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Hope you have a nice Fourth of July. Maybe you'll watch the fireworks, grill a few hot dogs, give a little thanks to those keeping watch — now and then. Dave Cohea knows where he was on the Fourth of July in 1944: on board the USS Boston, which was shelling the island of Iwo Jima, softening it up for invasion the following spring. The Boston was Cohea's second ship, the first having been blasted out of the water 18 months earlier at Guadalcanal. "We were torpedoed. The ammo blew up, and fuel was all over me," says Cohea, 85,...

Copyright 2002 Financial Times Information All rights reserved Global News Wire Copyright 2002 Philippine Daily Inquirer Philippine Daily Inquirer October 19, 2002 SECTION: 16 LENGTH: 1451 words HEADLINE: LEYTE WARTIME TALES REFUSE TO DIE BYLINE: Vicente S. Labro, Dulag, Leyte BODY: THEY don't make World War II movies anymore, nor are books about the Japanese occupation and the liberation of the Philippines ever written again. And because of old age, local war veterans now only have hazy recollection of the historic events. But wartime tales still abound in Leyte, based on stories told and retold earlier by the war veterans...

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The US navy started WW-II with leftover destroyers. The destroyers we were building towards the end of WW-II were vastly more powerful. Two or three of them in groups would amount to something like the secondary (5") battery of an Iowa class battleship. This was with radar, radar fire control, and significant AA capabilities, along with torpedoes and depth charges. In the middle of the campaign to retake the Phillipines, there occurred one of the more astonishing stories I've ever read or heard, in which three such ships basically sailed into Ormoc Bay, and essentially fired off their entire ammo...

FREDERICKSBURG — Adm. William Halsey has been blamed unfairly for his actions during World War II's Battle of Leyte Gulf, scholars said Sunday at a symposium marking the battle's coming 60th anniversary. The symposium at Fredericksburg High School featured authors and survivors of the four-day battle, the largest ever fought at sea. Despite the problems often cited, the Navy on Oct. 23-26, 1944, finished the Imperial Japanese Navy as an effective fighting force. Halsey, commander of the 3rd Fleet, and Adm. Thomas Kinkaid, commander of the 7th Fleet, were under a divided command structure that sowed confusion, Sunday's scholars said....

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In an excerpt from 'Sea of Thunder,' a new book about Leyte Gulf, the largest naval engagement in history, men pay the human price of war. A true sea story. Nov. 13, 2006 issue - During the Second World War, it was very unusual to be standing on the deck of an American warship and actually see a Japanese vessel. Most sea battles in the Pacific War were fought at night or from great distances¡ªby carrier-based planes flying many miles from their ships. But shortly after dawn on the morning of October 25, 1944, the men of the USS Johnston,...

Battle off Samar near the island of Leyte in the Philippines, during World War 2. Shows the Battle off Samar which was the central action of the Battle of Leyte Gulf. It took place in the Philippine Sea off Samar Island near the island of Leyte in the Philippines on October 25th 1944. US air forces launch a counterattack on the enemy's ground forces. Animated map shows heavy battle between Allied naval-air forces and Japanese naval-air forces. Allied AA guns fire at Japanese kamikaze suicide dive bombers. One of the dive bombers strikes an Allied destroyer and sinks it. The...

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James Hornfischer talked about the role of Commander Ernest Evans and his destroyer, the USS Johnston, during the 1944 Battle of Leyte Gulf. The ship was sunk during the battle, and Commander Evans was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor by Congress. In October, 1944, U.S. and Australian forces faced the Japanese Navy in the Philippine Sea. The four day Battle of Leyte Gulf was considered one of the largest naval conflicts of World War II.

Battle 360 Episode 9 -"Battle of Leyte Gulf"

    Battle off Samar, October 25, 1944    "In no engagement of its entire history has the United States Navy shown more gallantry, guts and gumption than in those two morning hours between 0730 and 0930 off Samar" — Rear Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison History of United States Naval Operations in World War II Volume XII, Leyte  The escort carrier USS Gambier Bay, burning from earlier gunfire damage, is bracketed by a salvo from a Japanese cruiser (visible in the background,) shortly before sinking during the Battle off Samar. The Battle off Samar was the centermost action of...

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. ...................................................................................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel...

The Battle of Leyte Gulf was the biggest and most multifaceted naval battle in history. It involved hundreds of ships, nearly 200,000 participants, and spanned more than 100,000 square miles. Some of the largest and most powerful ships ever built were sunk, and thousands of men went to the bottom of the sea with them. Every facet of naval warfare—air, surface, subsurface, and amphibious—was involved in this great struggle, and the weapons used included bombs of every type, guns of every caliber, torpedoes, mines, rockets, and even a forerunner of the modern guided missile. But more than mere size...

Today is the anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt (wiki) in 1415, when the English under King Henry V defeated the French on St. Crispin's Day (25 October) of that year. Henry (1387-1422) followed his father King Henry IV to the throne in 1413 and two years later announced his claim to the French throne and rekindled the Hundred Years War by invading Normandy. This is also the anniversary of the "the charge of the Light Brigade" (wiki) at the Battle of Balaclava on 25 October 1854. Although of relatively little importance in the larger context of the Crimean War,...

I used to be a tin can sailor. Great book. Like most books, it reinforces how the admirals were wrong. But that's easy to say 60 years after the fact. As Nelson DeMille said, anyone can be a military genius with the benefit of hindsight. I continue to be amazed that the Yamato and Musashi were able to shoot 3,200 lb. shells a distance of 26 miles. In my day, we did that with missiles.