WEBVTT 00:04.334 --> 00:07.785 - One of the reasons I want to talk about Ernest Evans 00:07.785 --> 00:11.697 is you know, this is Native American History Month, 00:11.697 --> 00:14.530 so it's a good excuse as any, but, 00:14.706 --> 00:17.585 I first started reading about Ernest Evans 00:17.585 --> 00:20.335 actually as soon as I could read. 00:21.965 --> 00:25.632 My dad was a history, draftsman in the Navy, 00:26.816 --> 00:29.104 but was really into Navy history. 00:29.104 --> 00:32.077 So my first book I ever bought with an allowance 00:32.077 --> 00:35.665 was the How and Why Wonder Book of World War II. 00:35.665 --> 00:38.355 And I started really reading Samuel Eliot more 00:38.355 --> 00:40.522 since History of the U.S. Naval Operations 00:40.522 --> 00:43.522 in World War II in the second grade. 00:45.210 --> 00:48.293 This was my childhood hero, actually. 00:48.703 --> 00:51.655 I've come across many more since then but I still, 00:51.655 --> 00:53.905 this story is hard to beat. 00:54.447 --> 00:56.780 So let me just go ahead one, 00:58.866 --> 01:01.783 let me set the scene for you first. 01:03.015 --> 01:07.182 On the morning at dawn on the 25th of October 1944, 01:08.442 --> 01:11.107 Lieutenant Commander Ernest Evans was in command 01:11.107 --> 01:14.690 of the destroyer, the USS Johnston, DD-557, 01:15.790 --> 01:17.957 which is a Fletcher-class. 01:18.035 --> 01:19.693 And along with two other destroyers, 01:19.693 --> 01:23.526 and four destroyer escorts, he was responsible 01:23.710 --> 01:27.520 for providing security and protection to a group 01:27.520 --> 01:30.937 of six, what were called escort carriers, 01:31.160 --> 01:34.930 which originally were merchant ships converted 01:34.930 --> 01:38.582 to carriers, but by these times they had been built 01:38.582 --> 01:42.080 from the keel up as carriers but still on a merchant haul. 01:42.080 --> 01:45.080 Only carried about 20 aircraft each. 01:45.318 --> 01:47.692 And their mission was to provide anti-submarine 01:47.692 --> 01:51.109 warfare protection, and also they carried 01:51.474 --> 01:53.724 the older Wildcat fighters, 01:54.545 --> 01:57.837 and their purpose was to provide close air support 01:57.837 --> 01:59.254 to troops ashore. 01:59.605 --> 02:01.654 And this group of carriers was responsible 02:01.654 --> 02:04.654 for supporting the invasion of Leyte 02:04.991 --> 02:07.550 which General MacArthur and his I shall return 02:07.550 --> 02:10.240 to the Philippines, that was underway. 02:10.240 --> 02:12.564 So there were about 100,000 US troops going ashore 02:12.564 --> 02:16.731 at Leyte at this time and well over 100 transports 02:17.809 --> 02:20.596 and supply ships that are off of Leyte. 02:20.596 --> 02:24.408 And this group is in what's supposed to be a quiet 02:24.408 --> 02:27.658 rear area, just providing the air cover 02:27.721 --> 02:29.721 to support the invasion. 02:30.840 --> 02:35.007 And at dawn they get a report from the first aircraft 02:35.393 --> 02:39.083 to go aloft and it says that, it is not exactly 02:39.083 --> 02:41.748 what the pilot said but I won't get into that 02:41.748 --> 02:44.374 in mixed company, but basically the entire Japanese 02:44.374 --> 02:48.541 navy is just north of this carrier group's position. 02:51.005 --> 02:54.411 And within a matter of minutes, the shells 02:54.411 --> 02:58.078 started to fall amongst this group of ships, 02:58.078 --> 03:00.037 because the Japanese opened fire 03:00.037 --> 03:01.910 at extremely long range. 03:01.910 --> 03:05.910 Their ships are still hulled-down on the horizon 03:06.723 --> 03:09.701 and it's obvious by the size of the shells 03:09.701 --> 03:11.435 that these are battleships 03:11.435 --> 03:13.018 that are coming in. 03:13.032 --> 03:15.455 The task group commander immediately orders 03:15.455 --> 03:18.118 change course to the east which is the direction 03:18.118 --> 03:20.715 of the wind so he can start launching every aircraft 03:20.715 --> 03:23.632 off the deck that he possibly could 03:24.396 --> 03:25.719 including some that had no ammunition, 03:25.719 --> 03:27.802 some that had no weapons. 03:28.037 --> 03:30.130 Several that had no gas and wound up 03:30.130 --> 03:33.739 going right into the water after they launched. 03:33.739 --> 03:36.099 But in turning to the east, the Japanese coming 03:36.099 --> 03:38.793 from the north, that allowed them to start 03:38.793 --> 03:40.376 cutting the corner. 03:40.929 --> 03:43.820 And these escort carriers could only do about 17 knots 03:43.820 --> 03:47.987 at best, so there's no way they're gonna run away. 03:48.769 --> 03:52.102 Johnston Ernest Evans on board that ship 03:52.446 --> 03:53.806 is on the side that's closest to where the Japanese 03:53.806 --> 03:57.639 are coming from and he basically has a choice. 03:58.983 --> 04:02.780 It's clear that this group cannot outrun the Japanese. 04:02.780 --> 04:05.886 His ship can, his ship is very very very fast. 04:05.886 --> 04:07.969 So he could save himself. 04:10.162 --> 04:12.388 There was never any discussion of that, 04:12.388 --> 04:14.786 but if they kept going the same direction 04:14.786 --> 04:16.848 the result's gonna be inevitable. 04:16.848 --> 04:18.608 Japanese overwhelming force gonna catch up 04:18.608 --> 04:20.358 and destroy them all. 04:22.143 --> 04:24.689 So no orders come from the task group commander, 04:24.689 --> 04:28.669 Johnston's on his own initiative is already making smoke 04:28.669 --> 04:30.502 to cover the carriers. 04:32.387 --> 04:35.784 And then he makes the decision on his own. 04:35.784 --> 04:39.867 And his decision pretty much was foretold in that 04:40.958 --> 04:42.922 when the ship was commissioned, 04:42.922 --> 04:46.402 he was the commissioning CO, and during his speech 04:46.402 --> 04:50.569 for the ceremony, he said that John Paul Jones was big 04:50.587 --> 04:54.453 for an ordinary naval officer at the time, and said 04:54.453 --> 04:55.758 this is a fighting ship, 04:55.758 --> 04:57.503 I intend to go in harm's way. 04:57.503 --> 05:00.677 Anyone who doesn't want to go with me can get off now, 05:00.677 --> 05:03.677 because I will not run from a fight. 05:03.848 --> 05:05.087 No one got off. 05:05.087 --> 05:08.493 Everyone stayed on, and he was true to his word. 05:08.493 --> 05:12.496 He turned and single-handedly on his own initiative, 05:12.496 --> 05:16.354 charged this Japanese force, who were astonished, 05:16.354 --> 05:19.604 four battleships, including the Yamato, 05:20.753 --> 05:24.553 which was the largest in the world, with 18 inch guns. 05:24.553 --> 05:27.213 Six heavy cruisers, two light cruisers, 05:27.213 --> 05:30.943 and about 12 destroyers, and out of the smoke screen 05:30.943 --> 05:34.526 comes one U.S. destroyer, charging at them. 05:35.315 --> 05:38.914 And they held their fire for the longest time 05:38.914 --> 05:40.989 because they were trying to figure out 05:40.989 --> 05:42.747 what this was all about. 05:42.747 --> 05:45.789 So hopefully I've got your attention. 05:45.789 --> 05:48.725 So, let me back up, how did this happen, 05:48.725 --> 05:50.578 how did he wind up in this situation, 05:50.578 --> 05:52.328 so next slide please. 05:54.215 --> 05:57.061 So let me tell you a little bit about Ernest Evans 05:57.061 --> 06:01.228 and also get some Native American history in here as well. 06:02.975 --> 06:07.142 He was born in a small town, called Pawnee, Oklahoma. 06:08.303 --> 06:11.024 Grew up in a slightly larger town 06:11.024 --> 06:13.091 called Muskogee, Oklahoma. 06:13.091 --> 06:16.341 He was half Cherokee, one quarter Creek 06:17.134 --> 06:18.967 and one quarter white. 06:19.767 --> 06:23.135 The white was on his maternal grandmother's side, 06:23.135 --> 06:27.302 who had married her for the purpose of getting a hold 06:27.615 --> 06:30.032 of her Indian land allotment, 06:32.168 --> 06:34.668 and once he did he dumped her. 06:35.515 --> 06:37.932 So that's his white heritage. 06:38.753 --> 06:42.003 And let me tell you a little bit about, 06:42.468 --> 06:46.468 at the time that he decided to join in the navy, 06:46.791 --> 06:48.154 some of the things that had transpired before that. 06:48.154 --> 06:50.586 And I think it may give you an appreciation 06:50.586 --> 06:52.086 for that decision. 06:53.647 --> 06:57.397 The Cherokee, which is what he identified as, 06:58.864 --> 07:01.281 had been an east coast tribe. 07:02.197 --> 07:06.364 Georgia, North Carolina, Southwestern Virginia area. 07:07.633 --> 07:11.800 At the time whites first started coming to the country, 07:12.040 --> 07:16.207 they viewed themselves as a civilized tribe, if you will. 07:18.803 --> 07:22.970 They were very good, had a very high level of culture, 07:24.221 --> 07:27.621 they were also good at math and they could count 07:27.621 --> 07:31.788 and go these Europeans outnumber us by a whole lot. 07:32.771 --> 07:35.056 So they figured that their best hope of survival 07:35.056 --> 07:39.223 was to be as much like the Europeans as they possibly could. 07:40.095 --> 07:42.928 Among other things, Chief Sequoyah 07:45.390 --> 07:47.273 developed their own alphabet. 07:47.273 --> 07:49.236 They were the first Native American tribe 07:49.236 --> 07:53.236 that could read and write in their own language, 07:53.395 --> 07:56.134 and actually their rate of literacy was higher 07:56.134 --> 07:59.634 than that of the frontiersmen around them. 08:00.250 --> 08:03.742 They established towns, laid them out on a grid, 08:03.742 --> 08:07.742 their capital in Northern Georgia is still there 08:08.298 --> 08:11.110 and you can go visit it, most buildings are long gone 08:11.110 --> 08:14.793 but it's laid out like any other colonial town. 08:14.793 --> 08:16.699 Square government buildings. 08:16.699 --> 08:19.682 There basically was, we're gonna live amongst 08:19.682 --> 08:23.099 the white man, we're going to assimilate, 08:23.666 --> 08:27.666 and keep our culture, but it wasn't good enough. 08:30.055 --> 08:32.948 There was gold discovered in their land 08:32.948 --> 08:36.980 and the state of Georgia moved to evict the Cherokee 08:36.980 --> 08:38.397 from their lands. 08:38.909 --> 08:43.064 Long story short, the Cherokee actually took it to court, 08:43.064 --> 08:47.231 took it all the way up, it's complicated in the courses, 08:47.656 --> 08:50.063 but the result was it went all the way 08:50.063 --> 08:52.513 to the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court decided 08:52.513 --> 08:56.599 in favor of the Cherokee and President Andrew Jackson 08:56.599 --> 08:59.177 went to bat, let the Supreme Court enforce it. 08:59.177 --> 09:03.344 So with the help of federal troops the state of Georgia 09:04.458 --> 09:07.541 evicted the Cherokee from their land, 09:07.958 --> 09:11.090 what became known as the Trail of Tears, 09:11.090 --> 09:13.926 which also included a number of other Indian tribes 09:13.926 --> 09:16.230 and spread over a number of years. 09:16.230 --> 09:19.730 And around 1838, thousands of Indians died 09:21.342 --> 09:25.509 going from North Carolina, Georgia, going to Oklahoma, 09:26.130 --> 09:29.630 which was intended to be Indian territory, 09:29.638 --> 09:31.657 in perpetuity, you guys can go live there 09:31.657 --> 09:34.324 and we won't bother you anymore. 09:35.272 --> 09:38.580 That only lasted for about another 30 years. 09:38.580 --> 09:42.080 Another event that we've largely forgotten 09:43.638 --> 09:47.345 in the United States but the Indians in Oklahoma haven't, 09:47.345 --> 09:50.786 1864, just west of Oklahoma, Colorado was a place called 09:50.786 --> 09:54.953 Sand Creek, a tribe of southern Cheyenne was there. 09:57.920 --> 10:00.230 They were there because the federal authorities 10:00.230 --> 10:03.275 told them to be there, Chief Black Kettle was one who 10:03.275 --> 10:07.275 his approach was to be at peace with the whites. 10:07.433 --> 10:10.058 Some of the young men had gone off and they were 10:10.058 --> 10:14.225 doing raids and things but this village was peaceful. 10:15.382 --> 10:17.914 And he had been told that if he flies an American flag 10:17.914 --> 10:22.081 over his dwelling, that his village would be protected. 10:25.201 --> 10:29.368 In 1864, his village was attacked by the Colorado militia, 10:34.200 --> 10:37.151 which basically massacred most of the Indians 10:37.151 --> 10:39.927 that were there, including many who had huddled 10:39.927 --> 10:43.217 under the United States flag for protection. 10:43.217 --> 10:46.384 Were gunned down, Chief Black Kettle's wife 10:46.384 --> 10:48.241 was crippled as a result. 10:48.241 --> 10:50.310 A number of other chiefs were killed, 10:50.310 --> 10:53.189 it happened to be all the chiefs that were in favor 10:53.189 --> 10:55.155 of peace with the whites. 10:55.155 --> 10:58.738 It was a long story, turned into a scandal, 10:58.952 --> 11:02.874 Black Kettle survived it, he refused to go on the warpath 11:02.874 --> 11:05.307 with other Cheyenne who after this attack 11:05.307 --> 11:08.885 said hey we're not putting up with this anymore. 11:08.885 --> 11:11.991 He moved to Oklahoma, was living in Washita Creek 11:11.991 --> 11:15.824 in Western Oklahoma when his village was again 11:16.836 --> 11:20.507 attacked by General Custer of the Seventh Cavalry. 11:20.507 --> 11:24.148 The village again was not part of any war party 11:24.148 --> 11:26.856 or anything but the Seventh Cavalry still killed 11:26.856 --> 11:29.939 over 100 of mostly women and children 11:30.208 --> 11:32.208 in the middle of winter. 11:32.530 --> 11:35.530 Black Kettle was crossing the river, 11:35.929 --> 11:38.864 carrying his crippled wife and they were both shot 11:38.864 --> 11:41.114 in the back by U.S. troops. 11:41.456 --> 11:44.173 So if you have a feeling that the Indians 11:44.173 --> 11:46.869 in Oklahoma might not have seen American history 11:46.869 --> 11:51.036 quite the same way that we do, now you get a sense 11:51.440 --> 11:53.107 of the flavor of it. 11:53.743 --> 11:56.194 So the fact that anyone, any Indian would choose 11:56.194 --> 11:58.263 to fight under the flag of the United States, 11:58.263 --> 12:01.017 I happen to find pretty amazing, and something that 12:01.017 --> 12:03.684 we all should be grateful today. 12:04.178 --> 12:06.386 But Ernest Evans chose to do so. 12:06.386 --> 12:08.803 He went to the Naval Academy. 12:09.045 --> 12:13.045 Some accounts say he was the first to go through 12:13.299 --> 12:16.049 the Academy, that's not accurate. 12:17.243 --> 12:21.243 The first was J.J. Clark, who graduated in 1917, 12:23.111 --> 12:26.694 Clark went on to be carrier group commander 12:26.696 --> 12:30.348 during the Second World War, and it was actually 12:30.348 --> 12:32.164 somebody who may have heard about 12:32.164 --> 12:34.287 the Battle of battle of Philippine Sea, 12:34.287 --> 12:36.068 where U.S. aircraft had gone on a very long range 12:36.068 --> 12:38.895 mission against the Japanese and they were 12:38.895 --> 12:40.965 coming back at night, and they were having a hard time 12:40.965 --> 12:42.715 finding the carriers. 12:42.742 --> 12:45.980 And most folks know that the Admiral Mitscher 12:45.980 --> 12:49.705 turned on the lights, so these planes could recover, 12:49.705 --> 12:51.416 taking a significant risk. 12:51.416 --> 12:53.035 Actually what happened was Clark 12:53.035 --> 12:55.088 was one of the carrier group commanders, 12:55.088 --> 12:57.307 he turned on his lights, told Mitscher what he had done 12:57.307 --> 13:01.474 and then Mitscher said good idea, turned on all the lights. 13:02.579 --> 13:06.664 And then Clark went on to command all U.S. carrier forces 13:06.664 --> 13:09.581 during the Korean War off of Korea. 13:10.152 --> 13:13.048 The second to graduate was John Waldron, 13:13.048 --> 13:16.214 who was the skipper of Torpedo Squadron 8 13:16.214 --> 13:19.249 at the Battle of Midway, that the entire squadron 13:19.249 --> 13:23.167 was shot down during an attack on the Japanese carriers, 13:23.167 --> 13:25.084 one survivor from that. 13:26.330 --> 13:29.703 But that attack was actually critical in how it affected 13:29.703 --> 13:32.905 the Japanese combat air patrol and was key 13:32.905 --> 13:36.572 to the eventual U.S. victory in that battle. 13:38.586 --> 13:42.086 Ernest Evans graduated in 1934, so he was, 13:42.275 --> 13:45.683 as far as I know the third through the Naval Academy. 13:45.683 --> 13:48.933 Endured a lot of prejudice at the time, 13:50.555 --> 13:52.388 but he got through it. 13:56.122 --> 13:58.275 He originally wanted to be a marine, 13:58.275 --> 14:01.259 and he had some sort of injury that precluded that, 14:01.259 --> 14:04.610 he wound up enlisting in the navy and he entered 14:04.610 --> 14:07.832 the academy as a result of fleet wide competition 14:07.832 --> 14:11.999 to get in after being a sailor for a little over a year. 14:12.436 --> 14:15.936 He had a normal kind of career after that, 14:17.393 --> 14:19.546 back then it was a lot of time at sea. 14:19.546 --> 14:22.213 If I could go to the next slide. 14:22.233 --> 14:25.233 And so when World War II breaks out, 14:26.032 --> 14:29.682 he's the executive officer on this World War I 14:29.682 --> 14:32.960 vintage destroyer called the Alden, and they're part 14:32.960 --> 14:34.710 of the Asiatic fleet. 14:35.382 --> 14:38.624 And the Asiatic fleet at the time consisted of 14:38.624 --> 14:42.791 one heavy cruiser and about nine destroyers like this. 14:44.362 --> 14:48.529 And when the war started the Japanese overran everything 14:49.209 --> 14:52.893 in the far east basically, these ships and others 14:52.893 --> 14:56.641 like them had no chance of standing up to the Japanese. 14:56.641 --> 15:00.058 But the ship did fight in what was called 15:02.488 --> 15:06.405 the Battle of the Java Sea in February of 1942, 15:07.041 --> 15:10.791 which was actually a case study in everything 15:11.002 --> 15:14.919 that could go wrong with a coalition operation. 15:16.704 --> 15:20.871 The admiral in charge was Dutch, he didn't speak English. 15:21.061 --> 15:25.061 The force included United States, Dutch, British 15:25.900 --> 15:30.067 and Australian ships, even the U.S. and the British ships, 15:30.884 --> 15:34.503 we had different communication systems, different flag 15:34.503 --> 15:37.371 voice signals, very very difficult for that group 15:37.371 --> 15:38.788 to work together. 15:40.426 --> 15:43.086 And they went out in an attempt to stop the Japanese 15:43.086 --> 15:46.063 invasion force from getting to the island of Java 15:46.063 --> 15:49.313 and it turned into an utter catastrophe 15:49.769 --> 15:53.186 where most of the Allied ships were lost, 15:53.865 --> 15:58.032 the U.S. destroyers were sent too early in the attack, 15:59.266 --> 16:02.147 expended their torpedoes, and then were detached, 16:02.147 --> 16:05.230 which Ernest Evans didn't understand, 16:05.889 --> 16:08.952 because we still had guns, we could still fight. 16:08.952 --> 16:12.423 At that time of the war U.S. torpedoes didn't work 16:12.423 --> 16:16.590 for the most part, so even if they had hit the Japanese 16:16.827 --> 16:19.160 they wouldn't have exploded. 16:19.912 --> 16:24.079 But this ship and several of the other U.S. destroyers 16:24.152 --> 16:26.515 successfully evacuated from the Java Sea. 16:26.515 --> 16:29.932 One ship that didn't was the USS Houston, 16:30.080 --> 16:33.497 which was the heavy cruiser, commanded by 16:34.162 --> 16:37.291 Captain Albert Rooks, who was actually kind of 16:37.291 --> 16:40.291 a mentor and a hero to Ernest Evans, 16:43.306 --> 16:46.973 because the Houston had survived for 89 days 16:47.464 --> 16:51.131 in a combat zone with no friendly air cover, 16:52.338 --> 16:56.171 had fought a number of battles and at one time 16:56.820 --> 17:00.987 got hit by a bomb, was took out her number three turret, 17:01.518 --> 17:05.268 and Albert Rooks refused to take his ship out 17:06.226 --> 17:08.263 for repairs because it was the biggest ship 17:08.263 --> 17:09.930 that the Allies had. 17:11.291 --> 17:12.842 So he had the option to leave 17:12.842 --> 17:15.425 and he chose to stay and fight. 17:16.010 --> 17:18.304 The Houston survived the battle of Java Sea 17:18.304 --> 17:21.454 but the night after along with Australian cruiser... 17:21.454 --> 17:25.009 When trying to flee the Houston and the Perth turned 17:25.009 --> 17:28.676 to attack the invasion force, at which point 17:28.760 --> 17:31.333 they were overwhelmed by the Japanese escorts. 17:31.333 --> 17:34.984 Japanese fired over 90 torpedoes at the two cruisers, 17:34.984 --> 17:38.984 they both went down, they were basically swarmed 17:39.202 --> 17:42.852 by Japanese escorts close enough to be exchanging 17:42.852 --> 17:45.602 small arms fire between the ships 17:46.077 --> 17:49.160 and Houston and Perth were both lost. 17:49.331 --> 17:51.474 Rooks was killed in the battle. 17:51.474 --> 17:54.050 No one knew what happened until after the war. 17:54.050 --> 17:57.446 But Ernest Evans had always viewed Rooks as a role model. 17:57.446 --> 18:01.613 This is a guy who's not gonna run, he's gonna fight 18:01.841 --> 18:04.424 and that's exactly what he did. 18:04.529 --> 18:08.120 So when Evans came away from this battle it was 18:08.120 --> 18:12.287 basically with a sting of defeat, and not only defeat, 18:12.995 --> 18:16.995 it was an utter catastrophe, so his mind was at, 18:17.965 --> 18:21.257 I'm gonna, I wanna get back into the fight, 18:21.257 --> 18:23.924 because this is no way to do it. 18:24.334 --> 18:28.084 Shortly after the battle as the ship came out 18:29.086 --> 18:32.962 he fleeted up to be the commanding officer of this ship, 18:32.962 --> 18:36.629 went back to the states, spent the next year 18:37.580 --> 18:41.247 doing rear area escort work in the Caribbean 18:41.329 --> 18:45.496 and other places, pretty much thinking that the war 18:45.571 --> 18:49.738 had passed him by and not particularly happy about it. 18:50.266 --> 18:51.599 But, next slide. 18:53.649 --> 18:56.513 And then he gets the call to be the commissioning 18:56.513 --> 19:00.025 commanding officer of a new Fletcher-class destroyer, 19:00.025 --> 19:01.442 the USS Johnston. 19:02.166 --> 19:05.226 Fletcher-class, you have five five inch guns, 19:05.226 --> 19:08.309 two five inch banks of torpedo tubes, 19:08.807 --> 19:11.900 her version was one of the earlier ones, 19:11.900 --> 19:14.831 so she didn't have the same anti-aircraft suite 19:14.831 --> 19:18.269 that some of the later ones did, and some of the earlier 19:18.269 --> 19:21.687 ones had been refitted with the anti-aircraft guns. 19:21.687 --> 19:24.267 So she wound up being more or less consigned 19:24.267 --> 19:28.267 to shore bombardment and escort duty rather than 19:29.268 --> 19:31.640 working with the aircraft carriers. 19:31.640 --> 19:35.390 But Ernest Evans, I told you about his speech 19:35.526 --> 19:38.849 at the commissioning ceremony, and that's exactly 19:38.849 --> 19:41.865 what he did, he quickly developed a reputation 19:41.865 --> 19:45.229 for being the destroyer that would go in closest 19:45.229 --> 19:47.896 to the beach in order to provide 19:48.522 --> 19:51.689 gunfire support to the marines ashore. 19:55.721 --> 19:58.598 And frequently he would get close enough to be 19:58.598 --> 20:01.607 within 40 millimeter range of the shore. 20:01.607 --> 20:04.557 Very very effective, very very dangerous, 20:04.557 --> 20:07.974 but he pulled it off without getting hit. 20:08.663 --> 20:11.913 As some of you may know Admiral Nelson, 20:12.855 --> 20:15.013 the famous British admiral once said 20:15.013 --> 20:19.180 a ship's a fool that fights a fort, dueling shore batteries 20:19.708 --> 20:23.291 is extremely dangerous, Battleship Colorado 20:23.453 --> 20:27.074 that was the one that missed the Pearl Harbor attack, 20:27.074 --> 20:30.324 got hit by shore batteries off of Guam, 20:30.689 --> 20:34.856 lost over 100 crewmen, it was actually dangerous business. 20:36.518 --> 20:39.795 Along the way they sank a submarine, the I-176, 20:39.795 --> 20:43.212 with the ship, but basically he went from 20:44.743 --> 20:47.626 the Marshall Islands to the Marianas Islands 20:47.626 --> 20:51.561 to the Caroline Islands, providing this very very effective 20:51.561 --> 20:55.478 close in gunfire support to the marines ashore. 20:55.974 --> 20:56.891 Next slide. 20:58.980 --> 21:01.603 So to give you a sense of what's going on is, 21:01.603 --> 21:05.270 the Pacific had been divided into two areas. 21:05.545 --> 21:07.866 One under Admiral Nimitz, one on General MacArthur, 21:07.866 --> 21:12.033 big fight over as we started the advance up New Guinea 21:13.066 --> 21:15.318 and through the Central Pacific. 21:15.318 --> 21:18.255 Do you invade Formosa, do you invade the Philippines, 21:18.255 --> 21:20.732 do you go straight to Japan, do you land on the coast 21:20.732 --> 21:24.748 of China, I won't get into all that but it wound up 21:24.748 --> 21:27.248 a Presidential level decision. 21:27.914 --> 21:31.154 And MacArthur had promised that he was going to get 21:31.154 --> 21:34.020 back into the Philippines after the Japanese had 21:34.020 --> 21:36.399 brought him out at the start of the war, 21:36.399 --> 21:39.471 and so that's what was decided to happen. 21:39.471 --> 21:43.638 Now, the issue that happens here is that MacArthur 21:44.103 --> 21:46.466 has his own navy if you will. 21:46.466 --> 21:50.633 It's navy, it's the Seventh Fleet, under Admiral Kincaid, 21:51.383 --> 21:55.550 it's got the older battleships, these escort carriers. 21:56.676 --> 22:00.690 Ernest Evans and his group winds up within MacArtur's navy 22:00.690 --> 22:03.425 if you will, meanwhile the big carriers 22:03.425 --> 22:07.422 and the big battleships are under Admiral Halsey, 22:07.422 --> 22:09.672 working for Admiral Nimitz. 22:10.138 --> 22:12.743 And when they invaded the Philippines they kind of erased 22:12.743 --> 22:15.493 this line here with the carriers. 22:16.956 --> 22:19.654 Okay we're gonna support the invasion unless we find 22:19.654 --> 22:23.225 better targets elsewhere like enemy carriers. 22:23.225 --> 22:25.758 And then the old battleships and the small carriers 22:25.758 --> 22:28.341 will support Kincaid's forward. 22:28.617 --> 22:31.302 So it's kind of fuzzy where the boundary was actually, 22:31.302 --> 22:34.468 between the two forces which will come into play here 22:34.468 --> 22:35.968 in a moment, next. 22:36.414 --> 22:39.997 So the initial landing was determined to be 22:40.481 --> 22:44.648 this island of Leyte here and then follow on operations 22:44.661 --> 22:48.411 would go on to Luzon and the capital, Manila. 22:50.432 --> 22:53.921 So MacArthur's invasion fleet is parked off 22:53.921 --> 22:56.894 in Leyte Gulf here, troops going to shore here 22:56.894 --> 23:01.061 the escort carriers are operating out in this area. 23:01.171 --> 23:03.800 There's two other groups besides Taffy 3, 23:03.800 --> 23:07.967 which is the one that Ernest Evans is attached to. 23:08.735 --> 23:11.598 And then there's the southern entry to 23:11.598 --> 23:13.287 this place called Surigao Strait. 23:13.287 --> 23:14.454 So next slide. 23:15.946 --> 23:18.669 The Japanese understood that the Philippines fall, 23:18.669 --> 23:20.002 the war is over. 23:20.307 --> 23:23.635 They started the war to get the oil and the supplies 23:23.635 --> 23:25.635 from down here to Japan. 23:27.147 --> 23:28.744 Well they weren't doing a very good job, 23:28.744 --> 23:31.460 because U.S. submarines were sinking most of it 23:31.460 --> 23:33.377 before it got to Japan. 23:33.458 --> 23:35.655 But they knew if the United States took the Philippines 23:35.655 --> 23:38.318 then there's no way they could get these raw materials 23:38.318 --> 23:40.825 and stuff to Japan, so then it just becomes 23:40.825 --> 23:43.575 a matter of time until they lose. 23:44.023 --> 23:46.185 So the Japanese decide they're gonna defend 23:46.185 --> 23:50.234 the Philippines and it's gonna be a do or die operation. 23:50.234 --> 23:53.401 You either win or you don't come home. 23:53.740 --> 23:56.281 So in typical Japanese fashion they came up with this 23:56.281 --> 24:00.448 very very complex plan and it included multiple groups, 24:01.991 --> 24:04.158 two groups of battleships. 24:04.702 --> 24:08.369 The main effort was this central force here, 24:08.683 --> 24:11.147 which had the two big battleships, Yamato and Musashi, 24:11.147 --> 24:13.145 bunch of other battleships. 24:13.145 --> 24:16.010 And then two older battleships were gonna come in 24:16.010 --> 24:18.836 from the south, there was a cruiser group 24:18.836 --> 24:21.031 that kind of complicates it, they were gonna join up 24:21.031 --> 24:22.522 with this group here. 24:22.522 --> 24:24.625 And then they're gonna send a carrier decoy force 24:24.625 --> 24:26.292 down from the north. 24:27.900 --> 24:29.554 By this time of the war almost all Japanese 24:29.554 --> 24:32.611 aircraft carrier planes had been shot down or lost. 24:32.611 --> 24:35.193 So these carriers only have about 20 airplanes 24:35.193 --> 24:37.276 between the four of them. 24:38.035 --> 24:42.202 But there's intelligence reporting to that effect, 24:42.639 --> 24:44.765 but Admiral Halsey doesn't really trust 24:44.765 --> 24:47.098 the particular intelligence. 24:47.317 --> 24:51.150 So what happens is that U.S. aircraft discover 24:51.799 --> 24:55.549 these two forces coming up and they just bomb 24:55.780 --> 24:57.865 the bajeezus out of both of them. 24:57.865 --> 24:59.698 This one keeps coming. 24:59.913 --> 25:03.496 This one turns back, they lose the Musashi, 25:04.002 --> 25:06.335 which is the big battleship. 25:06.395 --> 25:09.794 The problem is the successive waves of carrier aircraft 25:09.794 --> 25:11.377 that are coming in. 25:11.539 --> 25:14.763 The Musashi sucked up so many bombs and so many torpedoes, 25:14.763 --> 25:17.596 that every time new planes came in 25:18.345 --> 25:20.721 they think they're sinking a different ship 25:20.721 --> 25:23.471 and they're just bombing the same ship over and over 25:23.471 --> 25:24.721 and over again. 25:24.963 --> 25:27.000 The last thing they see is that this force 25:27.000 --> 25:29.140 is withdrawing, going back this way. 25:29.140 --> 25:33.307 And in the meantime, this carrier force is sighted. 25:33.430 --> 25:35.138 And Halsey goes for it. 25:35.138 --> 25:38.876 Its decoy, the Japanese have been studying Halsey, 25:38.876 --> 25:41.823 they figure out how do we draw him off 25:41.823 --> 25:43.573 and it worked to a T. 25:45.557 --> 25:48.807 So the big carriers and the battleships 25:51.909 --> 25:54.659 all go charging off to the north, 25:54.789 --> 25:57.177 the eventually sink all four of the Japanese carriers. 25:57.177 --> 25:59.572 This group comes chugging through, two old battleships 25:59.572 --> 26:01.405 in the Suragao Strait. 26:01.446 --> 26:05.090 They run into the old battleships that the United States 26:05.090 --> 26:06.340 has down there. 26:07.087 --> 26:09.548 Several of these are Pearl Harbor survivors. 26:09.548 --> 26:11.870 Battleships which were sunk at Pearl Harbor, 26:11.870 --> 26:14.135 raised, re-floated, refitted modernized 26:14.135 --> 26:16.203 and there's about six of them and two of these. 26:16.203 --> 26:19.695 Had a whole bunch of ships were U.S. destroyers 26:19.695 --> 26:22.180 and the Japanese fleet just gets massacred 26:22.180 --> 26:23.763 going through here. 26:24.856 --> 26:26.101 Basically nothing gets through, 26:26.101 --> 26:28.768 maybe a destroyer escapes or so. 26:29.628 --> 26:33.795 But overnight, these guys turn back and no one knew it. 26:35.385 --> 26:37.885 And Kincaid thinks that Halsey 26:41.017 --> 26:43.850 has San Bernardino Strait covered. 26:44.120 --> 26:45.918 Halsey thinks Kincaid has 26:45.918 --> 26:47.928 San Bernardino Strait covered. 26:47.928 --> 26:51.551 Kincaid actually hedged his bet, sent an aircraft 26:51.551 --> 26:55.435 through there at night just to be on the safe side. 26:55.435 --> 26:58.602 Perfect timing so that it went through 26:59.031 --> 27:01.877 and the Japanese go through, it comes back out, 27:01.877 --> 27:03.627 doesn't see anything. 27:04.202 --> 27:06.324 So the Japanese, this whole battleship force, 27:06.324 --> 27:08.805 gets through the strait and they're coming down 27:08.805 --> 27:10.805 the coast of Samar here. 27:11.058 --> 27:14.077 And no one has a clue they're there until the morning 27:14.077 --> 27:16.884 of 25th October and that's when Taffy 3 gets 27:16.884 --> 27:19.568 the word that hey, the whole Japanese fleet 27:19.568 --> 27:20.985 is coming for ya. 27:22.194 --> 27:25.444 So it's a huge big flail back and forth 27:28.062 --> 27:31.589 to say hey who's got it covered, who's gonna support it, 27:31.589 --> 27:34.344 the old battleship has shot most of their ammunition, 27:34.344 --> 27:37.094 they can't get there fast enough. 27:37.668 --> 27:39.775 Halsey's battleships are out of position up here. 27:39.775 --> 27:43.301 His carriers are out of position and so it's basically 27:43.301 --> 27:47.468 if this force gets through these six escort carriers 27:48.439 --> 27:52.248 and their escorts, then they are into the supply ships 27:52.248 --> 27:56.042 and the troop ships and it's gonna be a massacre. 27:56.042 --> 27:58.506 It's gonna be a catastrophe, so there's a lot riding 27:58.506 --> 28:01.673 on what these small group of ships do. 28:02.604 --> 28:03.521 Next slide. 28:05.766 --> 28:07.093 I won't drag you through all this, it's just, 28:07.093 --> 28:09.684 like I said there's three of these carrier 28:09.684 --> 28:13.175 escort carrier task groups operating out there 28:13.175 --> 28:15.871 and this is the one that the Japanese encounter first. 28:15.871 --> 28:19.244 And Johnston and two destroyers and then three other 28:19.244 --> 28:22.423 smaller destroyer escorts are responsible 28:22.423 --> 28:24.590 for protecting that force. 28:26.133 --> 28:27.050 Next slide. 28:29.141 --> 28:33.224 I talked about already how this is the U.S. force 28:33.457 --> 28:37.203 initially turns east to launch all the aircraft, 28:37.203 --> 28:40.138 then they turn south and start to run. 28:40.138 --> 28:42.850 Japanese cut the corner, and then it turns into 28:42.850 --> 28:44.933 a tail chase going south. 28:46.224 --> 28:50.125 So what Ernest Evans does with his single-handed charge, 28:50.125 --> 28:53.652 he comes out of the smoke screen, the Japanese start 28:53.652 --> 28:57.681 firing at him, he's going through, just a torrential 28:57.681 --> 29:01.514 fire storm of Japanese fire, and he's able to, 29:03.136 --> 29:05.962 the general tactic at the time is if the shell 29:05.962 --> 29:08.502 splashes in front of you, you steer for that, 29:08.502 --> 29:12.292 figuring the enemy's gonna compensate, okay too short, 29:12.292 --> 29:14.939 too long, and so the ideas being the shells 29:14.939 --> 29:17.418 are not gonna land at the same place twice. 29:17.418 --> 29:18.918 It actually works. 29:19.440 --> 29:21.774 And so he's dodging, weaving his way through 29:21.774 --> 29:24.024 all these shells coming in. 29:24.207 --> 29:27.207 And kinda miraculously he's not hit. 29:27.542 --> 29:31.125 He gets close to the Japanese, he takes aim 29:32.140 --> 29:35.689 at the lead heavy cruiser, which has the flag officer 29:35.689 --> 29:39.452 in charge of the Japanese cruiser destroyer force. 29:39.452 --> 29:41.869 He closes within the cruiser. 29:42.604 --> 29:46.771 His guns, five inch guns on a destroyer are not likely 29:48.106 --> 29:51.510 to sink a cruiser, but they pack a wallop and they do 29:51.510 --> 29:53.427 maximum topside damage. 29:53.652 --> 29:57.233 And the U.S. has a new radar directed fire control system 29:57.233 --> 29:59.296 which is actually really good. 29:59.296 --> 30:03.046 And so these five inch guns are blazing away, 30:03.264 --> 30:07.379 and they're doing damage on the topside of this cruiser 30:07.379 --> 30:10.778 really bad, and he gets away all 10 torpedoes. 30:10.778 --> 30:14.028 Not sure the Japanese say only one hit, 30:16.076 --> 30:19.149 the folks on the Johnston think three hits, 30:19.149 --> 30:20.828 but generally is really hard to tell. 30:20.828 --> 30:23.507 When the enemy shoots at ya and their guns 30:23.507 --> 30:25.739 are blazing, it's hard to tell whether the explosion 30:25.739 --> 30:27.787 was gunfire or your torpedo. 30:27.787 --> 30:31.515 At least one of them hit and blew the bow off 30:31.515 --> 30:35.682 of the Kumano, causing her to come to a complete stop. 30:36.699 --> 30:40.279 The damage eventually proved mortal but not immediately. 30:40.279 --> 30:43.770 The second cruiser, the Suzuya pulled up to take 30:43.770 --> 30:46.725 the admiral aboard, and as a result, 30:46.725 --> 30:50.231 because this is turning into a tail chase situation, 30:50.231 --> 30:53.165 by the time that happens, essentially Evans has taken 30:53.165 --> 30:57.101 two of the six heavy cruisers out of the battle. 30:57.101 --> 30:59.710 They never catch up, never get in. 30:59.710 --> 31:03.460 And after this, the Johnston's luck runs out. 31:04.044 --> 31:07.461 She takes three hits by battleship shells 31:07.673 --> 31:11.840 that come, hit the Johnston and several more six inch 31:12.605 --> 31:16.772 shells from the light cruisers, destroy the bridge area. 31:16.872 --> 31:21.039 Ernest Evans is severely injured, part of his hand's 31:22.659 --> 31:25.615 blown off, shrapnel all over, shirt's blown off. 31:25.615 --> 31:29.782 The bridge basically becomes uninhabitable due to flames, 31:30.038 --> 31:32.871 so he moves back to after control. 31:33.086 --> 31:36.176 He winds up for the rest of the battle, 31:36.176 --> 31:39.343 steering the ship on the fan tail down 31:40.352 --> 31:42.658 into emergency steering back aft 31:42.658 --> 31:45.369 and that's how they get through the rest of the battle. 31:45.369 --> 31:48.702 But he's able to duck into a rain storm, 31:49.061 --> 31:51.478 which gives momentary relief. 31:51.731 --> 31:55.600 By this time the task group commander's decided 31:55.600 --> 31:58.379 to finally reach a conclusion, there's no way 31:58.379 --> 32:00.296 they're gonna get away. 32:00.617 --> 32:04.784 So he orders the wolves to attack, which is a code word 32:05.493 --> 32:08.481 for the destroyer, so the Heerman and the Hoel 32:08.481 --> 32:11.720 turn to do what Ernest Evans and the Johnston 32:11.720 --> 32:15.887 has already done, and the commander of the destroyer 32:16.059 --> 32:20.226 escort, Samuel B. Roberts technically the destroyer 32:21.600 --> 32:24.765 escorts were the little wolves, but he went, 32:24.765 --> 32:27.432 to hell with that I'm going too. 32:27.451 --> 32:31.034 So Samuel B. Roberts, Johnston and the Hoel 32:31.424 --> 32:35.424 then proceed to attack the Japanese battleships, 32:35.640 --> 32:37.223 the Japanese force. 32:37.650 --> 32:39.936 I'm not sure which slide that comes up here. 32:39.936 --> 32:43.103 Yeah, okay, well before I get to this, 32:44.366 --> 32:48.366 this is a view for one of the aircraft carriers, 32:48.546 --> 32:51.296 they're getting the planes off the deck, 32:51.296 --> 32:53.776 this is actually developing early in the battle. 32:53.776 --> 32:56.116 You see there's another escort carrier back here. 32:56.116 --> 32:59.083 Japanese shells are falling all around and the carrier 32:59.083 --> 33:00.916 is trying to get away. 33:01.713 --> 33:04.770 So the two destroyers and the destroyer escort 33:04.770 --> 33:07.853 are ordered to go after the Japanese. 33:08.286 --> 33:12.279 The commander of the Samuel B. Roberts gives one of the, 33:12.279 --> 33:16.446 more famous, 1MC calls in the history of the U.S. Navy. 33:19.563 --> 33:22.896 He gets on the 1MC to his crew and says, 33:24.950 --> 33:27.255 we are going into battle against overwhelming odds, 33:27.255 --> 33:29.626 from which survival cannot be expected. 33:29.626 --> 33:32.002 We will do what damage we can. 33:32.002 --> 33:33.502 And off they went. 33:35.547 --> 33:39.214 With the other three ships coming in against 33:40.500 --> 33:44.292 the Japanese, Evans brought his destroyer which now 33:44.292 --> 33:48.459 has only half speed, half the guns that he started with, 33:48.837 --> 33:52.754 he brings it out of the rain squall in order to 33:53.561 --> 33:57.285 provide support to the other three destroyers going in. 33:57.285 --> 34:00.777 And during this period, he actually engages directly 34:00.777 --> 34:03.194 with the Japanese battleship. 34:03.264 --> 34:07.115 The other three ships are performing heroically as well. 34:07.115 --> 34:09.647 They're going up against battleships, against heavy cruisers 34:09.647 --> 34:10.814 duking it out. 34:11.516 --> 34:14.638 In the meantime the aircraft which had been launched 34:14.638 --> 34:17.965 are also buzzing around the Japanese attacking, 34:17.965 --> 34:21.965 even those that don't have ammunition are flying 34:21.984 --> 34:25.598 fake strafing runs on the Japanese under the theory that 34:25.598 --> 34:29.123 if they're shooting at me they're not shooting 34:29.123 --> 34:32.223 at someone else who's carrying a bomb. 34:32.223 --> 34:33.703 And none of it is doing mortal damage to the Japanese 34:33.703 --> 34:37.203 but it's like a swarm of bees if you will, 34:38.038 --> 34:40.920 this big giant beast, and then you've got these destroyers, 34:40.920 --> 34:43.370 and it's messing up the timing, 34:43.370 --> 34:47.120 it's fouling up the whole Japanese operation. 34:47.913 --> 34:51.046 The Japanese commander who's been awake for about 48 hours 34:51.046 --> 34:55.129 is convinced that these are big SX class carriers 34:55.150 --> 34:58.233 that he's being attacked by cruisers. 34:58.445 --> 35:00.841 He's not believing that just a bunch of destroyers 35:00.841 --> 35:03.091 that are doing this to him. 35:03.409 --> 35:04.326 Next slide. 35:05.448 --> 35:08.633 This is the Samuel B. Roberts, I talked about, 35:08.633 --> 35:11.550 Captain Robert Copeland was the CO. 35:12.913 --> 35:15.859 A little bit of a side story on this. 35:15.859 --> 35:19.609 She fights valiantly, also goes up one on one 35:19.717 --> 35:23.836 against a Japanese battleship before she's finally sunk. 35:23.836 --> 35:27.836 There's a second Samuel B. Roberts, that served, 35:28.376 --> 35:31.986 gearing class destroyer, served in the Cold War, 35:31.986 --> 35:34.381 Cuban Missile Crisis off of Vietnam, and the third, 35:34.381 --> 35:36.881 which was the frigate, FFG-58. 35:40.987 --> 35:43.798 She's the one that hit the mine in the Arabian Gulf 35:43.798 --> 35:45.548 in 1988 and survived. 35:46.909 --> 35:49.676 But when the third one was commissioned, the CO 35:49.676 --> 35:51.843 who was Captain Paul Rinn, 35:52.473 --> 35:55.421 had this plaque made up, has the names of everyone 35:55.421 --> 35:58.643 on the ship that was on the Samuel B. Roberts 35:58.643 --> 36:00.143 off of Leyte Gulf. 36:00.621 --> 36:03.374 And he made a big deal on how he trained his crew, 36:03.374 --> 36:06.374 because he was the commissioning CO. 36:06.953 --> 36:10.428 In using the legacy of valor of this ship, 36:10.428 --> 36:14.345 and instilling within the crew aboard that hey, 36:14.889 --> 36:18.744 you're living up to a legacy, and also really good training, 36:18.744 --> 36:21.332 really good equipment, no way around that. 36:21.332 --> 36:25.171 But when the Roberts hit the Iranian mine she's burning, 36:25.171 --> 36:28.171 she's sinking, in desperate trouble. 36:28.481 --> 36:31.162 And crews that were fighting the fires are seen 36:31.162 --> 36:34.745 to go past this plaque, and put their hand on it, 36:34.745 --> 36:37.752 to okay, you guys, it's our turn now. 36:37.752 --> 36:41.919 And they saved that ship, from computer modeling afterwards 36:42.556 --> 36:45.223 says that ship should have sunk. 36:46.473 --> 36:49.676 Whether it's intangible, makes a difference, who knows. 36:49.676 --> 36:52.438 Hard to tell, especially with the bean counters, 36:52.438 --> 36:55.910 but I would submit, something that gives you just that 36:55.910 --> 36:58.714 little bit extra edge makes a difference. 36:58.714 --> 36:59.631 Next slide. 37:01.074 --> 37:05.241 So, battle's still going on, carriers are still running, 37:05.749 --> 37:08.286 Japanese are getting closer and closer. 37:08.286 --> 37:11.639 Finally one of the carriers, the Gambier Bay gets hit, 37:11.639 --> 37:13.972 she's starting to drop back. 37:14.950 --> 37:18.296 One of these ships, these escort carriers don't have much 37:18.296 --> 37:20.558 in the way of guns, they've got one five inch gun 37:20.558 --> 37:24.725 on the stern, so they figured if they ever had to use it 37:26.200 --> 37:28.105 it's because they're running away from something. 37:28.105 --> 37:31.921 And the one on the Kitkun Bay got basically a lucky hit 37:31.921 --> 37:33.487 on one of the Japanese cruisers, 37:33.487 --> 37:35.594 right in her torpedo banks, 37:35.594 --> 37:37.501 which caused catastrophic explosion 37:37.501 --> 37:40.751 and that ship, ultimately sank as well. 37:41.484 --> 37:43.946 But the Japanese destroyers are getting closer, 37:43.946 --> 37:46.190 the Japanese cruisers are getting closer, 37:46.190 --> 37:49.346 and the ship is still alive, still mobile 37:49.346 --> 37:52.346 and by this time Hoel has gone down, 37:53.035 --> 37:55.532 Samuel B. Roberts has gone down, the Heerman 37:55.532 --> 37:57.912 has been pounded into wreckage, 37:57.912 --> 38:00.579 and he attacks this group again. 38:02.245 --> 38:05.436 And he draws fire from a Japanese heavy cruiser 38:05.436 --> 38:08.507 that allowed these guys to get just a little bit further, 38:08.507 --> 38:11.840 then he attacked the Japanese destroyers. 38:11.840 --> 38:14.704 And he basically faked them out if you will 38:14.704 --> 38:17.472 and got them to fire their torpedoes too early, 38:17.472 --> 38:20.442 so that by the time the torpedoes are starting 38:20.442 --> 38:22.439 to catch up to the carriers, they're basically 38:22.439 --> 38:24.689 out of juice and out of gas 38:24.935 --> 38:26.828 and they're able to avoid them. 38:26.828 --> 38:30.328 So only one of the six carriers goes down, 38:30.484 --> 38:33.218 several others have been damaged, 38:33.218 --> 38:36.635 by this time Johnston's luck has run out, 38:36.944 --> 38:39.811 she's taken hits from all over the place. 38:39.811 --> 38:43.728 But at this critical time where Admiral Kurita, 38:45.945 --> 38:49.195 he's on supposedly a do or die mission. 38:49.939 --> 38:52.815 And he's got victory within his grasp, 38:52.815 --> 38:55.148 and he chooses to turn away. 38:57.152 --> 38:59.170 One of the most baffling decisions, 38:59.170 --> 39:03.337 part of it was because the aircraft and the destroyers, 39:04.643 --> 39:08.321 they can't sink ships that big, but all the hits 39:08.321 --> 39:11.551 they are taking, it's carnage up on the upper decks 39:11.551 --> 39:15.492 of these ships, I mean, they're taking a beating too. 39:15.492 --> 39:17.651 But for whatever reason he loses his nerve 39:17.651 --> 39:19.151 and he turns away. 39:21.503 --> 39:25.099 And the result is what could have been a catastrophe 39:25.099 --> 39:29.182 turns into a great victory for the United States. 39:29.240 --> 39:31.834 Almost all his ships get bombed and sunk by aircraft 39:31.834 --> 39:33.167 on the way back. 39:36.360 --> 39:37.277 Next slide. 39:38.640 --> 39:41.538 And just another one, that's Gambier Bay going down. 39:41.538 --> 39:44.139 I kept trying to have my guys, there's a series 39:44.139 --> 39:47.111 of photos here, but in one of them, and actually, 39:47.111 --> 39:49.330 it's not the two that they picked. 39:49.330 --> 39:51.446 You can actually see one of the Japanese cruisers firing 39:51.446 --> 39:55.613 and it's the only shot from World War II that shows 39:55.737 --> 39:59.237 Japanese ships and U.S. ships in the same, 39:59.640 --> 40:01.765 except for some night shots where you can tell what's what. 40:01.765 --> 40:04.476 But the only shot where you can see a Japanese ship 40:04.476 --> 40:06.309 firing on a U.S. ship. 40:06.846 --> 40:07.763 Next slide. 40:10.274 --> 40:13.691 So Johnston is still afloat at this time. 40:14.719 --> 40:18.886 Japanese destroyers have been ordered to withdraw. 40:19.010 --> 40:22.519 They're madder than heck about it because they think 40:22.519 --> 40:25.994 they're about to sink all these U.S. ships, 40:25.994 --> 40:28.207 so Johnston's the only thing that's left. 40:28.207 --> 40:31.969 So about 10 Japanese destroyers on the way back 40:31.969 --> 40:35.316 they just go past Johnston, they're pouring fire 40:35.316 --> 40:37.186 into her from all around, 40:37.186 --> 40:38.626 and still she won't go down. 40:38.626 --> 40:42.793 Finally she does and the last Japanese destroyer skipper 40:52.595 --> 40:55.512 salutes the Johnston as they go by. 41:02.416 --> 41:05.293 Because they never expected, you know this kind of samurai 41:05.293 --> 41:09.032 attack if you will was something they expected 41:09.032 --> 41:12.261 their ships to do, they never expected that U.S. ships 41:12.261 --> 41:14.508 would do something like that. 41:14.508 --> 41:15.758 So, next slide. 41:17.193 --> 41:21.039 So at the end of the battle the carriers get away, 41:21.039 --> 41:23.166 the other two escort carrier groups, 41:23.166 --> 41:24.920 they're flying aircraft up, 41:24.920 --> 41:27.734 Japanese are going backwards, the U.S. carriers 41:27.734 --> 41:30.199 are getting, the other aircraft are getting into range. 41:30.199 --> 41:32.970 And almost all the Japanese ships get sunk 41:32.970 --> 41:34.303 on the way back. 41:35.618 --> 41:38.285 And the invasion fleet is saved. 41:38.751 --> 41:39.668 Next slide. 41:40.826 --> 41:42.567 This is one of the aerial shots. 41:42.567 --> 41:45.973 This is the Yamoto, Japanese heavy cruiser here. 41:45.973 --> 41:50.140 And it's taken from the aircraft, and you can tell, 41:51.304 --> 41:55.096 she's suffering damage, nothing that's gonna sink her, 41:55.096 --> 41:56.846 not this time around. 41:58.383 --> 42:01.276 She'll survive the battle, but even just plain strafing 42:01.276 --> 42:05.193 is causing damage and death up on the top sides 42:07.076 --> 42:10.587 of the ships, and this picture was taken just before 42:10.587 --> 42:13.920 Furuta made the decision to turn around. 42:14.627 --> 42:15.544 Next slide. 42:17.748 --> 42:21.524 And for reasons that still remain a bit of a mystery 42:21.524 --> 42:25.691 the crews of the Johnston, the Roberts and the Hoel 42:28.595 --> 42:32.345 wound up in the water for close to three days 42:32.971 --> 42:35.804 before they were actually rescued. 42:35.857 --> 42:40.024 And of the Johnston, she lost 186 crew men, 141 survived. 42:44.385 --> 42:48.552 About 45 of those were wounded who died in the rafts 42:49.350 --> 42:52.684 in the water, there were about 90 of them who made it 42:52.684 --> 42:55.943 into the water who were never seen again. 42:55.943 --> 42:59.526 One of whom was Ernest Evans, was last seen 42:59.898 --> 43:03.398 on the fan tail just before the ship sank. 43:03.569 --> 43:05.911 Some people thought he got into the water, 43:05.911 --> 43:09.671 some thought he went back forward for some reason, 43:09.671 --> 43:12.004 but he was never seen again. 43:13.502 --> 43:17.669 So after the battle, he's awarded a Posthumous Medal 43:18.380 --> 43:21.130 of Honor, initially a Navy Cross, 43:22.141 --> 43:25.472 because there were some, well he was an Indian, 43:25.472 --> 43:28.305 so times were different back then, 43:28.749 --> 43:30.389 so there's some discussion about that, 43:30.389 --> 43:34.306 there was also, well he didn't wait for orders. 43:34.667 --> 43:36.917 He did this all on his own. 43:38.452 --> 43:41.580 So the Navy Cross was eventually upgraded 43:41.580 --> 43:44.163 to a Posthumous Medal of Honor. 43:44.405 --> 43:46.560 The other skippers that were out there, 43:46.560 --> 43:50.154 they got the Navy Crosses which they more than deserved. 43:50.154 --> 43:54.237 The Johnston and the rest of the unit was awarded 43:55.008 --> 43:58.715 a Presidential Unit Citation for their actions. 43:58.715 --> 43:59.632 Next slide. 44:01.463 --> 44:04.901 But Rear Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison wrote the whole 44:04.901 --> 44:09.068 15 volume History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II 44:10.445 --> 44:13.945 and this was his assessment of the battle. 44:13.967 --> 44:18.134 Frankly I agree with him, I'm the Director of Naval History 44:19.375 --> 44:21.656 so I know a fair amount about this now. 44:21.656 --> 44:25.573 There are others that are pretty amazing stuff, 44:27.000 --> 44:30.417 but this one I think, this picture's from 44:30.649 --> 44:33.695 early in the battle, where we see that this escort 44:33.695 --> 44:37.477 carriers, they're running, the destroyers are running, 44:37.477 --> 44:40.480 they're making smoke, and while they're all going this way, 44:40.480 --> 44:44.230 Johnston and Ernest Evans are going that way. 44:44.873 --> 44:47.275 And you know if you're looking for an example 44:47.275 --> 44:51.190 of navy core values of honor, courage, commitment 44:51.190 --> 44:54.273 or toughness, all that kind of stuff, 44:55.355 --> 44:59.188 you can't find a better example than this one.