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Three Cheers For The Air Combat Patrol!

Posted by on Oct 24, 1944 in Battles, Ship Life | Comments 0 comments

Tues. Oct. 24, 1944

Kay Honey:

Air attack at daybreak repulsed by Air Combat Patrol. Ho Hum, getting monotonous.

See Bees, sank a damaged L.S.T. and made an improvised drydock for the U.S.S. Honolulu.

Sea Bees are Naval Engineers.  Sea Bees could create bridges in hours and air fields in days. They were universally respected for their efficiency, bravery and ingenuity in the South Pacific during WWII.

Air defense about umpteen times today I sure am losing my patience with those Japs.
Temperature about 100° , slight breeze.

Listened to Tokyo Rose. She claims that half of our fleet has been sunk and the rest damaged – Ho Hum.

Air attack about sunset. Air Combat Patrol repulsed them. Combat Patrol reports shooting down 6 planes. Without Air Combat Patrol those Japs would give us a bad time.

F4U Corsairs Were the main carrier based fighter plane during this time.

Three cheers for the Air Combat Patrol.

FLASH!:
The Jap Fleet was reported attacking our Carriers at Mindano.We are to intercept them. – Action ahead.

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Battle of Surigao Strait: So Many 8″, 14″ & 16″ Salvos In The Air, It Looked Like A.A. Fire

Posted by on Oct 25, 1944 in Battles | Comments 0 comments

Wed. Oct. 25, 1944

Darling Mine:

Shortly after 03 :45 our radar picked up the Jap Task Force, steaming down Surigao Strait. At 03 :53 we fired our first salvo (4-inch salvo) no change – no change, reported. We continued to fire. The Cruisers then opened up with their 8-inch. All guns opened up with all gun salvos. There was so much firing and so many 8-inch, 14-inch, and l6-inch salvos in the air it looked like A.A. machine gun fire.

USS West Virginia in the Battle of Surigao Strait

When we turned from Starboard to Port to fire, Air Defense lookouts saw the salvos for the first time and reported it as A.A. fire.

Explosions occasionally illuminated the horizon. We are hitting something what ever it is.

We headed back to Leyte Gulf, approximately 15 minutes after our first salvo. I wonder what we were hitting. What ever it was it fired back but its aim was very poor.

Air defense at daybreak. Attack repulsed by Air Combat Patrol. Combat Patrol reports shooting down 6 planes. Air defense at sunset, repulsed by Air Combat Patrol.

The Japanese Battleship Fuso was blown apart during the action.

Here we have a first hand account of what historians count as one of the great naval battles of the second World War.  This battle changed the nature of naval warfare due to the technology used.  The USS West Virginia had been upgraded with the Mark 8 Fire Control Radar (FCR) during its retrofit.  This allowed the USS West Virginia to fire over the horizon.  This American technology was vastly superior to anything the Japanese had at the time.

The Japanese were planning on driving the American fleet away from the landing beaches by using a pincer attack.  If the American fleet could be drawn away from the landing beaches, the Japanese could have isolated McArthur’s forces, resulting in their annihilation.

The new radar picked up the large naval force coming from the south to attack, and 3 battleships with the new Mark 8 FCR (the West Virginia, California, and Tennessee) were able to start firing at ranges previously unheard of (especially during the night).  The Japanese expected to get in close, and have a toe to toe fight, but the American technology stopped the Japanese from afar.

The battle was incredibly one sided.  The West Virginia was responsible for much of the damage done to the Japanese navy that night.  The West Virginia also supplied much of the rest of the fleet with firing solutions. Many Japanese destroyers, cruisers, and the battleship “Fuso” were destroyed during the action.

The Battle of Surigao Strait was the last time that battleships ever went head to head against each other.  It was the end of an era that included Nelson’s ships of the line crossing the T to victory.  The sheer size and firepower of the battleships that saw action in Surigao Strait would be replaced by stealth and precision in later eras.

Read more about this terrific battle here or here.


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The Battleship West Virginia, was credited with sinking one battleship “alone and unaided”.

Posted by on Oct 29, 1944 in Battles | Comments 0 comments

FLASH—Official results of the Battle of Surigao Strait;

The Battleship West Virginia, was credited with sinking one battleship “alone and unaided”.

This ,was the firs t night engagement of fleets in history and the West Virginia was the first Battleship to sink a Battleship in World War II. The ship disappeared from the Radar screen in six minutes.

The Battle of Surigao Strait, was also the second biggest (naval) battle in modern history and the biggest in WORLD WAR II.

Our Fleet consisted of:
6 Battleships
8 Heavy Cruisers
12 Destroyers
approximately40 torpedo Boats

We lost a few Torpedo Boats ( not official yet) and had a Destroyer severely damaged.

The Albert W. Grant was successfully repaired, even though it was quite severely damaged.

The Japanese Fleet consisted of:
2 Battleships

The Japanese battleship Yamashiro was destroyed during the battle.

2 Heavy Cruisers
2 Light Cruisers
10 Destroyers

The Japs definitely lost in the battle;
2 Battleships
1 Heavy Cruiser
1 Light Cruiser
6 Destroyers
Heavily damaged and probably sank later:
1 Heavy Cruiser
1 Light Cruiser
4 Destroyers

It is possible and highly probable that the entire Japanese Task Force was destroyed and sunk.

All the U.S. Battleships that took part in this engagement were presumably “Junks” and were to be used for bombardment only.

Rigged paravanes and we are headed out of Leyte Gulf.

Paravanes on USS West Virginia

Screws were inspected and their condition reported as critical. Our top speed is 17 knots. (original top,speed 21 knots) It is possible that we are headed for port to get the screw fixed.

"Screws" are the naval equivalent of a propellor. The screws on a big battleship like the USS West Virginia were huge.

Nature sure is funny. When we came to the Philippines there was a big storm and now that we are leaving there is a heavy rain and blowing again. This is really a storm it is a 70 mile an hour gale. I never saw it rain so hard in my life.

They had to secure~all the gun watches except 5-inch and the l6-inch. Now it is reported that the gale is up to 80 miles an hour.

All the hatches are dogged down.

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Looks Like The Japs Haven’t Stopped

Posted by on Nov 26, 1944 in Battles | Comments 0 comments

Men from the USS Lexington are buried at sea on Nov. 26 1944.

Nov. 26, 1944

Kay my Dearest :

Well, here we are back at the Philippines, and the first thing we had this morning was air defense. Looks like the Japs haven’t stopped. We also had an air defense at sunset but they did not come near us.


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The Longest Battle of its Kind, in This War.

Posted by on Nov 27, 1944 in Battles | Comments 0 comments

Nov. 27, 1944

Kay I Love You:

Today we had air defense, then general quarters.

“Air Defense” was used when all anti-aircraft guns were to be manned.  “General Quarters” was used when all guns, including ship to ship weapons, were to be manned.

All of a sudden a plane came out of the clouds. Just as it came out it dropped its’ bomb and then tired to crash into a Cruiser. The plane and the bomb landed between us and the Cruiser.

In about 10 minutes all hell broke loose. There were Jap planes all over the sky. About a 1000 yards from us a Jap plane was shot down and it crashed down on the quarter deck of the St. Louis. Fire broke out all over the quarter deck.

We were also shooting at the same plane. Our gun was the first gun to start shooting on the West Virginia.

Right after that another Jap plane crashed into the St. Louis in the same place. We could not see this one.

The USS St. Louis being hit by a kamikaze

Then I saw 3 more planes shot down. One of them crashed into the Colorado. Just about that time we could hear everything on our starboard side shooting. We could hear the fellows hollering and making a lot of noise. Just then I turned around to see what was happening and as I did so a Jap plane was being blown to pieces, it crashed into the water just 35 yards from our ship. Pieces or the plane flew clear over the ship. Honey was I scared? Then I saw another plane crash on the port side. He must have been loaded with bombs, cause when he hit the water he sure did blow up. (twin englne bomber).

Well, the whole battle lasted about an hour and a half.  All together there were nine planes shot down. We are certain we will get credit for shooting down one plane.

Those Japs are sure crazy. It looked like some planes crashed into ships even if they were not hit.

Americans still didn’t understand that a strategy shift had occurred during the battle of Leyte Gulf.  Only later would they understand the word “Kamikaze”, and the terror that accompanied.

There was so much smoke in the air — well I will explain it to you some day.

They say it was the longest battle of its kind, in this war.  21 Jap planes were here.

We fired 250 rounds. I guess we are no longer the Virgin.

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I Sure Like To See Them Hit The Water

Posted by on Nov 28, 1944 in Battles | Comments 0 comments

Nov. 28, 1944
Kathryn:

Air defense again this morning. We saw one plane shot down, it was too far away for us to shoot at it. I sure like to see them hit the water.

The USS West Virginia destroys an inbound Kamikaze

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