Word: straits
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...member of the crew of the U.S.S. Denver, and after 15 years was surprised to hear she had the honor of firing the first shot in the Leyte landings. She also participated in the Battle of Surigao Strait, which I recall quite vividly, as the entire ship was at general quarters all night, it was hotter than I can ever recall, and the night entailed a good deal of work for the crew in handling hundreds of rounds of ammunition when the ships in our task force opened up rapid salvo fire on the unsuspecting Japanese. In surveying the results...
...Battle of Surigao Strait was the last time the historic battle line formation was to be used in naval warfare, and Naval Historian Samuel Eliot Morison writes its epitaph: "One can imagine the ghosts of all great admirals from Raleigh to Jellicoe standing at attention as Battle Line went into oblivion...
Despite the upset of the Japanese timetable, the southern forces under Nishimura and Shima sailed right on. Nishimura had two battleships, a heavy cruiser and four destroyers; Shima, behind him, had two heavy cruisers, a light cruiser and four destroyers. Awaiting them at the far end of Surigao Strait was a much stronger Seventh Fleet force under Rear Admiral Jesse B. Oldendorf. Alerted by PT-boat reports, Oldendorf was ready...
...Seventh Fleet's 16 escort carriers-"baby flattops"-of Rear Admiral Thomas L. Sprague's Task Group 77.4 were operating off Samar without knowing that 1) Halsey had taken off after Ozawa or 2) Kurita had come through unguarded San Bernardino Strait and was only minutes over the horizon. A half-hour later, Kurita's shells began splashing around "Taffy 3," one of Task Group 77-4's three task units, under Rear Admiral Clifton Sprague...
...later by a Japanese kamikaze). He took hits on two carriers, a destroyer and destroyer escort and seemed doomed to far worse. Then came an amazing turnabout. Still recovering from his swim off Palawan Island, bedeviled by the destroyers, Kurita broke off the action, headed back through San Bernardino Strait. Said Admiral Clifton Sprague later: "The failure of the enemy ... to completely wipe out this task unit can be attributed to our successful smoke screen, our torpedo counterattack . . . and the definite partiality of Almighty...