December 1944: USS Bergall vs IJN Myōkō and Ushio

the Second World War was fought across the world's vast oceans and while historians - the focus on the major fleet engagements and large battles sometimes it was those small battles chance encounters and distant parts of those oceans that had the the most drama very often ships would encounter each other where both ships could easily sink the other around the difference between victory and defeat was the semester margins and is one of those chance encounters on December 13th 1944 off the southern tip of French Indochina reminds us sometimes the most interesting part of the story is not the battle but what comes after the engagement between the USS / gal and the I Jian yo toe and Russia Oh deserves to be remembered the blue class submarine USS / gal left Fremantle Australia on its second war patrol on December 5th 1944 the 311 foot 90 inch long 1526 surface displacement submarine was under the command of 34 year old commander John Milton Hyde 1934 graduate of the u.s. Naval Academy height had previously been executive officer aboard USS swordfish for for war patrols service which had been awarded the Silver Star he had commanded brig Allison's about was commissioned in June of 44 in its first war patrol verga had been credited with the destruction of two cargo ships in a large enemy tanker and of success to earn hide his second Silver Star in its second patrol Bergdahl was assigned to patrol on the Malayan and Indochina Coast the boat had 10 torpedo tubes 6 4 and 4 aft but the rear tubes are filled with anchored mines which the submarine was assigned to lay along a reef on the Indochina coast called royalist Bank after an uneventful passage regalo arrived at Royal us Bank on December 13th the heavy cruiser IG and Miyako was commissioned with line 1929 the lead ship in a class of four vessels named after our mountain in Japan the Miyako had originally been built under the constraints imposed by the Washington Naval Treaty although further modifications had increased its displacement well beyond the treaty limits 661 foot 9 inches long with a beam of 68 feet the ship had a main armament of 10 8-inch guns - each mounted in five turrets when she built near though had the heaviest armament of any cruiser in the world but by the time of the war the armament was typical of other Japanese heavy cruisers Miyoko had seen significant service started the beginning of the second sino-japanese war in 1938 the ship had participated in the invasion of the Philippines in December 1941 helped to sink the British Cruiser Exeter in the Battle of the Java Sea in March of 1942 Yoko had been present at the Battle of the Coral Sea and Midway bombarded Henderson Field on Guadalcanal and helped to evacuate troops from the Alaskan island of Kiska and had been damaged in a collision with a destroyer that's a cause a in the November 1943 Battle of Empress Augusta Bay in October 1944 Miyoko had been part of emerald to KO caritas central force at the Battle of Leyte Gulf during the October 24th battle of the sybian sea greatest force came under air attack while the attacks centred on the battleship Musashi which was eventually sunk Miyoko took a torpedo starboard aft from a TBF avenger torpedo bomber from the carrier USS Intrepid the hit from the mark 13 torpedo flooded the aft engine room and generate a room and put Miyako starboard screws out of commission with her speed reduced Miyoko was forced to drop out of formation and turn away heading initially for the philippine island of korone then Japanese occupied Brunei and eventually arriving at Singapore's Seletar Naval Base on November 3rd on November 22nd the Fubuki class destroyer oshio arrived for repairs she had been an escort of the Japanese southern force at the Battle of Leyte and had then remained in Manila a near miss during u.s. air raid on November 13th disabled her starboard engine killing 23 crew with the lost engine that destroys top speed was reduced to 18 knots and she was dispatched via the Spratly Islands to Singapore for repairs but the repair facilities at Seletar were limited and lack supplies base officials determined that could not repair of Yoko in the co at first the cruiser was moored as a floating entire aircraft defense but in December the IGN ordered Miyako to make for the home islands where complete repairs to be done escorted by Ushio with the damage mio coca barely makes 16 knots in the she'll about 18 while the order said the ships were to depart on or about December 9th they were not prepared to leave till the morning of December 12 had they left earlier they would have missed the dramatic events that were about one leaving at 7:00 in the morning on December 12 the two vessels left on a course that would take them right past royalist Bank on December 13th Braga was waiting a trellis bank near dusk planning to deploy her mines a mission that would take place at night alerted after receiving a powerful radio signal that suggested a large ship at 1755 hours just before 6 p.m. Hyde reported seeing the mast of a single ship at a range of 35,000 yards and proceeding at 13 knots Hyde noted in the mission report that deploying the mines which we plan to undertake tonight will have to wait I'd hope to overtake the vessel and be able to plant a submerged attack but it full-speed the boat experienced substantial vibration limited to about 18 knots per gal close range with the target slowly at 1830 hours Hyde noted because our target is rapidly approaching very shallow water we'll be unable to reach a position ahead for a submerged approach and be forced to make our attack on the surface like a PT boat it was a risky plan I'd already suspected that the ship that he was tracking based on the radio contact and the mast was a large warship attacking on the surface meant that if that ship were to see them it could easily blow over gal out of the water success depended upon not being observed in his report Hyde noted weather conditions are such that the night will be dark and clear with the sea glassy there will be no moon Miguel made radar contact at 2600 yards as the distance closed it became clear they were attracting a large warship with an escort he could not know it at the time but those ships were the Miyoko and the oshio Hyde's action report shows the tension as they slowly closed distance at ninety four hundred yards he know that target looked so big we are sure she is a large man of war but also that it still looks like a long way to a firing position at 6,000 yards he could make up the stack of a heavy cruiser but he had reasons to be concerned he noted the clear night with glassy sea and bright stars detracted my attention from ship identification to the more important problem of getting off the torpedoes without being seen the stakes were high the torpedoes abrigaille could easily sink the Elco but the guns of the mio cuore the co could easily sink the big owl the fate of both crews depended upon the brightness of the heíd made his attack at 2037 hours at a range of 3,000 yards firing six torpedoes before turning away normally he would still have been able to attack with the torpedoes and his route tubes after turning but those tubes were unavailable because the mines forgot was carrying he noted that when he fired about a third of the bow of the escort on the far side of what he thought to be a heavy cruiser extended ahead of the target's bow he had hoped that he spread of six torpedoes might strike both the target and its escort quickly I could see the result of his attack he saw what he described as a terrific explosion which spread along her entire length and reached at least 750 feet in height two explosions were heard clearly but I could not be sure how many torpedoes had struck he could see that the explosion had broken the target apart saying the explosion forced the two ends of the ship apart so that they were two huge fires which after 10 minutes were about a thousand yards distant I'd had good reason to think that he had crippled his target but there was more good news instead of pursuing him the escort had stopped had he disabled the escort as well suspecting the escort was a light cruiser another high-value target and thinking that he must have damaged the escort since it did not offered pursuit I decided to turn again and close range in the hopes of finishing off the escort as well but hide was mistaken this shoe had not been damaged and it stopped to determine the situation I could not have known that the previous damage to she eluded the destroyer speed making the Destroyers captain met her Masami rocky reticent to pursue its high moved the burgh al closer hoping to finish off what he thought might be a light cruiser mishio started firing hide saw the flashes of the gun the first shell landed in the submarines wake the second struck home the 5-inch shell hit McHale at the forward torpedo tube loading hatch tore through the fourth torpedo room and then exited through the pressure hull had reported immediately after the hit it was apparent that serious damage had resulted from the bridge you could see the lights in the pierced compartment as well as electrical fires he turned a gal away trying to make distance more shells landed but the port starboard as he retreated he saw the flames appear to die down on the bow section of his target he reported the radar pick disappeared on the section Calma steam rose above it and then a cloud of smoke gathered over it now had taken serious damage but Hyde was sure that his target which he thought to be a Tony or a toggle clasp heavy cruiser was certainly finished the crew Burgau surveyed the damage almost miraculous city no one have been killed as the round had flown through the submarine compartment the shell had not detonated damaged or egg cables had caused system shorts and electrical fires the main ballast tank had been damaged and was venting in the main air supply to the front of the boat was severed the good news was that the boat was in no immediate danger of sinking the bad news was that with the pressure hull pierced Burgau 2,000 miles from the nearest friendly base could not submerge if the summary were cited stuck on the surface it would be an easy target Miyoko while heavily damaged was also not as badly hurt as hide imagined the cruiser had been hit by at least one impossibly to burgle store PTO's torpedo had ignited the aft reserve oil tanks causing the massive explosion that hided witnessed his hide it seen a piece of mucus stern had been blown off burning and sinking fires were still burning with the loss of the sturm Yoko had lost power could not steer but the flooding had been controlled and the ship was essentially undamaged ahead of its number 5 turret while dead in the water mio goes captain Jimmy Ishwara was still determined to save the ship that heíd assumed had been sunk the bright spot for the stricken Miyako was that despite losing the stern and fantail one shaft was still working Miyoko could make a snail's pace of 6 knots on its own but it could not steer with its starboard engines thought of commission Nuccio did not have the power to tow Miyoko but Ishwara thought that a shield might be able to nudge Miyako enough to keep the plotting Cruiser on the right heading back to Singapore the morning of December 14th fembra gal's crew doing immediate repairs to restore airflow to the four compartments and patching outside holes with pillows and mattresses to prevent spray as there on the surface in enemy waters all available guns were mounted and the crew put on alert to defend against air attack just past noon a plane was spotted a potentially deadly event but hide Turnbull Galloway and she escaped without being noticed that night Hyde said a message confirming a kill busted burgles first knowing any communication might be intercepted he made the radio contact along a false course heading to make it appear that the boat would be travelling a different direction despite the desperate situation Hyde had to get his boat back to Fremantle he planned a course so that the most dangerous parts of the passing would be done at night forgot received the message in the early morning of December 15th tongue to rendezvous with other submarines but the rotor blue plant was back through enemy waters and I decided the current course was safer at 9:30 in the morning but now made a radar contact it turned out to be the gate Oh class submarine USS angler English captain lieutenant commander Howard Bissell junior reported that angler had just made the safe trip with few contacts high denoted English uneventful passage as well as favorable weather overcast with squalls pointing to good prospects for running the gauntlet on the surface the Ravel had made extensive repairs made more difficult as their only welding equipment was an oxy-acetylene outfit hide complained in his report we were very sorry we did not have a better supply of stock in plating more wedges and above all an efficient welding outfit Hyde knew there was a possibility of the Berg all would have to be scuttled they destroyed or transferred their most sensitive equipment to the angler and prepared charges to scuttle the boat they transferred all but a skeleton crew to angler which followed behind should Burgau be sighted by a plane the remaining crew could be quickly evacuated to Engler and Bruegel scuffled fires were still burning I'm Yoko on the 15th but were finally extinguished by the end of the day help finally arrived two small submarine patrol boats and two mine sweepers a patrol boat moored a line to tow but the progress was slow the storms that help the poor gal avoid detection slowed Miyoko spaced barely five knots on December 16th Angela received orders to evacuate Big Al's crew and scuttled the submarine with the torpedo however the prospects look good at that point and to preserve radio silence angler did not respond the pair made it to Exmouth in Western Australia on December 20th where Baga was able to make more effective repairs Sandberg ah made it back to Fremantle on the 23rd eventually more ships arise to a system Yoko despite the loss Forrester Miyoko arrived back in Singapore on December 25th in a period of 10 days USS / gout reversed 2,000 miles of open ocean 1,200 miles of that in enemy territory while stuck on the surface for his daring attack and then his skill in getting his damaged boat home John Milton Hyde was awarded the Navy Cross the brigade was repair served throughout the war and in 1958 was transferred to the Turkish Navy serving then is that tgc Turgut Russ the ex bruh gal was not released from service until 1996 was sold for scrap in the year 2000 Miyoko was too damaged to repair in Singapore and spent the rest of the war as a floating anti-aircraft battery defending the harbour in Singapore the British were concerned that her 8-inch guns would make it difficult to retake the harbour and so in July of 1945 targeted Miyako with a submarine attack but Miyoko survived Miyoko surrendered to the Royal Navy after the Japanese surrender in September 1945 she was hauled from the harbour and scuttled the encounter between the USS pre-call and the idæan Miyako and Russia oh and the improbable survival of both vessels is a testament to the tenacity and bravery of their crews in captains and of the importance of damage control teams in difficult circumstances sometimes in the drama war the story is not in the killing but in the survival it is history that deserves to be remembered [Music] [Applause] you

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Keywords: history, the history guy, history guy, wwii, pacific campaign, submarines, world war ii, USS Bergall, us history

Id: vCkWIaQHvJA

Length: 14min 48sec (888 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 27 2020