I built a 1/350 scale model of the USS Gambier Bay and was convinced by the survivors of that heroic ship to donate the model to the MacArthur Museum in Norfolk VA.
God bless you for doing so.
Very few people know about that battle off Samar, and the heroic efforts not only of the Taffy Jeep carriers, but particularly the destroyers who convinced the Japanese Admiral that he had run into the main force of cruisers and battleships...and so he turned away when he was on the cusp of a great victory at the anchorage for the invasion force of the Philippines.
It was too late for it to have changed the outcome of the war...but a lot of Americans would have died, and it would have delayed things.
Very few people appreciate how hard fought the war in the Pacific was, and how, early on, what a near thing it was.
My Dad, who was a combat office in the navy in the PTO in the war, made sure his sons were not among those who did not understand.
God bless you for doing so.
Very few people know about that battle off Samar, and the heroic efforts not only of the Taffy Jeep carriers, but particularly the destroyers who convinced the Japanese Admiral that he had run into the main force of cruisers and battleships...and so he turned away when he was on the cusp of a great victory at the anchorage for the invasion force of the Philippines.
It was too late for it to have changed the outcome of the war...but a lot of Americans would have died, and it would have delayed things.
Very few people appreciate how hard fought the war in the Pacific was, and how, early on, what a near thing it was.
My Dad, who was a combat office in the navy in the PTO in the war, made sure his sons were not among those who did not understand.