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On this date in the history of our Navy
https://www.navy.mil/search/display_history.asp ^

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.


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To: Bull Snipe

I am amazed that the Leyte Gulf saga has never been made into a movie.


21 posted on 10/25/2020 6:48:13 AM PDT by M1903A1 ("We shed all that is good and virtuous for that which is shoddy and sleazy...and call it progress")
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To: Bull Snipe

I am getting a 404 error.


22 posted on 10/25/2020 7:04:25 AM PDT by minnesota_bound (homeless guy. He just has more money....He the master will plant more cotton for the democrat party)
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To: alexander_busek

Mostly U-Boat based encounters. The Nazis were unable to get their ships to sea effectively once allied air power began getting a foothold, IMO.


23 posted on 10/25/2020 7:06:23 AM PDT by rlmorel ("Leftism is the plaything of a society with too much time on its hands." - Candace Owens)
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To: Afterguard

Great author and that is indeed a great book. Even better, IMO, is “Neptune’s Inferno” about the Naval battles around Guadalcanal when the USN and IJN were battling from a position of relative parity.

Surface warfare between ships was violent, brutal, and barbaric.


24 posted on 10/25/2020 7:09:54 AM PDT by rlmorel ("Leftism is the plaything of a society with too much time on its hands." - Candace Owens)
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To: oldvirginian

Graf Zepplin, German Aircraft Carrier. Laid down, but never quite completed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_aircraft_carrier_Graf_Zeppelin


25 posted on 10/25/2020 9:11:23 AM PDT by redlegplanner ( No Representation without Taxation)
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To: Bull Snipe

If you ever want to see the evidence of the hand of God in war, study the Battle of Leyte Gulf.

But then the same can be said about Midway.


26 posted on 10/25/2020 10:26:18 AM PDT by Arlis
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To: Bull Snipe
During the Battle off Cape Engaño, 3rd Fleet carrier aircraft, surface ships and submarines strike the Japanese Northern Force off northeastern Luzon

TURKEY TROTS TO WATER GG FROM CINCPAC ACTION COM THIRD FLEET INFO COMINCH CTF SEVENTY-SEVEN X WHERE IS RPT WHERE IS TASK FORCE THIRTY FOUR RR THE WORLD WONDERS

27 posted on 10/25/2020 10:31:45 AM PDT by Jim Noble
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To: redlegplanner

Yeah, I’ve been made aware of the Graf Zeppelin and the other two planned carriers.
Hitler, however, showed a great lack of foresight by not rushing completion of the naval air arm before he started his land war. Would have made a big difference dealing with the British navy.


28 posted on 10/25/2020 10:53:54 AM PDT by oldvirginian (Behind enemy lines in Virginiagrad.)
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To: Jim Noble

Halsey fell for it.


29 posted on 10/25/2020 11:33:57 AM PDT by Bull Snipe
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To: Bull Snipe
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.

Taffy 3 Rules!!!


30 posted on 10/25/2020 12:04:14 PM PDT by kiryandil (Chris Wallace: Because someone has to drive the Clown Car)
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To: oldvirginian

My favorite what -if is the question of what might have happened if he had used the steel and labor on the Bismarck and Tirpitz for U-bots


31 posted on 10/25/2020 12:16:48 PM PDT by redlegplanner ( No Representation without Taxation)
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To: redlegplanner

by late 1944, that steel would have still lay on the bottom of the Atlantic ocean.


32 posted on 10/25/2020 12:28:28 PM PDT by Bull Snipe
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To: redlegplanner

Hitler was absorbed by building a surface fleet to rival the Brits. As a consequence he went to war with only 56 U-boats, only 24 of those were capable of operating in the North Atlantic.
https://www.navyhistory.org.au/british-and-german-submarine-statistics-of-world-war-ii/#:~:text=THE%20GERMAN%20NAVY%20commenced%20World%20War%20II%20with,or%20other%20causes.%20The%20first%20British%20submarine.%201906

I read somewhere that the Kriegsmarine wanted 150 U-boats before the war started but Plan Z, the plan to build surface ship parity with England, took priority until the war started.

Hitler also had a fondness for huge rail car guns that took huge resources to build, maintain, move, fire and guard.
The Schwerer Gustav weighed 1,000 long tons supported by eight bogies on two parallel railway tracks. Each of the bogies had 5 axles, giving a total of 40 axles (80 wheels).
It had a huge crew to move it, a huge crew to fire it and about a regiment to guard it.
What if all that steel had been put into trucks and halftracks to move troops with the armored columns?

An awful lot of what ifs can be thought up when it comes to WW2.


33 posted on 10/25/2020 1:28:55 PM PDT by oldvirginian (Behind enemy lines in Virginiagrad.)
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