Hancock (CV 19) - Naval Cruise Book

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Ol3O the van of the enemy force passed the outlying picket torpedo boats near the southern tip of Dinagat Island where two attacks were pressed home with some damage to the enemy. The Japanese commander ignored the PT sting on -his exposed flanks and continued northward at high speed. As the heavy enemy ships neared Hibusan Island, Destroyer Squadron 54 opened fire while two more destroyer squadrons, flanking the channel, leaped from a lethargic four to thirty knots and joined in the fray with five-inch batteries pouring a stream of shells at the enemy column. As the destroyers developed their torpedo attack, closing the range at more than l3OO yards a minute, the long-silent guns of Oldendorf's old battleships sent salvo after salvo of l4- and I6-inc-h shells roaring overhead to hit the YAMASH l RO and FUSO. Caught in column formation, while the heavy American,forces steamed at a bare five knots across the channel mouth, the enemy could bring only his forward guns to bear as the broadsides of the California, Mis- sissippi, West Virginia, Tennessee, Colorado and Pennsylvania fell in perfect straddles. American destroyers finished off the job as dawn broke over a crippled Japanese destroyer, lone remnant of the fleeing enemy. Transports unloaded at the nearby Leyte beachhead at Tacloban on October 25th un- hindered by the Jap battleships and four destroyers-the backbone of the southern force lay at the bottom of Suriago Strait. y Before the Attack

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Hannalfs First Party Dress Fuelmg LSM at Sea

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On the Prowl