The last destroyer action of WWII

This week marks the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Malacca Strait.
Where the British 26th Destroyer Flotilla consisting of HMS Saumarez, Verulam, Venus, Vigilant, and Virago set and then spring the trap on the Japanese heavy cruiser Haguro.
For a Very good read follow the link below.
Sinking of the Haguro

Good article, thanks.

KEH

Thanks for posting. If I have heard of it I don't remember it. Going to Pearl Harbor on June 28, Hope to see all the military museums. Delta Airlines is retiring the Boeing 747 by years end. Always have wanted to ride one, & so off to Hawaii will go for 5 1/2 days on the ground, & 20 - 21 hours flying time.

One action that hasn't been publicized nearly as much as it should have been is how destroyers saved the day during the Normandy invasion.

When the German shore emplacements pinned the attacking forces down on the beach, a half dozen destroyers came in almost like a cavalry charge, pulled in parallel to the beach, and began pounding the German emplacements at almost point blank range. Some of the destroyers guns got so hot from constant firing that fire hoses were pouring water on them while they were firing.

With no communication, some of the destroyer's gun crews were using tanks as spotters, reasoning that anything a tank was firing at was something they should be firing at, with more fire power than the tank possessed. The tank crews caught on to the fact that immediately after they fired at a target a destroyer fired at the same target and began working with the destroyers. The destroyers decimated the German defenses and turned the tide of the invasion.

Miraculously, no destroyers suffered serious damage. As one destroyer Captain later said, "I didn't give a damn what I did to my ship as long as I could help the guys on the beach".

It would appear there are still many untold stories from WWII.

At Utah possibly however all but 2 of the DD tanks sank off Omaha. The dozen destroyers must have had to pick their own targets I would think.

Scotty, please take a moment while over the Arizona to pass on thanks and peace from this NY Army Vet and my Navy Vet Girlfriend! Thanks

Thanks for posting that. I enjoyed reading it and had not heard of it before.

Garry

That was a very interesting read. Thanks for posting it.

I haven't heard this. Will have to look into it.

You don't see much about stuff like that because it was pretty insignificant. And that isn't meant to lesson what those sailors did. But one cruiser that late in the war wasn't very important in the long run. There are thousands of stories like that that. Brave actions that were a small unimportant part of the war. You can find a lot of those stories in the "use to be cheap" paperbacks written by men about their small part of the war.

Rick

(quoted from post at 23:02:54 05/10/15) You don't see much about stuff like that because it was pretty insignificant. And that isn't meant to lesson what those sailors did. But one cruiser that late in the war wasn't very important in the long run. There are thousands of stories like that that. Brave actions that were a small unimportant part of the war. You can find a lot of those stories in the "use to be cheap" paperbacks written by men about their small part of the war.

Rick

Click to expand...

o matter how 'small' & 'insignificant' they are as each stands alone, together, as a whole, they certainly were/are SIGNIFICANT, as was every single soldiers life.

Don't know about the tank part. But the part about the destroyers is true. One captain said to hell with the orders. Brought his ship in as close as he could. Others followed.Meanwhile the Army Air Corp was bombing a mile inland hitting nothing but fields. Were supposed to be hitting the germans at the beach.

I have always found it remarkable what was accomplished in WW2. 18 or 19 year olds straight off the farm, literally, six months later were flying bombers over Germany, or trying to dig a hole in frozen ground while being shelled or shot at, or trying to drive the Japanese off of some piece of dirt in the Pacific that no one had ever heard of. That just defies my imagination. What an amazing generation.

To: Pete76NY. Remember I shall, & to You & the lady... GREAT THANKS!

I advise anyone interested in D-Day to read this book. it is the best for describing the minute by minute action of any I have read. Yes. there were several tanks on Omaha Beach, but only two were DD's. The others arrived by landing craft.



The Dead and Those About to Die: D-Day: The Big Red One at Omaha Beach
by John C. McManus

Too often that is missing from the history books; the stories of individual actions people took to win even though it didn't go along with orders.

Link I seen once.
D DAY 1944

We are going to Normandy next month. It will be interesting to get the German and French version of that battle. "One the spot" history is sometimes different from the stories back home.