Posted on 11/04/2019 8:25:22 AM PST by robowombat
Wreck of Famed WWII Destroyer USS Johnston May Have Been Found
By: Ben Werner October 30, 2019 5:15 PM • Updated: October 31, 2019 4:29 PM
The following post has been updated to correct the number of ships involved in the Battle of Samar.
A few days past the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Samar, researchers from Vulcan Inc.’s research vessel R/V Petrel believe they’ve found wreckage from the engagement’s famed Fletcher-class destroyer, USS Johnston (DD-557).
Images of twisted metal, a destroyed deck gun, a propeller shaft and other less recognizable debris were posted to Petrel’s Facebook page Wednesday, with a video narrated by Rob Kraft, Vulcan’s director of subsea operations, and Paul Mayer a submersible pilot with the team started by the late billionaire and philanthropist Paul Allen.
“This wreck is completely decimated,” Kraft says in the video. “It is just debris. There is no hull structure.”
Petrel’s crew found the wreckage about 20,400 feet below the water’s surface, just at the edge of a steep undersea precipice and at a depth that pushes the limit of their underwater search equipment.
Without finding identifying material – such as a portion of the hull with the hull number 557, other equipment with the ship’s name, personal effects of the crew – positively identifying the wreckage as Johnston is difficult, Robert Neyland, the Naval History and Heritage Command’s Underwater Archaeology Branch Head, told USNI News.
Neyland, who was familiar with Petrel’s search efforts, explained researchers might have enough evidence to confirm the wreckage is from a Fletcher-class destroyer. However, when Johnston sunk, another Fletcher-class ship, USS Hoel (DD-533), was also in the area.
“There was a lot of confusion in that battle,” Neyland said.
Some of the wreckage appears to be equipment such as blast shields behind guns that researchers know were on Hoel, based on old photos of the ship. Equipment could have been added to Johnston after the few confirmed pictures of the destroyer were taken, Neyland said.
The location of the wreckage, in the southern part of the area where the battle took place, suggests the wreck is Johnston, Kraft said. Johnston was the last ship to sink.
On Oct. 25, 1944, a Japanese force of four battleships, six heavy cruisers, two light cruisers, and 11 destroyers surprised a U.S. task unit. The Japanese force was trying to run-down six U.S. small escort carriers, three destroyers including Johnston and four destroyer escorts defending the north Leyte Gulf, east of Samar, retired Rear Adm. Samuel Cox, director of the Naval History and Heritage Command, told USNI News.
“Johnston, under Cmdr. (Ernest) Evans was the first on to conduct an attempted torpedo attack on the Japanese force,” Cox said. “Evans made the attack without waiting for orders to do so because he knew it was clear that unless he did something, the Japanese were going to run down the slower U.S. force, and they had the power to wipe it out.”
Evans knew his ship and the others in the task unit were outgunned, yet he attacked anyway, Cox said. In hindsight, such action isn’t surprising. A year earlier, Evans predicted he’d take such actions during Johnston’s commissioning.
“This is going to be a fighting ship. I intend to go in harm’s way, and anyone who doesn’t want to go along had better get off right now,” Evans said at Johnston’s commissioning in Seattle on Oct. 27, 1943, according to the Naval History and Heritage Command.
Of the crew of 327 men, 141 survived the battle. Of the 186 sailors lost, 50 were killed by enemy action, 45 died from battle injuries on rafts, and 92 men – including Evans – were alive in the water after Johnston sank but were never seen again, according to the Naval History and Heritage Command.
Johnston was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation. Evans, a 1931 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy who was believed to be the third Native American graduate, was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, Cox said.
“He also said that he would never run from a fight, and on the 25th of October, 1944, he proved true to his word,” Cox said.
If one wonders what the total destruction of a warship might look like, watch the entire video. Only the twin 5/38 inch gun turrets survived intact. There are only scattered bits of metal which are probably the remains of the hull.
Halsey was Ozawa’s bitch.
When the powder rooms went whole ships would come apart, I’m actually more suprised that a lot of the other wrecks that have been located weren’t in similar situations.
The Fletcher class destroyers has single 5” mounts, not twins.
The video from the wreck can be found on YouTube. The critical commentary that is missing from this article is the discussion and evidence of external paint scheme. Two Fletcher Class destroyers were lost in this area. The debris clearly came from a Fletcher Class ship. Only one of those was painted blue, the color that can be seen on the debris. That would be the USS Johnston. Curious that the USNI article omits that evidence.
Brave, brave crew and captain. Heroes all of them!
The action off of Samar Island by the sailors of Taffy 3, commanded by Adm. Clifton Sprague, was the most heroic action in the history of the US Navy, indeed among the greatest in the whole history of the US Armed Forces.
In particular, the actions of the USS Johnston, and it’s CO, Commander Evans, almost beggar belief when you consider the power of the mighty Japanese force arrayed against the destroyer and destroyer escort screen of Task Unit 77.4.3. They did not hesitate for a second when ordered by Adm. Sprague to counterattack and run cover for the Task Unit.
I believe that just one of the battleship Yamato’s turrets weighed more than all of Fletcher class destroyers in that action.
My favorite line from this fight came from an anonymous AA gunner on one of the slow little escort carriers being pursued by fast Japaneses heavy cruisers was emblematic of their dogged courage; “We’re luring them into 40mm range!!!”
You’re correct. I forgot that this was a Fletcher class and not a Sumner class.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fletcher-class_destroyer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Allen_M._Sumner
I remember building Revell’s model of the USS The Sullivans, which was a Fletcher class destroyer when I was a kid. https://www.amazon.com/Revell-U-S-S-Fletcher-DD-445-Plastic/dp/B00ILV9I76/ref=pd_sbs_21_img_1/140-6643284-5254555?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00ILV9I76&pd_rd_r=b76e607a-7b48-455a-91eb-ff45c72356a6&pd_rd_w=2nyma&pd_rd_wg=90qe4&pf_rd_p=5cfcfe89-300f-47d2-b1ad-a4e27203a02a&pf_rd_r=2B20NWRERVYZF16XEPRG&psc=1&refRID=2B20NWRERVYZF16XEPRG Its amazing how much the detail in kits has increased over the last 5 decades.
I built that model! Lol.
FASCINATING
DD’s vs BB’s is not really a fight. It’s suicide.
Another line that made me chuckle "damn it boys, they're getting away..."
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