“Makes you wonder how they lost so bad at Leyte Gulf with a weapon like that Long Lance”
Leyte Gulf was actually 3 battles. One was a carrier v. carrier battle. The second was US Battleships “crossing the Tee” of a Japanese battlegroup emerging from a narrow strait (not much of a chance to deploy torpedoes there). And the 3rd battle was a run & gun affair between another Japanese battlegroup and Taffy-3 — a group of Jeep Carriers guarded by destroyers & destroyer-escorts. The only ones shooting torpedoes in that last engagement were the US DD’s & DE’s.
Japanese destroyers also fired torpedoes at the carriers, Johnston helped to mess up their attack. I believe it was her last action before sinking.
A few destroyers and destroyer escorts going toe to toe with Japanese heavy cruisers at Leyte was near unimaginable heroism.