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Posted on 11/10/2025 11:21:15 PM PST by ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas
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“The Night the Giants Rode”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyxpSVy7MYo
The Unauthorized History of the Pacific War tells the story of Adm. Willis “Ching” Lee and USS Washington (BB-56) vs Kirishima.
“CHING LEE COMING THROUGH!”
It wasn’t. They still relied on optics. That’s why they had the “pagoda” style masts was for fire control.
Neptune’s Inferno is a good read. The Japanese were excellent ship handlers, but their leadership had flawed strategic planning.
Thanks DDDfD!
Radar ranging was on some US ships quite early; Admiral Willis Lee used them to great effect off Guadalcanal late 1942.
Note the Kirishima near the left edge:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironbottom_Sound#/media/File:Wrecks_in_the_Ironbottom_Sound.jpg
It would have been awesome to be on that ship when it fired. >> I took my dad to visit the NJ here in Philly. He was on the Iowa during Korea. They have a film called “firepower” amazing. and there is a metal housing on the stern of the ship that was dented by the concussion blast of one of the firings.
Drachinifel’s channel on YouTube has a good episode on Admiral Lee.
The “moving sideways” claim isn’t supported by facts - even though various pictures make it *seem* like such movement is real.
Think about it this way - IF the firing of the 16 inchers was strong enough to move the ship sideways, the forces involved would have destroyed the ship.
Damn shame we had to do all that to defeat Japan, only to wind up with Mao Tse-Tung in China.
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Agree. When this story occurred (before the battle of the Philipine Sea -The Mariana Turkey Shoot-), the US was already winning the war. But it shows what would have happened if Japan had tried to fight a surface battle.
Ever heard of the BISMARCK?
No. Japan had some fortified batteries on Okinawa island and some US destroyers were sunk, some because of Kamikazes. USS carrier Franklin was heavily damaged.
The Bismarck was disabled by a very slow British bomber and could not escape.
Japanese optical rangefinders and fire control systems were superior to American. Their rangefinders had a much wider baseline than ours.
American RADAR rangefinders and fire control systems were the best in the world, bar none, and far exceeded the effectiveness of the Japanese optical systems. We put RADAR fire control on any ship that could support it ... which, by 1944, meant every warship in the fleet.
And saved the South Dakota from getting sunk itself due to all the electrical failures she was experiencing.
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