In the brief lull that followed, assistant communications officer Lieutenant Frank Manson arrived on the bridge to report to the skipper. The starboard Judy never got close; 20mm and 40mm fire left its death-wish pilot without a plane to fly. The aircraft cleared the 116, barrel-rolled into the water, and exploded. The 21st attacker, another Val, strafed the ship as it came in off the starboard bow, aiming straight for the bridge. Although crewmen began to work on it at once, their efforts were fruitless. Victor Fleming, film director (The Wizard of Oz, Gone With the Wind). The Laffey’s April 13 stay in Wiseman’s Cove was brief. The Val retreated, but crewmen stayed at battle stations; within 45 minutes, radar detected many more bogies. Seconds later, the other plane crashed into the ship in almost the same spot. “My God,” Phoutrides thought as he returned to the bridge. Laffey‘s next stop was Pearl Harbor, where the crew was warmly welcomed and entertained while the ship underwent further patching to ensure its safe passage back to the West Coast. FREE Shipping on orders over $25 shipped by Amazon. 1 had also suffered during the agonizing ordeal. As happened with each kamikaze that rammed into Laffey, the impact spread gasoline over the adjoining area. Seconds after Becton returned to the pilothouse from the flying bridge, the first plane that would hit the Laffey squarely, a Val, aimed for the port beam. As other starboard 20s and 40s brought down a 17th attacker, Walker spotted an incoming plane low and far off the starboard beam. Amazingly, eight guns were still able to fire. History Channel Video Dogfights USS Laffey may be viewed onboard USS Laffey at Patriots Point. Pumped with adrenaline, the New Jersey native, who had been a high school football star, briefly tried to haul the two-ton antenna clear while another signalman, Thomas McCarthy, climbed the mast stump to replace its battle ensign. The USS Laffey, dubbed the "Ship That Would Not Die," marks its 75th anniversary on Thursday, April 16 since the ship survived a kamikaze attack during WWII in Okinawa, Japan. The fires still raged, the stern was down due to flooded aft compartments, many guns no longer functioned and the rudder was still jammed at 26 degrees. Erich Kastner, German poet, novelist and children's author (Emil and the Detectives). As tumbling ammunition clips exploded above Davis and his crew, a second enemy flier zoomed in. As he watched the Corsair chase the last attacker, Becton realized that his CAP planes, which had been spread thinly and even lured out of position at times, were now beginning to furnish some close support. The jammed rudder caused towing problems, but it was still possible to maintain a forward speed of four knots. Laffey relieved the destroyer-minelayer J. William Ditter (DM 31), whose skipper informed Becton by radio that during his time on station no kamikazes had entered the area, nor had any been detected by radar. “Here they come!”. By giving us your email, you are opting in to the Navy Times Daily News Roundup. The blast severed the rudder cables and hydraulics. The shrapnel knocked out an electrical panel and seriously wounded three gunners, including mount captain Warren G. Walker. 1. As he passed low over the length of the ship, he clipped off the starboard yardarm. Laffey‘s crewmen could not contain their jubilation. Even as inbound Combat Air Patrol pilots reached LCS-116, two more suicide planes struck the Laffey, each slamming into the after deckhouse, where four sailors died. Did you see that bastard explode?”. To subscribe, click here. I'll never abandon ship as long as a gun will fire." Two 40mm mounts were wrecked and out of operation, as were two 20mm mounts. LCS-116 had a dozen men killed and 12 more hurt. To provide early warnings of enemy aircraft, the Navy had developed new tactics: a mobile picket line of destroyers deployed 50 miles ahead of the fleet. That Val did not get away either; a Corsair pounced on him and finished him off. Four Vals peeled off — two of the pilots aiming for the starboard bow, two for the stern. … IJN Side: 13 Kamikazes – random turns of entry: 6 x D3A Vals, 5 x D4Y3 Judy, 2 x Oscar IIB Julian Becton, 36, and a core group of veteran officers and petty officers had overseen the commissioning, then trained a 336-man crew, mostly raw recruits. The USS Laffey is nicknamed "The Ship That Would Not Die" based on the book written by Captain Julian Becton. W.E.B. ... USS Laffey (DD-724) Profile. He told throttlemen that if communications failed — as they soon would — they should keep pace with the rate of the ship’s gunfire. But just then a bomb-carrying suicide plane struck the 116’s after 40mm gun, killing three crewmen and wounding others. The port side 20mm and 40mm mounts were sending up a steady barrage while trying not to hit the Corsair. As the Corsair zoomed by, it hit the air-search radar antenna and knocked it to the deck below. Signalman Tom McCarthy saw Laffey‘s colors fall to the deck and wasted no time in remedying the situation. By the end of the 22nd attack, the situation aboard Laffey was critical. Men had to swivel the mount by hand. With the Laffey defenseless astern, a Val pilot planted a bomb on the fantail. Each picket ship was to patrol its station for several days — unless damaged or sunk. On April 14, Laffey, accompanied by LCS 51 (landing craft, support) and LCS 116, arrived on station 51 miles north of Point Bolo on south-central Okinawa, which was used as a reference point in aligning the 16 picket sectors. The 20mm and 40mm guns were hitting the plane, and finally, after a hit in the gas tank, the Judy burst into a fireball and crashed into the sea. At 8:30, four Aichi D3A “Val” dive-bombers broke off from the oncoming group and headed for Laffey, which was steaming along at flank speed. Laffey, an Allen M. Sumner­-class destroyer, had been screening the heavy fleet units that were bombarding Okinawa in close support of the ground forces ashore. Fortunately, the Channel was calm — no swells to flood the bow or trigger a blast. After 80 minutes, the battle, arguably the most concentrated and relentless aerial suicide attack ever endured — and survived — by an American ship, had ended. Twenty-four, including 15 destroyers, were sunk or scuttled. The tugs Pakana (ATF 108) and Tawakoni (ATF 114) were dispatched to bring in Laffey. Laffey’s guns were severely damaged by multiple bombs and kamikaze attacks by Japanese fighters. Field dressings for burn injuries and the JEDI contract | Defense News Weekly Full Episode, 2.20.21, Field dressing for burns coated with silver shows more promise | Military Times Reports, The size of the surface fleet and a groundbreaking pilot - Defense News Weekly Full Episode, 2.13.21, LCS shipbuilder president resigns amid US and Australian financial investigations, Lawsuit blames Saudi Arabia for deadly 2019 attack at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Listen to this comedian’s hilarious take on military running cadence, Navy says ‘liking’ or sharing extremists’ posts on social media can get you in trouble, Tattooed vet competes for cover girl spot with ‘Inked’ magazine, https://www.navytimes.com © 2021 Sightline Media Group. In the engineering spaces, smoke forced men to close ventilators. Directed by John T. Wright. On April 16, 1945, the crewmen of the USS Laffey were battle hardened and prepared. Under director control, mounts 51 and 52 downed the two Vals off the bow. “We got him! Combat Information Center officer Lloyd Hull, 22, sensed a nightmare unfolding. Three hundred rounds of 5-inch ammunition were also loaded aboard so that Laffey would sail with full magazines of all calibers. The gunners of the three after 20mm mounts hit him with accurate fire, and parts of the plane broke off, but the pilot kept boring in. The 17th attacker was eliminated as he bore in from the starboard side. At 10 o’clock on the morning of June 4, 1942, the Japanese were winning the Pacific War; an hour later, three Japanese aircraft carriers were on fire and sinking. Only the three fantail 20mms had a clear shot. The destroyer Laffey (DD-724) fought for 80 minutes against 22 Japanese kamikaze planes and conventional bombers on April 16, 1945. Mel Gibson plans to direct a film about the ferocious kamikaze attack on USS Laffey (DD-724), according to a report published by The Hollywood Reporter. With a microphone strapped around his neck and plugged into the ship’s loudspeaker system, he climbed atop the pilothouse, from where he could see the onrushing attackers, and directed the gunfire from there. The pilot dropped his bomb and sped away. The pilot cleared the portside 20mm and 40mm mounts and crashed into the 20mm mounts amidships, killing three gunners before sliding into the sea. On March 29th, 1975 USS Laffey was decommissioned yet again. Next came two Judys. At 6:14 the following morning, April 17, Laffey entered the harbor at Kerama Retto. The rudder jammed at 26 degrees left, and the ship began to steam in a circle, still able to maintain speed but without control. The USS Laffey was in reality two great vessels with the same name--the first, DD-459, fought to the death in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in November 1942. “Will this ever end?”. Witness what it was like for the brave men serving in the gun mount, and learn about how the LAFFEY got her nickname 'The Ship That Would Not Die.' Luminous dots — most now too near to distinguish, track, or report — pocked their screens. (U.S. Navy). Shortly after sunrise, when Laffey was safely at anchor, the crew went aboard the tug Tawakoni for breakfast, their first real meal in almost 24 hours. Three gunner’s mates were also wounded. We got him! Knowing that the smoke would undoubtedly attract more kamikazes, Becton reduced the ship’s speed to avoid fanning the flames. At the same time, a Nakajima Ki-43 “Oscar” was streaking in from the port bow with a CAP Vought F4U Corsair on its tail. Sign up for the Navy Times Daily News Roundup to receive the top Navy stories every afternoon. No enemy action occurred the next day, Sunday, April 15. All three 5-inch guns opened fire, and as the plane came closer, the 20mm and 40mm mounts joined in. Eighteen members of her crew received Bronze Stars, six received Silver Stars, two received Navy Crosses and one received the Navy Commendation Medal. Looking toward the heavens, the destroyer crew saw what seemed to be the entire Japanese Air Force assembled directly above. All enemy planes were shot down. Communications to the bridge were disrupted, so Becton sent Ari Phoutrides aft for a firsthand assessment. The plane took a direct hit from a manually trained 5-inch gun, with an assist from the 20mm and 40mm mounts. Crashing to Laffey’s signal deck, the big antenna just missed Kelly. As happened with each kamikaze that rammed into Laffey, the impact spread gasoline over the adjoining area. Rip ’em up! During the Dec. 7 assault on Ormoc, a city on the Leyte coast, Becton and crew watched a pilot deliberately dive to sink a transport. Upon completion of underway training, Laffey visited Washington Navy Yard for one day and departed on 28 February 1944, arriving in Bermuda on 4 March. How USS Laffey Survived a Vicious Kamikaze Attack off Okinawa Commander Frederick Julian Becton, captain of the destroyer USS Laffey (DD 724), took the radio message his communications officer handed him on April 12, 1945, but the concerned look on the young officer’s face made Becton suspect that it was not good news. Laffey could not absorb any more punishment. The port 20mm and 40mm gunners splashed that Judy, but not before its pilot dropped a bomb that exploded directly alongside. At Saipan, more repair work was performed, especially on the battered fantail. When the Judy on the starboard side got within range of the 20mm and 40mm guns, it was torn apart by converging fire and crashed into the sea. Even though the electrical controls were out and the gun was being operated manually, it took only two rounds to finish off the attacker. The draft gets a constitutional challenge, and more troops get approved to help with COVID-19 vaccinations. That could mean only one thing: Laffey had drawn duty on the radar picket line—the most dangerous, deadly and unwanted assignment in the Okinawa campaign as far as Navy personnel were concerned. The fires threatened a magazine below the mount, so firefighters flooded it, preventing an explosion that could have torn the ship apart. (U.S. Then, at 8:25 a.m., the radar operator reported a solid cluster of pips too numerous to count approaching at 17,000 yards. In the lull after these two remarkable gunnery feats, assistant communications officer Lt. Frank Manson asked Becton about abandoning ship. Just when it seemed that the gunners were goners, a Corsair came roaring in with all guns blazing and blew up the Judy in midair. After refueling, rearming, loading the first mail received in seven weeks, and boarding a five-man fighter- director team, the ship set sail for RP 1. He plowed through the three mounts, killing the gun crews, and rammed into a 5-inch gun. 4.7 out of 5 stars 159. The RP necklace was not the only cordon; a 39-station interior “ping line” of smaller screening vessels guarded the invasion fleet against submarines and lesser surface craft. When the guns fired, Smith saw rounds splashing short. In a battle lasting 79 minutes, the ship was struck by five, [1] six [3] or eight [9] kamikazes and two bombs, but Becton refused to abandon his ship. Aboard LCS-116, now well off to the east and out of range of the Laffey and the 51, men had their hands just as full. Laffey‘s crewmen felt as if they had been battling the enemy for hours, but it was only 8:42, just 12 minutes since the attacks had started. A short while later three bogeys appeared on the radar scope, but Laffey had no Combat Air Patrol (CAP) planes to assist it. Phoutrides, son of a Greek Orthodox pastor in Seattle, felt sure that the Laffey was about to catch hell. Damage-control crewmen began to heave the clips over the side of the ship. A tally revealed 103 casualties on the destroyer, including 32 dead. Fragments severed the tips of two of the doctor’s fingers. He put his hand on the back of Becton’s neck and shouted, ‘Down, captain, down!’ As they both crouched low, a violent explosion rocked the bridge. “If you stop to get them,” a chief petty officer warned his skipper, “I’m jumping off, too!”. Its bomb exploded, hurling metal through the thin side hatch of mount 52. Three gunners died outright; a fourth, soaked in fuel and afire, leaped overboard. Laffey 's main battery destroyed a Val approaching from starboard. Becton ordered hard left rudder, bringing the destroyer broadside to the planes, and the two forward 5-inch guns downed two of the Vals at about 3,000 yards. Hoping to contain the flames, Becton slowed the Laffey. He pressed the microphone button, and throughout the ship boomed the familiar words, “This is the captain speaking.” Becton warned his crew not to expect the same kind of luck Ditter had had. When general quarters ended at 3 a.m., bridge quartermaster Aristides “Ari” Phoutrides, 19, crawled exhausted into his rack. As blasted vessels reached Wiseman’s Cove, the Bone Yard became an even ghastlier sight. Mount 53 In the Mount 53 Experience exhibit, take a step back to April 16, 1945 during an historic kamikaze attack on the USS LAFFEY. Hell was about to be unleashed on them in the largest single-ship kamikaze attack of World War II. Two more planes came roaring in from the port quarter, and every gun that could be brought to bear on the attackers poured out a steady stream of flak, but to no avail. Only seven days later, the hastily patched warship sailed to Saipan, then to Hawaii for more emergency work, and finally, on May 24, to the Todd Shipyard dry docks in Seattle, Washington. But Laffey‘s gunners had shot down nine attackers. Flaming gasoline was everywhere, and black smoke engulfed the area. In the span of roughly an hour and a half, the Laffey was hit by four bombs and struck by as many as eight kamikazes. The portside guns raked the plane, which shuddered and twisted but kept coming, even as gasoline poured from one wing tank. The plane “poised in space a few feet above the water” before disintegrating into “nothingness,” Becton recalled. Although the ship’s gunners downed many incoming planes, seven suicide planes crashed into the ship, and two other planes dropped bombs that hit the ship. Two more kamikazes, both Oscars, came streaking in, one from the starboard beam and one from the starboard bow. Before repairs began, the Navy, to recruit shipyard workers and educate the public, opened the scarred vessel to visitors for two days. A Val dove in unopposed on the starboard bow; a strafing Judy on the port beam. Using pumps, they got the flooding under control aboard the badly damaged ship. Exploding 40mm clips perforated the deck, allowing flaming gas to stream into a magazine. Becton ordered the after magazine flooded. The stern 5-inch gun hot down the third kamikaze, and the 20mm and 40mm mounts downed the fourth with an assist from the gunners on LCS 51. The attacker on the starboard beam was hit with a 5-inch round head-on in the propeller and engine and blew apart. Some naval officials believed that defense workers had been easing off in their production efforts since V-E Day on May 8, and they had been searching for a way to remind everyone that the war was far from over. Cmdr. The sole remaining Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer is USS Laffey (DD 724).. First commissioned in 1944 and attached to DesRon 60, Laffey engaged the enemy at “Utah Beach” as part of the Normandy invasion before her transfer to the Pacific, where she participated in operations in the Philippines and Iwo Jima. I’ll never abandon ship as long as a gun will fire.” Relieved, the lieutenant went back to his duties. He told the Laffey crewmen: “You guys have a fighting chance, but they’ll keep on coming till they get you. Some of them were so hot that the men had to protect their hands with rags. Communications circuits began to falter, prompting Lt. Al Henke, the Laffey’s engineering officer, to improvise. RP 1, the station nearest Japan, lay 50 miles due north of “Point Bolo,” the westernmost spot along Okinawa’s central coast. The Val and the Judy, attackers 21 and 22, met the same, nearly simultaneous fate: Okinawa-based Marine Corsairs shot down both planes. With a Corsair in chase, a Judy angled for the port beam. Fires topside plumed black smoke. The flammable material flooded Youngquist’s gun mounts on the superstructure deck, eight feet above the main deck, and quickly ignited, engulfing men and equipment in a conflagration. “They’ll come, Captain,” executive officer Lt. Challen McCune, a 26-year-old Iowan, assured Becton. Ray Davis, a forward 40mm gunner, had locked onto a Japanese aircraft when a Corsair swooped in to shoot it down. The ship earned the nickname "The Ship That Would Not Die" for her exploits during the D-Day invasion and the battle of Okinawa when it successfully withstood a determined assault by both conventional and kamikaze air attacks. “Captain, look what’s up there,” he said, pointing skyward. Disastrous conditions aft only worsened when a 20th attacker, a Val concealed by sun and smoke, dropped a bomb on the fantail and flew off, carrying away the mast’s remaining yardarm. Burgess asked for a battle ensign; Kelly gave the dying man a flag. Destroyer (original working title: Kamikaze) will mark Gibson’s second foray into events concerning the 1945 Battle of Okinawa. The explosion also knocked out the SG radar, which was needed to detect low-flying aircraft. The destroyer was down by the stern; only two dogged-down hatches amidships were keeping it from flooding. “We’ll have to hold the bastards off for awhile ourselves.”. The Barton and the O’Brien took direct hits. Another German shell landed off the Laffey’s port bow with a huge splash; afterward, damage control personnel discovered an unexploded round on the deck of the boatswain’s locker, a cramped bow space just above the waterline. By the end of Laffey‘s first day on picket duty, 11 planes had been shot down, but Laffey‘s gunners had not yet fired a shot. Shrapnel from the bomb hit the emergency sick bay that the ship’s medical officer, Lieutenant Matt Darnell, had set up topside. The situation was about to get worse, however, because the 11th kamikaze came crashing aboard at almost the same spot. The plane was found with its dead pilot still strapped in the cockpit. But in the end, there’ll be this one bastard with your name on his ticket.” After all the horrific stories, the crew had heard while in the anchorage, they were almost relieved when Laffey steamed north toward its assigned area, radar picket station No. The destroyer USS Laffey (DD-724) became a famous hero ship after surviving an 80-minute attack by 22 Japanese kamikaze planes and conventional bombers on April 16, 1945, during the Battle of Okinawa. Seaman Feline Salcido, the bridge lookout, did not think that the captain saw the plane coming. It was a group of 165 kamikazes and 150 other enemy aircraft coming in fast from the north. Laffey continued to make yearly Mediterranean cruises with the 6th Fleet and sailed in many operational and training exercises across the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea. Although Laffey‘s crew had encountered suicide bombers at Leyte, Mindoro, Luzon and Iwo Jima, they had never before seen so many damaged ships in one place. The blast wiped out gun and crew and ripped a five-foot seam in the starboard bulkhead of the wardroom, crowded with medical personnel and wounded. In addition to six five-inch cannons, the 376-foot ship, which had come to prepare for a perilous assignment, boasted nearly two dozen 40mm and 20mm antiaircraft guns. Blistering temperatures soared higher. Throughout, LCS-51’s Howell Chickering had managed to stay close to the Laffey. William Shirer, CBS broadcaster and author (The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich). The plane had dropped a bomb, killing one 20mm gun crew and wounding members of another nearby crew. As crewmates replaced incapacitated gunners, the morning’s seventh and eighth attackers moved in: a Val to port and a Judy to starboard. Gunner’s mate Glenn Radder, 20, watched from the forecastle as the Val dropped a bomb into the starboard 20mm mount below the bridge. [William Edward Burghardt] Du Bois, U.S. historian and civil rights leader, founder of what became the NAACP. Laffey gunners hammered the Val, but its pilot maintained a shallow dive toward mount 53, where mount captain Lawrence “Ski” Delewski, 20, had just had a cannon misfire. The blast threw Delewski 15 feet onto the portside main deck, remarkably unharmed. The rudder was jammed tight and could not be moved. Fortunately, the ammo was packed in metal cans that resisted the heat until a damage-control party arrived and hosed down the containers, thereby avoiding disaster. As the plane exploded, the gun’s trainer, Andy Stash, yelled excitedly: “We got him! That did not mean that Laffey was out of trouble, however. With Beau Billingslea. The crew’s routine was broken only when Laffey was ordered to steam a few miles east to investigate a patrol plane’s report that a downed Japanese aircraft was in the water. 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