Tennessee (BB 43) - Naval Cruise Book

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Chinese sTaggered Through The rugged mounTains back To India. STilweII summarized The siTuaTion by saying: I claim we goT a hell oT a beaTing. We goT run ouT oT Burma and iT is humiIaTing as hell. Eluding The enemy over hundreds oT miles oT The SouTh PaciTic's sea lanes in a bouncing PT boaT, General MacArThur arrived in AusTralia. I came Through, he said, and I will reTurn. Commended by LieuTenanT General JonaThan WainwrighT, MacArThur's Tiny army held ouT in The Tunnels below Corregidor unTil The pangs oT sTarvaTion Torced Them To capiTulaTe-and begin The DeaTh March oT BaTaan. The whiTe man was Through in The OrienT. The Rising Sun oT Nippon was in The ascendancy. AT Trifling cosT, Japan had won herselT an empire -an empire oT rubber, oT Tin, oT oil-oT all The Tabulous weaITh oT The EasT. BrighT places were Tew in The PaciTic. On April I8, The carrier I-lorneT sTeamed To wiThin 800 miles oT Tokyo beTore sending land planes againsT The Japanese capiTal. The brieT momenT oT DooIiTTIe's glory cheered a sad naTion. Across halT a world The Nazi hordes ThreaTened Moscow and The DeserT Forces oT sharp-Taced Marshal Rommel gaThered sTrengTh Tor an onslaughT againsT The GaTes oT Alexandria. A Turning poinT came in The TiTanic baTTle oT The Coral Sea, May 4-8, when The TirsT greaT modern sea- baTTIe was ToughT wiThouT surTace ships coming wiThin gun-range oT each oTher. The TENNESSEE was a uniT oT Task Force One which engaged The enemy, buT was given The rouTine Task of proTecTing The Hawaiian Islands and oThers To The rear from a Japanese ThrusT while The oTher baTTle raged. For Tour days, a Tlaming baTTle spread over 400,- OOO square miles oT Tropic waTers and coral reeTs, wiTh The Two TleeTs sTanding 80 To IOO miles aparT. Two American carriers were piTTed againsT Three oT The enemy's. I As The smoke oT The sTruggIe cleared, I5 Japanese warships, including one carrier, were damaged. Amer- ican losses included The galIanT LEXINGTON, a de- sTroyer and one Tanker. The Japanese were noT yeT halTed, alThough our air sTrikes on Their shipping were beginning To have iTs eTfecT. The enemy landed aT Buna in New Guinea and began Their laborious ThrusT over The Towering Owen STanley mounTain range Toward PorT Moresby. They reached Their peak in Their TuTile ThreaTs againsT AusTralia wiTh an aborTive aTTempT aT Milne Bay. Six monThs aTTer The sTrike aT Pearl I-larbor, Japan Turned To Midway and I-Iawaii. The TENNESSEE was again a parT oT Squadron One and desTined To play a rear-guard parT in The acTion. As The resuIT oT an accuraTe esTimaTe ThaT The enemy would now Turn This way, a vasT invasion armada oT more Than 80 enemy ships was ambushed in The BaTTle oT Midway, June 3-6. IT was anoTher greaT engagemenT spread ouT over vasT ,secTions oT calm PaciTic waTer, wiTh Japanese landings in The AIeuTians as a sideIighT. Submarines, Flying ForTresses, Navy Flying BoaTs, Marine Bombers and FighTers sTruck Their blows againsT The enemy as well as American Carrier Planes. The Japanese baTTle TleeT, crippled and burning, Tled under The hail oT American bombs and Torpedoes. IT was Nippon's mosT disasTrous loss in her naval his- Tory. TwenTy Japanese warships, including Tour air-- craTT carriers, lay TwisTed and desTroyed on The ocean Tloor and Three baTTleships were damaged. AT IeasT 275 enemy planes would Tly no more. The UniTed STaTes Navy losT The carrier YOTRKTOWN and one desTroyer. This oTTicialIy ended our reTreaT in The PaciTic, buT I-IiTler's army was marching on STalingrad and Rommel had capTured Tobruk and was speeding To El Alamein. The Time had been reached when America would seize The iniTiaTive in PaciTic TighTing. IT came on AugusT 7, I942, on sTeaming Guadal- canal, a liTTIe isle in The Solomons, when Marines under Maior General Alexander A. VandergriTT scored a briIIianT surprise landing, seized The prized I-lenderson airTield and The nearby Tulagi anchorage. The TENNESSEE was again a parT oT The Task Torce on paTroI acTion Tar behind The scenes oT The landings. Guadalcanal marked The sTarT, The TirsT oT many amphibious landings on The road To Tokyo. While Americans ToughT Japanese Tor The insecT- inTesTed iungles oT The liTTIe island, The TENNESSEE was ordered back To The PugeT Sound Navy Yard aT BremerTon Tor modernizaTion, To make all in readiness Tor The many operaTions, soon To come, which were Then on The planning boards oT WashingTon and Pearl Harbor.

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Fighiing rear-guard acfion in dark days of '42 Repaired and reTiTTed, ready To again Talce up The baTTIe, The USS TENNESSEE leTT The BremerTon Navy Yard on Eebruary 26, I942, during The darlcesT period in American hisTory since The days oT The RevoIuTion. In simuITaneous sTriIces, The swarming warriers oT Nippon covered The Tar reaches oT The PaciTic-in The Philippines, aT Singapore, I-long Kong, The DuTch EasT Indies. Schooled in modern iungle warTare, Japan's armies in a Tew shorT monThs expanded Their empire by Thousands oT miles. For The TirsT Time since I8l2, The Tlag oT a conqueror waved over an American pos- session. Hawaii lived under The consTanT ThreaT oT inva- sion. Alaslza was in danger, The VVesT CoasT oT The UniTed STaTes lay exposed To guns Trom Japanese T-ulamarines. Guam, haIT-way sTop Tor Trans-PaciTic planes, Tell on The TourTh day oT The PaciTic war. Tiny Walce hrzroically wroTe a new chapTer in American hisTory when Tewer Than 400 American Marines wiThsTood The onslaughT oT Thousands oT Japanese Tor I4 days. GreaT PaciTic basTions oT BriTish Imperial mighT Tcll To The soldiers oT The Emperor. The proud English ships, The PRINCE OE WALES and The REPULSE, sank in The shallow waTers along The Ivlalay COaST, vicTims oT Japans newly discovered air power. Plunging Through The Mangrove Swamps in a nighT aTTack, The Japanese enTered Singapore February I5. Singapore's gianT guns sTiII Trained in The wrong direc- Tion-vseaward. General Douglas IvlacArThur, wiTh his small army oT 35,000 Americans and loyal Filipinos, Tell back To The BaTaan Peninsula Tor a IasT deTense oT The Philippines, beginning a IasT diTch sTand among The Banyan RocTs oT BaTaan which can never be TorgoTTen. Commended by a DuTch Admiral, a combined allied TleeT was Trapped in The Java Sea. In The en- gagemenT which Tollowed on February 27 and 28, The TleeT lo:T I5 American, BriTish, AusTraIian and NeTher- land: warships beTore They could be wiThdrawn Trom T T :ne punishing air and submarine aTTaclcs. The enemy capTured Ivloulmein, enTered Rangoon and Mandalay. Pushing Through Lashio, They reached T-ree Chinas Yunan Province: Toolc conTroI oT China's neline. The Burma Road. General Joseph W. STiI- weli and a IiTTle band oT ragged Americans and X W H WW X ,,,, u,.--..,uE.....s.

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.J 1284-ng 4' 7. Sfeamy, bloody, hearf breaking Guadalcanal held fhe affenfion of 'rhe world as Allied forces sfruck fhe firsf blow fo sfop fhe sfeam-rolling Jap War Machine. ln flue dirfy, sfinking iungles of fhis lifnlle-known island American marines added one of fhe mosf glorious chapfers in fheir his'l'ory. Affer fhe landings had been successfully effecfed fhe TENNESSEE re- furned fo fhe Sfafes and in Sepfember of l942 al Pugel Sound Navy Yard began fhe maior modernizafion which fiffed her for fhe operafions which secured fhe final surrender of Japan. This was nof a mere beaufy parlor freafmenf wifh fouches of refinemenf being added here and fhere. This was maior surgery and fhe resulf was a rebirfh for Baffleship 43, for virfually a new ship emerged. Old hands who leff fhe ship when she enfered drydock could nof recognize fhe Rebel when fhey refurned a few monfhs lafer. Navy Yard workmen swarmed over 'lhe decks and 'lhe din of air hammers and cuffing forches was so ferrific fhaf communicafion was only possible in sign language. Working wifh amazing speed, off came fhe old cage masfs and double sfacks. The supersfrucfure was cul' away unlil 'lhe main lurrels and vasf holes yawned in 'lhe deck where workmen lowered new equipmenl for fhe engineering planf many decks below. While fhe workmen were making a clean sweep of fhe TENNESSEE preparafory fo sfarling new consfrucfion, newspaper headlines, day afler day, fold fhe sfory of fhe grim baffle being foughf on Guadalcanal. There were fhose uncerfain days in Ocfober when fhe J reinforcemenfs and our own Army reinforcemenfs arrived al fhe crisis. Head- lines also fold fhe sfory of fhe many naval engagemeni-5 gf H15 Eagfem Solomons, fhe baffle of Cape Esperance and 'lhe balnlle of 'lhe Sanla Cruz Islands in which we losf fhe veferan carrier HORNET apanese succeeded in landing and a desfroyer. webinar is as M 19,1