Leyte Gulf - Surigao Strait

[@tonytrotta9322]

My dad Enrico Trotta served on USS Louisville CA 28 Flagship and this is his story with Rear Admiral Jesse B. Oldendorf aboard: Battle of Surigao Strait: Oct. 24, 1944: The Older Battleships and Older Cruisers did the Majority of the Pacific Bombardment for the Newer Battleships and New Cruisers screened the Aircraft carriers. USS LOUISVILLE CA- 28 Heavy Cruiser Greatest Sea Battle - Surigao Strait Give Credit To The Cruisers Not the Battleships From my diary and the Louisville Man of War Book this story should set the records straight that the cruisers proved their weight in gold not the battleships like so many stories told. It was October 24, 1944 aboard the flagship heavy cruiser U.S.S. Louisville CA-28 with the 7 th Fleet - Battleship/Cruiser Force Task Group 77.2 with Rear Admiral Jesse Oldendorf aboard. I was a 20 year old seaman 1st class assigned to portside 20 mm anti-aircraft gun crew by turret B - 8 inch gun. I had a ring side seat to the greatest naval battle ever. The U.S. Fleet consisted of: 6 Battleships 4 Heavy cruisers (Louisville CA-28 Flagship) 4 Light cruisers 24 Destroyers At about 3:15 a.m. we stared to close in and were given the range of the Japanese ships. The Louisville opened first at 3:50 a.m. with her 9 - 8 inch/55 cal. main battery guns. The second time she fired the 8 inch guns she scored a direct hit and other cruisers and battleships opened up - lighting up the night. The “Lady Lou” as she was known, main battery fired over and over shaking the 600 foot ship from bow to stern. The Japanese ships were caught by surprise and were all a blaze. (Crossing the “T” with no way out for Japan). At 4:00 a.m. a Japanese destroyer tried to make a run on us and our 5 inch/25 cal. and main battery 8 inch guns opened up on it - sending death and destruction to sink it. When the battle was over in 15 minutes the Japanese ship losses were: Here are the records of Japanese losses:and;x2 sunk (Fuso, Yamashiro) 1 sunk (Mogami) 1 damaged (Nachi) 1 damaged (Abukuma) 3 sunk (Michishio, Yamagumo, Asagumo) 1 damaged (Shigure) The U.S. ship losses were: Destroyer USS Albert Grant hit but not sunk. 'friendly Fire from U.S. cruisers - 6 inch shells" During the battle the Louisville fired more main battery 8 inch shells than the total of all calibers fired by the (6) battleships - from (Man of War). The Louisville fired (37) salvos - 9 - 8 inch guns fired for a total of (333) - 8 inch shells. The “Lady Lou” was honored for this by Rear Admiral Jesse Oldendorf. I felt I had to write this article from information from my diary and Man of War - U.S.S. Louisville CA-28 book because documentaries and stories like Sea Classics always seem to give most credit to the battleships. I and others who read my story will know what really happened. Give credit to the cruisers for the greatest sea battle. The total shells fired per battleship: Appendix US Battleship Ammunition at Surigao Strait Ship Capacity Total On-Board AP HC Rounds Expended (all AP) West Virginia 800 375 200 175 93 Maryland 800 685 240 445 48 California 1200 318 240 78 63 Tennessee 1200 664 396 268 69 Mississippi 1200 744 201 543 12 Pennsylvania 1200 453 360 93 Did not fire Data from "Two Ocean War" by S.E. Morrison. The Cruisers fired well over 2000 rounds of 6 inch and 8 inch shells. U.S.S. Louisville fired 333 rounds of 8 inch shells. God Bless our servicemen and women - past and present! By: Enrico Trotta (passed in 2017 at age 92) Served aboard the USS Louisville CA- 28 From 1943-46 as a S1c 20 mm AA gun crew

[@bostonrailfan2427]

folks ask what-if regarding the battleships, but having them in reserve to move to blockade and protect vulnerable ships is what should be done every time as they were even matches for the opposing battleships and had support from the destroyers and the crossing the T had another benefit: the only way through was to try to go through a bottleneck but opened you up to broadsides against your broadside but from a distance and lets torpedoes through. it was a nasty action after that!

[@bostonrailfan2427]

...listening to this, i had flashbacks to the movie “In Harm’s Way” but reading up on it I know why: it inspired the movie

[@joelmccoy9969]

34 Months after the begin of the conflict in the Pacific in Surigao Strait (a target-rich environment) 39 USN PT boats fired both their torpedoes at the IJN in the Strait achieving Zero hits. 78 Torpedoes, each the price of a four-bedroom house in California whizzing around in the narrow Strait hitting nothing. A repeat performance for some of the PT Boats from the Battle of Blackett Strait where 15 PT boats fired 30 Torpedoes that caused no explosions. No runs, no hits, no errors for the IJN against PT Boats torpedoes. Admiral C.Wrights' Destroyers fired 24 torpedo duds none of which exploded at the Battle of Tassafaranga. They merely washed up upon the beach of Guadalcanal harmlessly while four of his five Cruisers were shot to pieces by Japanese Destroyers Type 93 torpedoes. He did not note the total failure of his own torpedoes either. He went on to bespeckled Glory ashore in the 'Port Chicago Disaster' see Wikipedia.

[@bigsarge2085]

❤

[@michaelkennedy272]

Is this Ryans office ?

[@BattleshipNewJersey]

This is ryans office.

[@michaelkennedy272]

@@BattleshipNewJersey Dang , sorry have to ask. What space was his office originally used for? Or who would have occupied it? Sorry i nerd out on all things battleship .

[@BattleshipNewJersey]

Its been a series of a offices, at one point admirals staff used it, later it was a weight room and at one point warrant officers.

[@michaelkennedy272]

@@BattleshipNewJersey Thank you ma'am 😀

[@charliemorris2338]

What if Halsey had left a few battleships to guard Leyte before galavanting northward on a wild goose chase?Anyone care to elaborate a story on this subject?

[@abrahamedelstein4806]

Well, the Japanese wouldn't have been at any loss for what they were actually up against unlike historically when they thought for a good part of the battle that they were facing fleet carriers and battleships. Intuition tells me that the Americans would have won, probably due to superior fire control.

[@timclaus8313]

Halsey could have easily left the Carolinas and SoDaks with their lesser speed (a little less) and still had the 4 Iowas to get the job done. Even if he left the 4 SoDaks at Leyte, the IJN Center Force goes home minus quite a few capital ships.

[@TheOriginalSharkWithALaser]

@@timclaus8313 There were only 6 fast battleships present during the Philippines Campaign, not all 10. Wisconsin (in transit) and Missouri (shakedown cruise) had yet to join the Pacific fleet; North Carolina and Indiana were in Puget Sound for repairs and refit. Assuming Task Force 34 was formed, Halsey probably still would have gone north with the rest of the 3rd fleet so you would also need to subtract New Jersey from the count of available battleships under Lee's command. That would have left: Washington Iowa Massachusetts Alabama South Dakota Certainly more surface firepower than the destroyers and destroyer-escorts at the actual Battle off Samar, lol.

[@timclaus8313]

@@TheOriginalSharkWithALaser Even a pair of SoDak's would have put a real hurtin' on Kurita's force. Only Yamato would have been real threat to them, the Nagato and Haruna were no match for a SoDak. Plus if they were at Samar, they would have had their own tin cans with them.

[@timgagliano621]

Wasn’t the USS Washington SUPPOSED to be there? This led to nimitz’s “the world wonders” accidental transcription, or was that Samar? The action was so large I never can get it right.