Microsoft billionaire finds wreck of legendary Japanese battleship Musashi: [truncated]

To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; decimon; 1010RD; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; ...

41 posted on 03/04/2015 4:04:16 PM PST by SunkenCiv (What do we want? REGIME CHANGE! When do we want it? NOW!)

BTW I wonder why the article keeps mentioning ‘combined US/Australia’ forces.

While it's certainly absolutely reasonable to say that the Australian force was significantly smaller than the US one, it was significantly more than just a token force - two heavy cruisers - HMAS Australia and HMAS Shropshire, and eleven smaller vessels of the Royal Australian Navy were part of the combined force. But what actually generally leads to it being referred to as a combined force is the presence of the combined US/Australian Task Force 74 as part of the overall fleet. Task Force 74 was under the command of an Australian, Commodore (later Vice Admiral Sir) John Collins. Australia was hit by the first known Kamikaze attack in history, and Commodore Collins was severely wounded. HMAS Australia's Captain, Captain Emile Dechaineux, one of Australia's greatest naval heroes was killed.

Only one ship of the (British) Royal Navy was present - HMS Ariadne, which had been placed at the disposal of the US Seventh Fleet.

42 posted on 03/04/2015 4:40:27 PM PST by naturalman1975 ("America was under attack. Australia was immediately there to help." - John Winston Howard)

To: naturalman1975

Ship for ship the Australians matched any similar ship in the US navy, no doubt. The Australian navy distinguished itself in the Pacific war.

But the US had nearly 300 warships at Leyte gulf.

43 posted on 03/04/2015 5:22:16 PM PST by skeeter

I agree the US force at the Battle of Leyte Gulf was larger than Australia's by a very significant margin. But I still think it's an error to describe the Australian force as a token force. Australian ships were integrated into the US Seventh Fleet - in fact, most of the Royal Australian Navy was part of the US Seventh Fleet at the time. And the force was regarded at the time as a combined task force. That was actually fairly rare.

44 posted on 03/04/2015 5:48:36 PM PST by naturalman1975 ("America was under attack. Australia was immediately there to help." - John Winston Howard)

To: naturalman1975

On second thought I can understand those Australians having served in that battle being offended at being referred to as a ‘token’ force. A poor choice of words.

45 posted on 03/04/2015 5:52:14 PM PST by skeeter

You are right! I can’t wait to see more.

46 posted on 03/06/2015 5:35:11 AM PST by Constitution Day

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