The account of this battle is enough to warm the heart of this old destroyerman. The account of the battle is so real you can almost smell the gunpowder and hear the explosions. The green crews of the three destroyers certainly got their baptism of fire! After such a knock down drag out fight they had to have become battle hardened veterans from then on.
As one who has read much WW2 history, I wonder why I had never read about this raid. It ranks right up there with the famous David vs Goliath, destroyer vs battleship and cruisers battle of Leyte Gulf (”The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors).
This was a major disaster for Japanese forces. The three U.S. destroyers apparently expended their entire stock of 5” ammo on that place, literally thousands of rounds in a target-rich environment. There’s no way to believe any air raid could have done as much damage.