighty Mo", the nickname of the battleship Missouri).
After a two-day breather at Purvis Bay, Florida Island, the Mobile was sent back to the Gilbert Island operation, where on November 20 she provided shore bombardment for the landings on Tarawa Island. Though the operation was considered a success, nearly half of the more than 6000 Marines landed became casualties, and a third of those died.
Joe mentions in the back of his diary that a carrier was sunk during the operation. The escort carrier USS Liscome Bay (photo), on her first and last mission, was struck by a torpedo fired from a Japanese submarine at 5:10 AM on November 24. The huge explosion sent flames a thousand feet into the air. Seconds later the bombs stored in the Liscome Bay's hold detonated, blowing apart the entire back third of the carrier, showering ships as far away as 1500 yards with debris and human flesh. The ship went down 23 minutes later with the loss of her captain, Admiral Mullinex, 53 officers and 591 men. Of the 272 others were rescued, many were horribly burned, disfigured and blinded, and all were coated with fuel oil.
In such incidents throughout the war, the Mobile frequently assisted either search and rescue efforts, or provided a defensive screen for the rescuing ships. Joe later spoke to his sister of having seen bodies floating in the water during many of these rescues.
Details of the Liscome Bay sinking are from Morison's History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Volume 7.
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From the Data Section of Joe's Journal:
5 - Gilberts Is. __________ Nov. 20*, 1943
Tarawa & Makin. Air strike & shore bombardment & landed troops captured it in 76 hours. We lost 1 aircraft carrier & 1 destroyer.#
* Some sources list this as Nov. 21, saying the 20th was by "Pearl Harbor Time."
# The carrier Joe mentioned was the Liscome Bay. However, the light carrier USS Independence was also hit by a torpedo from a plane. The Independence didn't sink, but 12 men were killed, 5 missing-in-action, 43 wounded.
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