On the night of July 12, 1943, the Pacific waters churned black as ink. Lieutenant Commander John Benjamin Fellows stood on the bridge of USS Gwin, ninth in a line of 13 Allied ships. As his destroyer cut through the humid darkness, her crew endured stifling heat below deck, searching for fleeting breezes above. None of them knew these would be their final hours aboard the ship they called home.
Unbeknownst to them, just as the ships passed through the waters of Kula Gulf, a powerful Japanese force lay in wait: four transports escorted by a light cruiser and five destroyers. Armed with the dreaded Long Lance torpedoes, against which even the most seasoned crew stood little chance, USS Gwin steamed steadily toward her rendezvous with destiny.
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How about a video about the AP and AK troop and cargo ships at Guadalcanal and other invasions in the Pacific?
While this video is not about Admiral Lee, I view him as the most underrated Admiral of WW2. His leadership resulted in the U.S. winning this battle. If the U.S. did not win this battle, the outcome of the Guadalcanal campaign would be a disaster. If the U S. lost the Guadalcanal campaign, the war in the Pacific would have gone on much longer and the loss of life much greater
Umm America doesn't let go of anything that happens against their navy lol
She was one tough nut ,fair winds and calm seas brave men RIP and God bless .
Like this one; Mare Island figures in many of these stories, ready and able to quickly repair and send the navy's brave ships back into the fight. The men who both built and sailed those ships weren't called The Greatest Generation for nothing.
Uss liberty
@thehistoryunderground has a nice new series on guadal canal. And the American and Australian navy got hammered and had to pull back after making the initial landings.
Great work, but 'working your way up through the ranks' doesn't mean starting off with a commission.
Fantastico guadalcanal …respect from Vietnam…. Allahu akhbar.
that line by the crewman about living on borrowed time. That is something that is chilling but true. The men fighting in the Pacific at this time knew there were years ahead before it was all over. A popular saying at that time was
'The Golden Gate in 48'
that was how long many thought the war would last. And, of course, how could one really believe that they would live to see it?
Tin Cans, the 'throw-away' Navy! My first ship (1965) was a WWII era tin can. USS James E. Kyes DD787. It was a great adventure for an 18yo!
Can anyone tell me what the vessel is in the foreground at 1:24 in this video?
You forgot the death of Admiral Norman Scott in the same battle. 🤷
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Admiral Willis Lee was the most instrumental figure in that battle, if not for him, we would have lost, and lost badly! The other Admiral that never gets any mention is Jessy Oldendorf whose fleet of Old American Standards absolutely WRECKED the Jap fleets at every turn! DON'T TOUCH AMERICAS BOATS!
The US military assumed the Japanese were inferior engineers. We could have done well to capture and reverse engineer Japanese torpedoes. The allies went into WW2 with relatively poor topedoes, especially the US. The Long Lance was massive. It's reported they were 5.5' longer, bigger diameter, faster, more accurate, longer ranged, and packed 50% more explosive power that US ship launched torpedos… a deadly combination.
I’m so jaded about America’s early torpedo problems that whenever I hear how well-armed a U.S. ship is—especially if it has something like 10 torpedo tubes—I just think, ‘Oh wow, good luck with that,’ and laugh.
This was great. Thanks. It's appreciated.
My issue with this guy is that he cannot finish a single sentence without pausing. Why can’t he finish a sentence or even two without pausing?!
It's been said by everyone from John Paul Jones to Chester Nimitz, as well as dozens of others since: DO NOT TOUCH OUR BOATS!
Do one on the USS Liberty, that was the one where we easily let it go without any revenge
Don't touch our boats.
Fortunately Admiral Callahan was gone before he could get any more US sailors killed!
Don't forget the 5 Sullivan Brothers from Waterloo Iowa, they all went down with their ship, USS JUNEAU..🇺🇸🫡🙏 RIP!
This has to be yet another use of film footage that bears no relation to the story.
The thumbnail picture is, I believe, to be a picture from England. The Thames River Estuary and is showing the remains of a USN Liberty ship, SS Richard Montgomery, that sank in 1944 with a few thousand tons of bombs and shells on board. It still has 1,400 tons on board.