pv04+@andrew.cmu.edu (Philip Verdieck) (04/05/89)
From: Philip Verdieck <pv04+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Here are a bunch of things I kept when I was researching the Battle of
Leyte Gulf. Specifically these are attributed to the handful of destroyers
and jeep carriers that took on part of the Japanese Main Fleet.
Good quotes from some of the stuff I read.
A gunnery battery officer tried to lift the spirits of his gun crew.
"It won't be long now, boys," he said "we're sucking them into 40mm range."
Commander Athos T. Hathaway of HEERMAN, reporting after firing last
three torpedoes at Jap battleship, range 4,400 yards.
"Exercise complete."
At that point the ominous message was received on board the carriers,
"Screen reports all torpedoes expended." A humorous radioman in WHITE PLAINS
approached the signal officer and remarked, "The situation is getting a little
tense, isn't it?"
Regarding the JOHNSTON, being hit by 3 14" and 3 6" shells near
simutaneously. "It was like a puppy being smacked by a truck."
The battle was over. A strange quietness settled over the carriers.
There was no more gunfire and no more shells fell near the ships. On the
bridge of one carrier the silence was broken by a signalman:
"Damn it. They got away."
It is safer to simply state that the enemy commander withdrew for
reasons best known to himself, unless one chooses to accept the explanation
put forth by the commanding officers of several of the CVE's in their
official action reports-that it was the intervention of divine Providence.