Completed: USS Johnston – 1/700th Scale Skywave Kit
Posted by Don Murphy on August 21, 2014, 8:36:31
USS Johnston - 1/700th scale Skywave kit
The Americans have been accused of winning wars/battles because of overwhelming superiority in technology and weapons. And for the most part, that's a fair comment. Following Guadalcanal in 1942, the Japanese were in a war of attrition that they could never win. But when Americans were forced to leave their comfort zone and fight on equal or outnumbered terms with their enemy, they were pretty capable of still beating the shit out of an enemy. Such was the matter on the 23rd of October 1944 when "the entire Japanese Navy" entered Samar Strait and found a handful of destroyers standing between them and victory. To call Admiral Kurita "punch drunk" from the week would be an understatement. He'd been discovered by a sub which sank his flagship out from under him and he'd been bombed senseless after that, losing one of the world's largest battleships (Musashi) in the process.
His force reached Task Force ("Taffy") 3 and he was under the impression that he had found main carriers. In reality he had stumbled upon escort carriers with no defense other than a handful of planes and nothing heavier than a destroyer. Johnston wasted no time in realizing that the shit was about to hit the fan. Breaking out of formation, Captain Evans ordered Johnston to attack. He launched torpedoes and fired on the stunned Japanese. His torpedoes hit the cruiser Kumano blowing her bow off. He closed to within spitting distance of battleship Kongo and sprayed her with five inch fire. Unable to lower her guns sufficiently, Kongo was heavily damaged. Making smoke, Johnston retreated. By this time the Japanese had broke formation to defend against torpedo attack and were now reforming to hit the carriers. Admiral Sprague ordered "small boys attack" and the destroyers and destroyer escorts once again assaulted the Japanese.
Out of torpedoes, Johnston charged the Japanese, forcing them to maneuver to avoid the torpedoes they were certain were coming. Johnston's luck ran out and the hits to her started piling up. Evans, wounded, abandoned the bridge and conned the ship from the aft steering station. By this time Kongo and Yamato had the range and drilled the destroyer. Near misses are as lethal as hits when you're a destroyer. They don't call them "tin cans" for nothing. Evans noted escort carrier Gambier Bay coming under fire and charged the cruiser shooting to draw it's fire. Johnston hit the cruiser with five inch fire then broke away. Evans then charged other cruisers attacking Gambier Bay and launched mock torpedo attacks, shot guns, then broke off. The next hits drilled the engine room and soon Johnston's remaining engine quit, leaving her dead in the water and on fire.
Kongo found her again and pounded her with two 14 inch shells at point blank range. The Japanese cruisers and destroyers by now had circled the drifting destroyer and poured fire into her. With no power or engines, Captain Evans ordered abandon ship at 9:45am and at 10:10am she sank with only 141 of her crew out of 327 being saved. For her action and gallantry, USS Johnston was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation and her Captain, Lieutenant Commander Ernest Evans was posthumously awarded the Medal Of Honor. Our kit is yet another Skywave 1/700th scale Fletcher Class destroyer. She is a square bridge Fletcher destroyer so I used the appropriate bridge/superstructure parts off of the sprue. For my paints I used Tamiya water based acryllics. She is brush painted. The photo etch is from my scraps box.
Cheers,
Don
Re: Completed: USS Johnston – 1/700th Scale Skywave Kit
Between my refit of Gambier Bay, this Johnston build of yours plus the others you've got coming, we're getting a bit of a Leyte Gulf Anniversary theme going, here. Perhaps I should also start (at least) one of the other escorts - Roberts, IIRC - which I had planned for a long time, now. And/or refit my Musashi, as well.
Speaking of which, you do correctly note that, just prior to Johnston's and the others' exploits off Samar, Kurita had been royally beaten-up by precisely USN superior weaponry - from the Fleet Carriers - in overwhelming numbers, and watched his mighty Musashi disappear before his eyes. So when, simultaneous with the gallant Last Charge of the Taffy-3 Escorts, Kurita once again saw an onrushing Blue Blanket of snarling Grummans, dotted with their white stars, plumeting out of the clouds at him, of course he could not but be reminded of the prior day's disaster. So, I don't know about the Taffy-3 Escorts (or even the entire Taffy-3 CounterAttack) "beating the sh** out of" Kurita - though I would certainly give them every bit of "Punching Well Above Their Weight" - off Samar, particularly Johnston's torpedoing of Kumano. In any case the Taffy-3 Escorts did, in concert with the equally fierce Baby-Flattop-Air Groups, pull off one of the most miraculous last-minute saves in all naval history.
Again, a great little build of the SkyWave kit - and again I'm just itching to supply you some better 40mms for next time. THANKS for this (yet another) great submission to ModelFleet, Don!
Cheers,
- Matty
Re: Completed: USS Johnston – 1/700th Scale Skywave Kit
Definately a case of punching above their weight!!!! Samar notwitchstanding, the Japanese entire plan was wrecked to hell. Superior fire power and logistics at every step. The battle was indeed America's to lose. It was also over before it began. Nothing was going to stop MacArthur from his victory parade in downtown Manilla. His publicity troops almost (*almost*) outnumbered frontline troops.
He landed more men in less time than Normandy. His ego served him well on that occasion and Leyte would be his crowning moment until Inchon. He had Leyte consolodated while the Japanese were still dropping lines and raising anchors. Most of his stores/supply ships were relief aid for the Philippino populace and ship fulls of tents to rehouse liberated POW's.
Kurita had no troop ships. Had he sank Taffy 3 down to the ship and reached the Leyte anchorage and survived Army Air long enough to sink everything anchored there, then what? Halsey notwithstanding, there were a ton of sh*t-hot admirals there plus virtually every battle-seasoned carrier the USN had to muster. The IJN's ghosts from Midway could have been there and they'd have still lost. America was too good at that point and too well-armed.
Hopefully my Fujimi Musashi and Skywave Sammy B will be ready soon. As far as Matty Models parts go, the only ships I have that could use them would be Iowa and Baltimore. And I'd gladly trade you a 400th scale HMS Ursula for some... Baltimore has her guns but I don't like them. Trump's molding doesn't match the rest of the ship. Even tho they're installed, I'd gladly tear them off! Tamiya Missouri kit is being done as Iowa and she's "naked" at the moment, gun-wise.
LMAO re: MacArthur - and of course you're right: he was obsessed with recovering his Public Image, after the thoroughgoing ass-kicking he received in the Philippines, at the hands of the Japanese in '41-2, and subsequent, ignominious flight to safety in Australia.
Likewise, by late '44 Kurita knew his cause was - at least, strategically - hopeless. Indeed, I read (somewhere) that his pre-battle address to his men included words to the effect: "Who knows - A Miracle could happen...". I don't know about the average IJN sailor in 1944, but that kind of "Pep Talk" - if that's the best the commander(s) could have come up with - would've bummed me out, to no end!
Still, the "Miraculous Save" I was talking about at Leyte was the preservation of the rest of Taffy 3, and who knows how many additional escorts/transports - not to mention the Black Eye to morale - if Kurita had kept on slugging it out. Albeit his inevitable loss of Yamato - maybe all his heavy units - to go along with Musashi, once the USN carrier task-forces caught up with him again.
And speaking of Yamato, it's well-documented that, when the defense of Okinawa was clearly seen to be impossible, she was committed to her inexorable Suicide Mission, after the question from The Emporor: "Have we no warships left?" Which, when you think about it, can only have meant: "When we loose this thing, we must not have any (significant) warships remaining afloat: it just wouldn't look good.
Also, in retrospect, it seems likely the gigantic explosion of Yamato - unknowingly foreshadowing the nuclear mushroom clouds over Japan, soon to follow - was deliberatelly planned and executed, to create a spectacle for American eyes: to be captured by USN cameras, as exactly proved to be the case. The unequivocal message being: We will DIE TRYING.... This of course, the very essence of the Kamikaze tactic.
Speaking of which, when you look at the above from the American point of view in 1945, it appears very clear why everybody would have insisted on dropping the A-bomb(s) on Japan, as soon as they were available. Certainly, if I had been an intel/strategy analyst at the time, I would most definitely have recommended it. (Now, whether the very first targets should have been cities or not, I am still not sure.)
Anyway, what were we talking about...? Oh yeah: I will gladly take your 400-scale British U-class - and again your (preferably source-of-origin labelled) 700-scale spares in exchange for whatever Matty's Models (nominally 550-scale) guns you might be able to use, buddy. Just let me know exactly what/how many - and I'll even prep/Purple-Prime 'em, for you!
The officer that addresses the men is - I believe - the XO. And they ask him point blank "why?" His answer is pretty damning but at the same time sums up the Japanese ethic at the time. "We have to die so the rebuilding can begin." Or words to that effect.
The book "Unholy Trinity" covers the building and dropping of the atom bomb and also go in to some depth on the German and Japanese programs. The Japanese were closer than initially credited. The German program was so mired in bureacracy that only divine intervention could have helped it. Japan was mere months away from the critical phases. In fact, one of the generals returning from the initial Hiroshima fact finding trip steps in to the meeting room with Hirohito and says "yeah, it was an atom bomb. Just like the one we've been working on." Scary shit.
Like the typhoon in late '44 a lot of US damage was kept underwraps as the public was tiring of the war and this is borne out in "Flags Of Our Fathers" during the war bond fund raising. So I think had Kurita soldiered on and obliterated all of Taffy 3, he'd have been at a fuel/ammo level that may not have allowed continuing on to Leyte in force. At best, he'd have sent some units home due to fuel. Had he reached Leyte and like I said, survived Army Air he'd have been wiped out shortly after. His chances of escape post Leyte, would have been slimmer than Nicole Richie's waist.
If the USN battleships got to him first, then the cameras indeed would have expended every reel of film in the Eastern hemisphere to capture it. If the carriers got to him first, then they would darken the sky. The Airedales were too sh*t hot at that point. They sank everything they set out to bomb. So Kurita would not have survived which would have been an American victory and any mistakes made in killing him by the US side would be forgotten/ignored. Movie theatres would still be playing the battle to this day if Mo, Jersey and Iowa had reached Kurita's battle line first and started a sh*t storm of radar directed 16 inch fire his way.
I'll get a care package up together for you. I'll also go through my fleet and see who needs guns and who doesn't. Like I said, I'll re-gun the Trump Baltimore as I hate her guns. You will too when you see them...