Posted on 10/25/2020 3:38:23 AM PDT by Bull Snipe
1944 U.S. and Australian warships maul the advancing enemy with torpedoes and heavy guns during the Battle of Surigao Strait in the midst of the Battle of Leyte Gulf. The Japanese lose battleships Fuso and Yamashiro, plus three destroyers. The Battle of Surigao Strait marks the end of an era in naval warfare -- it was the last engagement of a battle line.
During the Battle off Samar in the midst of the Battle of Leyte Gulf, four Japanese battleships, eight cruisers and 11 destroyers surprise U.S. Navy Task Unit 77.4.3 consisting of six escort carriers, three destroyers, and four destroyer escorts. Despite their great inferiority in numbers, speed and fire power, U.S. airmen and surface sailors fight heroically to defend their carriers.
During the Battle off Cape Engaño, 3rd Fleet carrier aircraft, surface ships and submarines strike the Japanese Northern Force off northeastern Luzon. The Japanese lose aircraft carriers Zuikaku, Zuiho, Chitose and Chiyoda, as well as a light cruiser and two destroyers.
I love the Pacific theater history of WWII. Many a brave sailor.
Question: Were there any notable engagements at all between U.S. naval forces and Axis forces in the Atlantic?
And if not: Why not?
Regards,
Dang. Link is broken :(
If you consider the U-Boats and the damaged they caused, yes Axis Naval Battles did take place, but Germany outside of U-Boats didn’t really have a Navy comparable to the Japanese....
Plus I don’t recall the Germans having any Aircraft carriers or a Naval Aviation force....
Sorry, that page is missing.
navsource.org
The US Pacific fleet was larger than all the other Navies of the world at the end of WW 2.
***just an overview, not all inclusive***
Germany didn’t have much of a navy in WW2. The Treaty of Versailles, which ended WW1, strictly forbid Germany from having a navy of enough size to be a threat to European powers. The navy Germany had at the end of WW1 had to be turned over to the English to be scuttled.
When Hitler came to power he started building a navy but concentrated on U boats and battleships.
In many ways he was stuck in the past, the battleship era. He built the super battleships Bismarck, Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Tirpitz. Unfortunately for the German navy he completely dismissed the thought of naval air power. Germany never even laid a keel for an aircraft carrier. Very short sighted of old Adolph.
Germany did have luck with commerce raiders. Cruisers disguised to look like commerce ships. When they came close to an allied ship involved in commerce or supply shipping they would drop their false siding and open fire on the slower, unarmed allied ship. Very effective but limited as they sailed alone and were hunted down and sunk during the war.
Other than that the German navy relied on the U boats which were very effective until the allies developed the technology to combat them.
I do too. There is a superb book about these engagements in the Samar straits, “The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors” by James D. Hornfischer. It is one of the most remarkable books about some of the most remarkable Americans that I have ever read.
The Germans had been reduced to submarine warfare by 1941. The Bismark , the Graf Spee were the most notable, along with several cruisers, but their surface navy was never comparable t9 the British, let alone the American. The Graf Spee was ultimately boxed in and scuttled off Montevideo. A significant amount of the German surface force was destroyed when trapped in a fiord following the invasion of Norway. The Bismark was sunk by a task force. German converted merchant ships preyed on convoys but had limited effect. With the ultimate destruction of most of the surface ships, by 1942, the remaining German battleships and cruisers were focused on Russian convoy raiding.
I read the book ...
The Battle of Midway gets all the press, but the Battle of Leyte Gulf showed the United States Navy at its finest.
Especially the actions of the destroyers of Taffy 3 on the third day.
sorry.... check out the graf zeppelin class aircraft carrier... she was launched but never put into service. the nazis laid 3 keels for carriers. 2 were never completed
Not that I am aware of. The Brits pretty much took care of the German, French, and Italian surface fleets. We were up to our butts in convoy escort and anti-submarine work throughout the war in the Atlantic. During the North African invasion, the USS Massachusetts fired its main battery at the French battleship Jean Bart. But that was the only big ship to ship shoot out involving U.S. Navy forces in the Atlantic. Our battleships and cruisers provided gun fire support for the North African, Sicilian, Italian, Southern France and Normandy invasions.
This site can’t be reached
navsurce.org’s server IP address could not be found.
Oh, well.
This is a remarkable page in our Navy's history.
Mea culpa...
I stand corrected on the NAZI carriers.
The Graf Zeppelin was launched but only reached 85% completion. From my limited reading it was used as a storage vessel and had to be towed from port to port.
Unfortunately Hitler started the war before the GZ could be completed, sealing it’s fate.
I have read that one as well, a remarkable tale.
The problem is on your end, i was just there moments ago.
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