St. Lo and Taffy 3 under attack
Posted on 05/30/2003 5:33:25 AM PDT by SAMWolf
So is this!!! I have deleated all cookies and rebooted this computer enough to melt her down. If this posts 3 times the problem MUST BE AT FR!!! It works great everwhere else. Any help from FR would be appreciated.
Thanks
So is this!!! I have deleated all cookies and rebooted this computer enough to melt her down. If this posts 3 times the problem MUST BE AT FR!!! It works great everwhere else. Any help from FR would be appreciated.
Thanks
In less than a minute the JOHNSTON was zigzagging between the six little escort carriers and the Japanese fleet and putting out a smoke screen over a 2,500-yard front to conceal the carriers from enemy gunners. "Even as we began laying smoke, the Japanese started lobbing shells at us and the JOHNSTON had to zigzag between splashes. (In this sort of long range naval gunnery, the shooter watches his shell splashes and the target movement and tries to shoot so that when his shells land they land on the enemy. The shooter shoots at a different spot than where his previous fire landed, since the enemy wasn't there then. So JOHNSTON would go at full speed to where the Japanese shells had landed, because that was the last place the next shells would land.) We were the first destroyer to make smoke, the first to start firing, the first to launch a torpedo attack." For the first 20 minutes, the Johnston was helpless while in range of the enemy cruisers and battleships , but her 5-inch guns could not yet reach them. She charged forward to close the enemy, first a line of seven Japanese destroyers, next one light and three heavy Japanese cruisers as well as several destroyers.
As soon as the range closed, JOHNSTON opened her 5-inch battery on the nearest cruiser, scoring damaging hits. About this time an 8" shell landed right off her bow, its red dye splashing the face of the gunnery officer, LT. Robert C. Hagen.
In 5 furious minutes the JOHNSTON pumped 200 rounds at the enemy, then Commander Evans ordered, "Fire Torpedoes!" The destroyer got off 10 torpedoes then whipped around to retire behind a heavy smoke screen. When she came out of the smoke a minute later, the Japanese cruiser Kumano could be seen burning furiously from torpedo hits, and would later sink.
But the JOHNSTON took three 14-inch shell hits from a battleship followed closely by three 6-inch shells from a light cruiser. The hits resulted in the loss of all power to the steering engine, all power to the three 5-inch guns in the after part of the ship, and rendered the gyro compass useless.
Through sheer luck a rainstorm came up, and the JOHNSTON was shielded for about ten minutes of rapid repairs and salvage work.
At 7:50 a.m., the destroyers were ordered to launch a torpedo attack, but the JOHNSTON had already expended her torpedoes. With one engine she couldn't keep up with the others, but that wasn't Commander Evans way of fighting. "We'll go in with the destroyers and provide fire support," he boomed. The JOHNSTON went in, dodging salvos and blasting back.
As she charged out of the blinding smoke, she was pointed straight at the bridge of USS HEERMANN(DD-532). "All engines back full" bellowed Commander Evans. That meant one engine for the JOHNSTON which could hardly do more than slow her down, but the HEERMANN’s two engines managed to prevent a collision. The JOHNSTON missed her by less than 10 feet. Now there was so much smoke that Commander Evans ordered no firing unless the gunnery officer could see the target.
At 0820, there suddenly appeared out of the smoke a 30,000-ton Kongo-class battleship, only 7,000 yards off the port beam. “I took one look at the unmistakable pagoda mast and opened fire. In 40 seconds we shot 30 rounds. At least 15 of which hit the pagoda superstructure.”
The JOHNSTON soon observed the USS GAMBIER BAY(CVE-73) under fire from a cruiser. Commander Evans then gave one of the most courageous orders ever heard: “Commence firing on that cruiser, draw her fire on us and away from the GAMBIER BAY". The JOHNSTON scored four hits in a deliberate slug match with a heavy cruiser then broke off from the futile battle when the Japanese destroyer squadron was seen closing rapidly on the American escort carriers. The JOHNSTON outfought the entire Japanese destroyer squadron, concentrating on the lead ship until the enemy quit cold, then concentrated on the second destroyer until the remaining enemy units broke off to get out of effective gun range. The JOHNSTON took a hit that knocked out one forward gun, damaged another, and her bridge was rendered untenable by fires and explosions resulting from a hit in her 40-mm ready ammunition locker. Commander Evans shifted his command to the Johnston 's fantail, yelling orders through an open hatch to men turning her rudder by hand. Evans was shirtless, the shirt torn from his body by enemy explosions on the bridge. His right hand was gone. The destroyer battled desperately to keep the Japanese destroyers and cruisers from reaching the five surviving American carriers.
“We were now in a position where all the gallantry and guts in the world couldn't save us, but we figured that help for the carrier must be on the way, and every minute's delay might count. By 0930 we were going dead in the water, even the Japanese couldn't miss us. They made a sort of running semi-circle around our ship, shooting at us. Our lone engine and fire room was knocked out, we lost all power, and even the indomitable skipper knew we were finished.”
At 0945, Commander Evans gave the saddest order a captain can give; "Abandon Ship!" At 1010, the JOHNSTON rolled over and began to sink. A Japanese destroyer came up to 1,000 yards and fired a final shot into her to make sure she went down. That was the end of the USS JOHNSTON. From the JOHNSTON’s complement of 327, only 144 were saved.
Of the 183 lost, about 50 were killed by enemy action, 45 died on rafts from battle injuries; and 92, including Commander Evans, were alive in the water after the JOHNSTON sank, but were never heard from again.
When Commander Evans and JOHNSTON started their first attack against the whole Japanese battle line, Evans told the crew over the 1MC (ship's loudspeaker system) what they were going to do and told the crew that "There can be no expectation of survival."
This is my favorite Navy story. It is told to tell the story of men who did their duty to the everlasting glory of every person who goes in harm's way for his people and country.
If I have not done a satisfactory job in explaining technical details it is my fault.
I understood it so now you can be sure you did a good job!
Thanks for the kind words.
There are JOHNSTON - HOEL - ROBERTS vets out there at websites who will exchange emails with a serious writer. It has happened to me.
What those destroyers, destroyer escorts and those escort carriers did in facing the main striking force of the Japanese was phenominal.
The Japanese had lured Halsey's Task Force 38 off with all the fast carriers and the heavy battleships to chase and engage the remaining Japanese carriers (which had very few aircraft). This left Admiral Kurita's very strong center force a relatively unopposed passage to get at the anchorage for all of the transports, supply ships, oiler, ammo ships and landing craft supporting the invasion of the Phillipines in Leyte Gulf. The Japanese actually pulled off an unbelievable ruse and were in a position with their battleships, heavy cruisers and destroyers to reak havoc on those American support ships.
All that stood in their way...and they were directly in their way at close quarters, as you have described SamWolf, were the three destroyers, four destroyer escorts and six "baby flat tops" of Taffy 3.
Those destroyers and destroyer escorts attacked strait into the teeth of those larger vessels so vigorously and so valiently that the Japanese misttok the destroyers for cruisers and the DE's for destroyers. The few aircraft from the Jeep carriers attacked so heroically and effectively that the Japanese thought they had run into Halseys TF 38 with the large carriers. It was not without cost to America ... ultimately three of the smaller ships and two of the carriers were sunk with over 1100 killed and over 900 injured.
But the Japanese turned tail after losing three heavy cruisers. Had they pressed their attack, it is likely they would have turned the corner and entered Leyte Gulf and caused untold damage...but they were scared off by American fighting spirit.
Here's one of my favorite quotes. It is a quote by one of the CO's, Lt. Commander R. W. Copeland, who survivied the sinking of his destroyer escort, the USS Samuel Roberts, where he talked about his men:
To wintess the conduct of the average enlisted man on board this vessel...with an average of less than one year's service, would make any man proud to be an average American. The crew was informed over the loud speaker system at the beginning of the action of the C.O.'s estimate of the situation...a fight against overwhelming odds from which survival could not be expected, during which time we would do what damage we could.
In the face of this knowledge the men zealously manned their stations and fought and worked with such clamness, courage and efficiency that no higher honor could be concieved that to command such a group." - The Two-Ocean War, Samuel Eliot Morison
Such was the action that day. God bless them everyone, particularly the over 1130 Americans who died that day and were received back to His bosom.
Pizza's here, time for dinner. See ya later.
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