Lucky Lady: The World War II Heroics of the USS Santa Fe and Franklin

by Steve Jackson

Steve Jackson's Lucky Lady chronicles the saga of the aircraft carrier Franklin, the light cruiser Santa Fe, and their tragic encounter on March 19, 1945, when a Japanese bomber broke through U.S. air cover and dropped two 500-pound bombs on the Franklin. Fires were set off as ammunition and fuel exploded. The Franklin was near sinking, with all her 2,500 sailors in mortal danger. To the Japanese high command, American aircraft carriers represented supreme power. If several could be sunk, it might vanquish America's resolve. Against this backdrop, the Santa Fe, nicknamed the "Lucky Lady" for its unparalleled record of avoiding casualties throughout the war, came steaming to the Franklin's aid. In a maneuver heralded as one of the greatest feats of seamanship in naval history, the Santa Fe bellied up alongside the listing tinderbox of the Franklin, rescuing more than 800 sailors who were ferried across rope catwalks as flames on the burning sea licked at them from below. Despite the risk of being swamped by the much larger ship, the Lucky Lady remained alongside the Franklin, helping to shepherd the crippled vessel toward safety. Meanwhile, in the skies above, a vicious battle was fought, as the Franklin was stalked by Japanese planes eager to finish off their kill. In a haunting conclusion, Jackson measures the sacrifices and the triumphs of the two ships. This book is a fitting memorial that will move readers everywhere. 8 pages of black-and-white photographs heighten this dramatic saga.

Genres: History, The World, War, The United States Of America

504 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

“He writes with both muscle and heart”—New York Times bestselling author Gregg Olsen

New York Times bestselling author and award-winning journalist Steve Jackson has written ten non-fiction books in true crime, history and biography genres; he has also written fourteen crime fiction thrillers for the long-running and Times bestselling "Butch Karp Series" in collaboration with former New York assistant district attorney Robert K. Tanenbaum.

He is currently in the process of writing three more contracted non-fiction books: ALL SECURE (Hachette), FINDING ANASTASIA (Potomac) and SAVING ANNIE (WildBlue Press), as well as working on a sequel to his bestseller NO STONE UNTURNED. He is also finishing a novel, ISLAND OF WOMEN. The publishers of his previous books include: HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Pinnacle, Atrium, De Capo, and WildBlue Press.

Steve is also the co-owner of indie publisher WildBlue Press (wildbluepress.com) with partner Michael Cordova. As of July 2018, WildBlue Press will have published more than 75 books by fifty authors in true crime, crime fiction, romance, history, current events, memoir and business genres after less than four years in business. Many of these books have become award-winning bestsellers, and several have been optioned for film and television productions.

The company is rapidly expanding both the number of authors and titles, and will be moving into other genres in the Summer and Fall of 2018.

His first non-fiction book, MONSTER, a true crime, was published in October 1998 and within two weeks became a New York Times bestseller. In 2003, his World War II dramatic narrative, LUCKY LADY, received The Colorado Book Award, best biography/history, from the Colorado Center for the Book; Lucky Lady was also the runner-up that year for the Admiral Samuel Morrison Naval History Award.

In June 2013, Jackson joined forensic investigative team NecroSearch International (the group featured in NO STONE UNTURNED) searching for the remains of the Grand Duke Mikhail Romanov in Perm, Russia as part of his research for an upcoming dramatic narrative history FINDING ANASTASIA.

Honored with NecroSearch membership in 2014, he and the team returned to Russia to continue the search in 2015, 2016, 2017 and will return to conclude their search in June 2018.

Born in 1955, Jackson grew up in Hawaii and Colorado. He graduated in 1979 from Colorado State University with a BA in Journalism.

A newspaper journalist for 25 years, he worked in locales as varied as Montana, Hawaii, Guam, Micronesia, Indonesia, Indiana, Washington D.C., Florida, Oregon and Colorado. During his career with newspapers, he received numerous national and regional awards for feature writing and investigative reporting.

Outside of writing, his interests include backpacking, fly fishing, skiing, guitar, reading, softball, music, wine, beer and spending time with his family and friends.

Reviews

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars rounded up to 4 Stars.

[David Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

On the back cover, the largest print declares, "The Captain of the Santa Fe Risks his ship to save the Franklin" Naturally, I figured this would be the story of the battle that was fought on March 19, 1945, about sixty miles from the shores of Japan where the Franklin met its fate.

Instead, this book tells us the full war-time story of both these ships, from Pearl Harbor to Japan's surrender. It is told mostly through the personal stories of a handful of men on each ship. Unit histories can often come across as dry and impersonal. I don't really find the story of a ship as interesting as the stories of men. This is the story of men; tales of valor and sacrifice, tales of good luck and bad luck. This is not a dry and impersonal story, but a sometimes visceral description of naval combat.

My quibbles with this book are quite minor. There are more typographical errors than I recall of any book of this length. And it would be better if there were some maps to aid the reader.

The book has a very few photographs, a short bibliography, and an index but no notes.

[Kenneth Flusche · Rating 5 out of 5]

USS Franklin CV-13, Well that was the subject this book the answer. Almost 500 pages, covering from the birth of Radar to 911. 100s of Books (condenced) many of which I have read 1,000s of Heroes, 100,000 more who should be Heroes. The Subject could have been covered in 125 pages. But you need to read all 500 pages to understand the Who and the Why. This book comes very close to being a complete history of the US Navy WWII in the pacific. Don't forget the USS Santa Fe CL-60 who also has over a 100 pages of her uneeck history. Thank you Steve for a well written Book

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was a little thrown off as I thought this book would only focus on the near-sinking and heroic actions to save the Franklin near the end of the war, but the book was a complete history of the Franklin and the Santa Fe. While I think that background helped, it made the book a bit longer than it needed to be. Otherwise a well-researched book on that tragedy.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

I so desperately want to review this book higher, but I can't in good faith. It is a well-paced and interesting history of the USS Santa Fe and USS Franklin during WWII, leading up to and including the kamikaze hit that nearly sank the aircraft carrier Franklin. It is an enjoyable book to read. The problem is the books suffers from inadequate editing and fact-checking. Errors in the history of the war and such details would not be readily apparent to someone new to the history of WWII in the Pacific. They are glaringly apparent to a reader with a knowledge of the history and make it difficult to really enjoy the book as much as it should be enjoyed. A second edition with help from a knowledgable editor would be all it would take to clean up the book.