1944 Naval Battle of Leyte Gulf

C-Span ^ | October 1st 2014 | James Hornfischer

[laplata]

It’s true.

[yarddog]

Jeep carriers were small, inexpensive to build, carriers which were constructed on the hulls of Liberty ships.

At least I think that is right.

[rabidralph]

Thanks.

[Secret Agent Man]

my gramps was there on an aircraft carrier. our side. /s

[jmacusa]

In my opinion ‘’The Last Stand Of The Tin Can Sailors’’ was the US Navy's finest moment. Those men, kids really, most just 18 and 19 years stood their ground and shot the piss out of a larger enemy force and sent it running. Of particular note was the destroyer U.S.S Johnston and it's captain. That ship just hung in there like a bulldog and kept on shooting.

[yarddog]

I agree.

[yarddog]

They did not just fight against overwhelming odds, they fought successfully. They also paid a high price for their victory.

[jmacusa]

“Jeep carriers’’ were smaller versions of what were called ‘’’fleet carriers’’. They were usually converted transport ships, lightly armored and with planes whose main job was anti-submarine warfare.

[jmacusa]

But what they did was prevent that Japanese force from shelling the landings in the Philippines.

[Boowhoknew]

The last battleship to battleship fight.I was 11 years old when I saw a Comic Book about the Battle of Leyte Gulf, and I talked my dad, a veteran of the Marines in WW2 into buying it for me. (Dell Combat Number 24 1967) I was wild about battleships.
Is your dad still alive?
Boowhoknew

[rabidralph]

Thanks, again. A friend of mine's father was on a "jeep" that was sunk during some Pacific battle. I'll have to ask her which it was. She said her dad never wanted to talk about it.

That was a very enjoyable lecture, btw.

[AppyPappy]

The Japs were afraid of torpedoes and rightfully so.

[gaijin]

Gotta see this..!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUxb1Kj_rrI

[jmacusa]

Don’t know why. The Japs had an excellent torpedo called the “Long Lance’’.

[Colonel_Flagg]

I’ve “read up” on the battle and had first hand accounts of it from my FIL, who spent two days wounded in the water after being sunk by a Japanese battleship.

Anyhow, it may have been true in the case of the Johnston but was most assuredly not true in his case.

[AppyPappy]

It’s hard to hit a destroyer with one in a pitched battle but a battleship is easier. .

[jmacusa]

Yeah, you’re right. The Japs just seemed to go all willy-nilly that October day. Instead of attacking in line Admiral Kurita ordered a general attack and the Japs seemed to stumble and weave about all over the ocean like Godzilla was chasing them and weren’t very effective.

[PLMerite]

[X Fretensis]

He passed away in 2010. He enlisted in the Navy in 1940.
His first ship was USS Yorktown CV5. He was on her when she was sunk at Midway. He was reassigned to West Virginia. His first assignment on WEEVEE was to muck mud out of the engine rooms. He told me that during the course of the work they found 8 bodies of sailors killed when she was sunk.

[X Fretensis]

She was raised off the Pearl Harbor bottom mid May of 42.
She was made sea worth and sailed for Bremeton Naval Ship Yard in mid May 1943. Modernization was completed in July 1944. She finished in the war anchored in Tokyo Bay a few hundred yard from the USS Missouri during Jap surrender ceremony.