Friday, December 8, 2017

Hostile Fire Across the Water - The Last US Naval Engagement of WWII...

The following is an excerpt from a new book begun by Truckman...


As odd as it may seem for an old Air Force veteran to take an interest in the actions of the US Navy, especially in a war which was concluded twenty years before his own service began, this author has gained a new perspective on what it took to still the quaking seas in a world consumed by destruction and death...Researching for the small bits of information available concerning the Navy's Small Coastal Transports (APc's) of WWII, and the service of those officers and men who crewed them, led to many accounts of unconventional warfare heretofore unknown by this author...Several of these stories were included in the previous "APc-48"series in the hope of enlightening others of the unheralded actions and sacrifices undertaken by those who dedicated themselves to the restoration of peace and freedom...

One of these stories came to light in my research reading of David Bruhn's book, "MacArthur and Halsey's 'Pacific IslandHoppers': The Forgotten Fleet of World War II," of an almost unheard of, and certainly unheralded event occurring five days after Emperor Hirohito's radio announcement of acceptance of peace terms by the Empire of Japan, which concluded with the signing of the peace agreement on the deck of the USS Missouri (BB-63)...Like this author, David Bruhn looks for the fascinating, unusual stories and facts to fill the cracks between recitations of facts and figures, in an attempt to hold a reader's interest and urge forward a grip on new knowledge...Mighty ships of steel armor and huge guns, plus the floating cities launching angry, buzzing aircraft against an unwanted enemy are hardly the only elements necessary in the restoration of peace...And yet these enormous creations of war seem to gather the largest attention from the public as their sheer size seems to command the watery battlefields...Deservedly so the officers and crewmen of these seaborne monsters also seem to garner the lion's share of the printed media and film and video projects, even though they themselves will be the first to point out that their achievements would have been impossible without the support of the endless chains of support vessels and smaller warships, and the even more important tasks taken on by those who manned them, risking even more with little, and in many cases, no armor nor armament against the same deadly enemy faced by the giant armored warships...

This author's late uncle, MoMM1/C William Vernon Johnson, was one of those enlisted crewmen who survived the Pacific War, and returned to a peaceful life...His story was told in the "APc-48" series of books, chronicling the service of those who served aboard the tiny wooden ships bringing the life-sustaining supplies to other participants in defense of his nation...In Cmdr. Bruhn's book, he told briefly of the several battles and rescues in the Pacific which took place among the centuries-old designs of the wooden ships and their crews risking their all against modern heavily gunned warplanes, and the fast, steel warships to which the only defense possible relied more on the cunning, ingenuity and courage of the crews against the advantages of speed, bulk and overwhelming weapons employed by their enemy...In this author's research, one event which stood out that was described in Cmdr. Bruhn's, book was the battle which took place between two ancient wooden junks, one manned by Japanese Imperial Army (JIA) personnel, and the other by a mixed crew of US Army, US Navy and US Marine Corps officers and men, occurring on 8/20/1945, five days after Hirohito's capitulation to the Allies as the Japanese head of state...

This author's own military experience having centered on jet powered fighters and bombers of the Cold War and Vietnam War eras, and being still unaccustomed to the many events which remain even today overshadowed in the mass media accounts by the enormous, far-flung battles of land, sea and air fought by brave, determined men on both sides, the telling of this comparatively small, nearly unheard of occurrence of combat fired my imagination as I made notes to follow up for a new research project...Beginning with the hope of at least enough information to warrant a blog article, enough facts and new leads began to emerge in which thoughts of a new book arose...From there, this accounting takes shape...

For those interested, David Bruhn's own website contains much information concerning the smaller warships of WWII, as well as his own books on the subject...It is well worth the visit...

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