Posted on 10/31/2019 8:26:12 AM PDT by Constitution Day
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 cruisers and 12 destroyers surprised a U.S. task unit. The Japanese force was trying to run-down five U.S. small escort carriers, three destroyers – including Johnston – and four destroyer escorts defending the north Leyte Gulf, east of Samar. The U.S. ships were supporting the landing on the Leyte beachhead by Gen. Douglas MacArthur, retired Rear Adm. Samuel Cox, director of the Naval History and Heritage Command, told USNI News.
"Johnston, under Cmdr. Ernest E. 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.
Were you WestPac?
I read where one GI on shore used a WWI signal lamp and acted as a forward observer for the DDs - one of them Polish. Some got in so close their hulls were scraping bottom.
One vid on YouTube showed a large hole in a German casement (direct hit) and by triangulation, were able to identify the DD who fired that killer shot.
They really did save the day.
You are correct, very good read! The Johnston and the other small boys put up such a hell of a fight the IJN turned away with victory easily attainable.
There is a book out there and for the life of me I cannot think of the title and author but it tells of the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal Nov. 13 1942. It gives a running commentary of the battle from men on both sides. Destroyers and heavy and light cruisers on the US side against the same and two Japanese battleships. It was nothing but a knife fight where ships were so close the battleships could not depress their big guns enough to hit the US ships and US ships were raking the bridge and topsides of the heavy Japanese warships. Very good read!
Check out the link I supplied above. Hornfischer's book Neptune's Inferno is the one about Guadalcanal. It's another superb book by this great author and you can find his other books here.
Are you thinking of Hornfischer’s Neptune’s Inferno.
Neat factoid from the book. The US Navy lost almost 3 times the number of men than the Marines on The Canal!
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
Halsey was the closest thing the Navy had to Patton. Both made mistakes and were perhaps over-aggressive at times, but they each got the job done when there seemed to be no-one else to do it. Decades later we have the luxury to armchair quarterback these officers.
Off Samar the destroyers & DE’s of Taffy 3 managed to destroy the upper works of a couple of Japanese heavy cruisers by rapid, accurate 5” fire. It wasn’t nearly enough to sink them — really only a torpedo could have done that — but it did perform what has since been termed a “mission kill”.
My dad was on a DE, picture looks just like his boat. USS Lewis. I need to read that.
No worries...A double mention of that book is deserved...One great read...
At 0300 on the 25th, the USS Melvin DD-680 was occupied launching a torpedo attack on the IJN battleship Fuso, which slit in two, rolled over and sank 40 minutes later...
My Dad was a 19 yo radioman aboard the Melvin...Her skipper CDR Barry Atkins was awarded the Navy Cross for that action...
Ed
I have an old copy from the 60s, held together with a rubber band. I didn’t know it was reprinted. Great read.
Another good one is Saburo Sakai’s “Samurai”. The top surviving Zero Ace of the war.
correct. a V2 is pretty much useless against a million and a half really mad soviet soldiers and about 900,000 really mad Americans, Brits, and Canadians.
My dad was a machinist mate on West Virginia. She fired 81 rounds of 16 in 45 AP at Fuso’s sister ship Yamashiro. Supposedly hit her 8 times
I have Sakai’s book. Very interesting.
Great scene, regardless of my distaste for Bladwin. Sean Connery stole yet another movie.
You’re very welcome, and it’s good to see you again.
As an old Tin Can sailor, QM2, USS AULT, DD-698, The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors, is a great read.
Amazing that these guys can find debris at these depths.
Also, ships changed their paint patterns...I have old WWII photos of the Ault in haze gray and a camo pattern. When I served aboard her, she was haze gray.
Proud ship with a great crew...loved being at sea on her.
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