'Deepest shipwreck': US WWII ship found off Philippines

phys.org ^ | 06/25/2022

[devane617]

A US navy destroyer sunk during World War II has been found nearly 7,000 meters (23,000 feet) below sea level off the Philippines, making it the world's deepest shipwreck ever located, an American exploration team said.

The USS Samuel B Roberts went down during a battle off the central island of Samar on October 25, 1944 as US forces fought to liberate the Philippines—then a US colony—from Japanese occupation.

A crewed submersible filmed, photographed and surveyed the battered hull of the "Sammy B" during a series of dives over eight days this month, Texas-based undersea technology company Caladan Oceanic said.

Images showed the ship's three-tube torpedo launcher and gun mount.

"Resting at 6,895 meters, it is now the deepest shipwreck ever located and surveyed," tweeted Caladan Oceanic founder Victor Vescovo, who piloted the submersible.

"This small ship took on the finest of the Japanese Navy, fighting them to the end," he said.

According to US Navy records, Sammy B's crew "floated for nearly three days awaiting rescue, with many survivors perishing from wounds and shark attacks". Of the 224 crew, 89 died.

[centurion316]

A US navy destroyer sunk during World War II

The Samuel B. Roberts was not a destroyer, she was a destroyer escort (DE), a very big difference. DE's were designed to hunt submarines and provide air defense support. They were never intended to go after war ships. But that's what she did and she was probably the bravest ship every to hoist a commission pennant.

[pierrem15]

I’ve forgotten the battle (maybe one of the engagements around Guadalcanal), but several US destroyers took on a Japanese group with heavy cruisers and one US destroyer was so aggressive it got in close enough to a cruiser that it was below the minimum elevation of it’s main guns and kept blasting away with its 5 inch guns and even small arms.

[rlmorel]

Bfl

[JeepersFreepers]

Thanks for the book recommendation. I just ordered it and look forward to reading it.

[max americana]

“Yep! And there’s no such island as “Samara” either.”

It even says “Manira” instead of “Manila”. Was the guy who made this map dyslexic? j/k

We were at the Oriental at Leyte for a few days and nights. I recommend it..if you have $$$. My sister in law is from Cebu and she wasn’t joking when she said that every island (almost) has a hotel resort. Love the RP.

[FrankRizzo890]

My wife is from Leyte, when we go we stay with family, so I don’t know that they’d ALLOW us to stay someone other than with them.

And I agree, I love RP as well.

[gandalftb]

The gallantry of the Roberts is beyond words. Ordered into a suicidal charge, the Roberts, at flank speed sailed directly at a Jap cruiser 10 times its size and crippled that cruiser.

The Roberts expended all ammunition and torpedoes at point blank range. Her determination and sacrifice, along with the USS Johnston so rattled the Japanese fleet that they thought they were up against a much larger force and they withdrew.

Arguably the gutsiest naval attack in our history.

[rlmorel]

I have long been an amateur historian with a special affinity for Naval history, and specifically, US Naval history. Near the top of that, beyond the naval brawls between the IJN and the US Navy around the Solomon Islands in 1942, is The Battle of Leyte Gulf.

The scale of the battle was huge. The stakes were high. The sub-plots were astounding.

Halsey, itching for a fight, taking the bait, and through a common clerical error which threw gasoline on the fire, ends up to his dying days fighting what he viewed as slander by people who questioned his actions, all under the shadow of the words "The world wonders".

On the other side, almost simultaneously, the Davids of the US Navy in Taffy3 against the Goliaths of the Imperial Japanese Navy and their battleships, darting in, really, the unbelievable parallel to "The Charge of the Light Brigade".

The destroyers of Taffy 3 with bones in their teeth sailed directly at the Japanese battlewagons, their five inch guns like the sabres of the Light Brigade being flashed in the air, they "Volley'd and thunder'd" like hooves, as the superstructures of the battleships flashed with impacts. They sailed under full steam to what many of them, like the calvary in Tennyson's poem, assumed was going to be their certain death..."Someone had blunder'd".

Halsey, in full pursuit to the north, gets the communication from his boss who is trying to discreetly ask what Halsey was up to without ruffling his feathers, ending with Halsey losing it on the bridge of the New Jersey and throwing his hat to the floor in white hot anger and shame as "All the world wonder'd" in Hawaii what was going on.

Amazing drama. You could not make this up. If you wrote it as a script for a movie, it would probably be rejected as unrealistic.

And then, Typhoon Cobra just a month or two later.

With the way they could use computer graphics to recreate that, with the real, unadulterated story line from history, that would be quite the production.

"The Battle of Leyte Gulf".

I was on Bill Whittle's web site last night, and he was talking about using computer graphics to tell stories about America, Conservative stories, things we should be proud of, and one of those was a high quality computer re-creation of The Battle of Leyte Gulf as an example.

See this video:

Bill Whittle: Invisible

That got my attention! (In this short 9 min video, he has an interesting observation on the concept of reaching a component of the population which may be amenable to this approach, and why he views them as a source of potential conservative voters)

[rlmorel]

I recommend another of Hornfischer's books: Neptune's Inferno. It may be one of the best books on the subject ever written. It talks about what you referenced.

In it, he talks about how the Japanese ships were arrayed in two columns, and our ships insanely went right up between the two columns and then it turned into a melee.

It was likened to a barroom brawl, in which people were wailing away at each other in pitch, absolute blackness, and someone would randomly turn the lights for a brief instant, and then switch them off again.

The vessel you referenced was the IJN Kirishima, and the destroyer (Maybe USS Laffey...I cannot remember) was so close they were bore sighting their guns, and they could see their shells disappearing into the red hot glowing parts of the giant pagoda superstructure, and they just kept firing and firing, again and again.

Amazing.

[rlmorel]

Ah. My memory failed me...it was the IJN Hiei, and the USS Laffey. In that pass, Admiral Abe was wounded, and his Chief of Staff was killed by Laffey’s gunfire. They were firing everything they had into her, including deck mounted machine guns, they were that close.

[pierrem15]

I was thinking of the First Battle of Guadalcanal:

"the battleship Hiei and destroyer Laffey passed within 20 ft (6m) of each other."

[OKSooner]

One might say the naval equivalent of the M3 Stuart light tank.

[pierrem15]

Yup. Amazing night battle. As one participant said, it was like a barroom brawl when the lights were shot out. Unbelievable courage on the part of the American vessels. I believe the historian Samuel Eliot Morison was present on one of the ships.

[rlmorel]

Yes...the nomenclature of the battles seems to always be a source of confusion and contention.

[jmacusa]

The Samuel B Roberts, ‘The Sammy B’’ was a destroyer escort and fought hard.

The U.S.S Johnston was a full fledged destroyer commanded by
Lt. Commander Ernest Evans who fought like a lion and was posthumously for his gallantry.

[Rummyfan]

I recommend all Hornfisher's books. His one detailing the story of the USS Houston, Ship of Ghosts, was particularly good I thought.

[verum ago]

I hope someday a film might be made that gives true justice to the Battle of Leyte Gulf, especially the Battle off Samar and the destruction of the IJN South Force by ships re-floated from being sunk at Pearl Harbor.

I get chills just reading the Wikipedia article for the Battle off Samar.

Incredible, just incredible what our heritage truly is.

[JeepersFreepers]

Thank you for the recommendation. I will certainly check it out as soon as I finish my recently purchased The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors. I agree that Hornfischer is an outstanding author.

[Rummyfan]

After reading Hornfischer’s books, I was stunned by the hell that was surface warfare in The Pacific in WWII.

[SunkenCiv]

This topic was posted 6/25/2022, thanks devane617.

Caladan Oceanic returns to the ocean battlefield off of Samar, and resumes its search for American vessels lost during the battle. After an extensive search, the team finds the deepest wreck ever found on the seafloor, that of the Destroyer Escort Samuel B "Sammy B" Roberts. The vessel was lost after a ferocious fight with the cream of the Imperial Japanese Navy in the largest overall naval battle of World War II, the 1994 Battle of the Philippine Sea.

The Deepest Wreck Ever Located: The Destroyer Escort Samuel B Roberts
Caladan Oceanic | July 19, 2022