re: #575 calcajun

The book is “Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors”. When I think of Cmdr. E. Evans taking the DE USS Johnston and charging the IJN battle line, I tear up. One of his men said, “Skipper, don’t let us go down with torpedoes in our tubes.” What bravery.

Indeed. Although my interest in the battle has always focused more on the battle of Surigao Strait. It’s fascinating to learn just how far the US had come from the beginning of the war. One thing I learned recently was that the 16” shell that the Maryland and West Virgina were using was a much heavier and more powerful shell than the one they orinigally carried. Even had the two Japanese battleships not been damaged before reaching their American counterparts, they would have been sunk. They were simply and fatally outgunned and outteched.