Lucky Lady Lou

Lawrence Livermore was in the news recently for conducting a nuclear fusion experiment that produced more energy than it took to initiate it America's nuclear weapons leadership was on hand to announce this important National Security milestone but back in the day the lab was conducting nuclear energy release on a slightly different scale during the summer of 1957 America tested a number of nuclear devices at the Nevada Test Site nine were mounted on Towers 13 were lofted on balloons one was launched by an aircraft and the first underground test was performed all of these tests were Design Concepts intended to miniaturize the nuclear explosive package to go from this the largest warplane ever made dropping this one of the largest bombs ever made to this slightly more agile combination or this getting the Navy involved or even this keeping the Army in the game the Marines and coasties having expressed no interest so what when where why and how did this thing end up at the Nevada Test Site as to what it's a naval gun turret from a United States Navy World War II Heavy Cruiser as to when it was installed during the Spring of 1957 shown as the barbette or Foundation the turret was mounted on here's the completed project with a Fresh coat of silver paint as to where it is located in Yucca Valley area 2 of the Nevada Test Site situated next to the two 300 bunker complex the gun turret was surrounded by three towers that mounted devices Diablo Whitney and Shasta each less than mile distance as to where the lab obtained it it came from right here off the spare turret slab at Birth 15 of the then Mare Island Shipyard starting in late 1942 the shipyard constructed replacement turrets for the Cruisers in service at the time and carried on this secret program throughout the war but why make replacements because the Japanese kept punching holes in our Cruisers shown here is the USS Minneapolis after taking two Torpedoes on the port side one of which exploded a magazine that nearly ripped her bow off another example is her sister ship the USS New Orleans who suffered a similar Fate by actually having her Bell blown off Note turret 1 missing in this photo will need to be replaced yet another example is the USS Pensacola who suffered a fuel tank explosion that turned her into a Roman Candle note those smaller holes above the larger one at the water line those are American shells going out not Japanese shells going in all three of these and a fourth that sank were hit during the same engagement all three of the ones shown survived the war and were returned to service thanks to the efforts of the mayor Island personnel as to why the turret was installed it served as a diagnostic station during the three Tower tests mentioned before the gun turrets safely housed sensitive detectors used to measure the high energy light streaming out of each device and safely protected them from the blast wave that was going to arrive pretty fast from less than a mile away by analyzing the increase in brightness one could determine how closely the device performed compared to its design specifications or how much bang for the buck you got out of each device as to how the turret got to the test site first they shipped it from Maryland to Port Hueneme home with a Fighting Seabees and a duty station of my father who served there in the 1960s then it was loaded onto some flatbed trucks and hauled through Los Angeles shown here is a stretch of the brand new Interstate 10 The Valley in the background is Covina but a closer look at the turret revealed something quite unexpected an irregular welded patch in the rooftop armor plate indicating the turret had been in action and repaired the big questions now were what ship had it come off of and how had it been damaged on even closer inspection I found an important clue it was stamped into the side armor panels at the location shown here an inscription gives four lines of text the top line is a blueprint number the middle two lines refer to location the last line is an assembly number 117 the completed turret is an assembly of many parts next stop the national archives in San Bruno California where the fragments of documentation from the long since decommissioned mirror Island Shipyard reside in old dusty boxes there my colleague Jerry Leslie found a carbon copy of a letter sent in 1930 to the commandants of the Norfolk Mare Island and Puget Sound Naval shipyards thank you the letter states that turret assembly number 126 to be installed in the Heavy Cruiser Chicago will arrive at Mare Island aboard the USS Vega also included for the USS Louisville building at Puget Sound is a box of parts for eight inch Triple Mount assemblies 118 117 and 120. we will now describe the combat actions of the USS Louisville that started the gun turret in the desert on its Incredible Journey as you will see the divine wind played a dominant part with the a6m0 fighter cast in the lead role by land or by sea the a6m0 was a deadly opponent introduced in 1940 this fighter literally outclassed everything in the Pacific Theater when America entered World War II emphasizing agility endurance and Firepower this plane in the hands of Japan's superbly trained pilots was well suited to the samurai Spirit of total offense initially deployed in numbers that overwhelmed local defenses this lethal combination of man and machine secured for Japan the air superiority that allowed the third largest Navy in the world to banish the first and second from the Pacific Theater in a matter of months the Zero's early dominance was eventually countered by evolving Allied tactics resolve and a fair amount of Good Fortune the short but bitter carrier battles of coral sea and Midway were just warm-ups for the six-month meat grinder that was the Guadalcanal campaign the near-run thing that was 1942 ended with the Carrier Air Forces of both sides literally exhausted over that period the loss of Irreplaceable flight decks was no less disastrous to the Japanese war effort than the depletion of the cream of her Elite pilot Corps from 1943 to mid-44 the Japanese Navy tried desperately to rebuild its carrier Aviation forces to levels they had started the war with but as the Japanese knew very well they couldn't compete against U.S industry and over the next two years the Americans had made up their early losses and then some this graph shows the number of flight decks available to each side at the end of 1941 and 42 and the number brought into service each year from 43 to 45. Admiral yamamoto's words were indeed prophetic I can run wild for six months after that I have no expectation of success American Aviation Technology also Advanced at a rapid pace and new Fighters like the outstanding Hellcat and Corsair now outclassed the zero in everything except low speed maneuverability this graph shows the number of carrier aircraft that could sortee off of the flight decks just mentioned but equally important as the number of planes brought to bear new American Pilots were trained by experienced combat Aces while veteran Japanese Pilots had to fly until they died by 1944 America's two-pronged approach to defeat the Japanese was in full swing with the Navy and Marines slugging their way through the Central Pacific to secure Island air bases from which the Army Air corps could use its brand new B-29 airplane to begin a strategic bombing campaign against Japan's heavy industry and shipyards this push climaxed with the battle of the Philippine Sea in which Japan's newly rebuilt Air Forces were obliterated in two days during the Great Marianas turkey shoot the next objective was to cut off Japan from the oil that fed her War Machine the target chosen was the Philippines to counter the invasion of the Philippines Japan attempted to bring her still powerful surface forces into action as usual they devised a set of complicated plans involving maximum effort deception and exquisite timing but the Battle of Leyte Gulf was again a dismal failure and they ended up losing most of what was left of their Navy in desperation the enemy turned to sacrifice to stem the inevitable tide to secure the island of Luzon amphibious Landings were planned for lingai golf in early January 1945. the invasion forces which were to proceed up the west side of the archipelago would have to run a gauntlet to get there as intelligence reported that over 250 enemy planes were still on the Island's many air bases we will now focus on two days during which these forces were attacked by kamikaze aircraft on January 5 and 6 1945. elements of task group 77 under the command of Admiral Jesse olendorf proceeded from Leyte Gulf to lingayan Gulf starting on New Year's Day in 1945. proceeding in two formations of roughly equal force each group consisted of a collection of escort carriers old battleships Cruisers and destroyers the escort carriers with their wooden flight decks and very flammable contents were the primary targets for the Japanese a typical example was the USS Macon Island about the size of a cruiser she wasn't any faster than the old battleships but she had Fairly long legs and she did carry 28 aircraft she also sported a collection of anti-aircraft guns to defend herself the single 5-inch mount with an effective range of about six miles might get off 10 rounds at a plane approaching at 200 knots radar directed they could fire VT fused ammo that could knock down a plane without actually hitting it the 40 millimeter guns with a shorter effective range but a higher rate of fire had about a minute to engage a Target but if they did hit it they would likely shoot it down many considered this to be the most effective anti-aircraft gun against Kamikaze attacks the last chance were the 20 millimeter Crews who couldn't open up Beyond half a mile leaving only 30 seconds to acquire and hit a target with no guarantee they'd bring her down even if they did and escort carrier's best defense against Air Attack turned out to be her own aircraft a typical Air Wing consisted of 20 Wildcat Fighters and eight Avenger torpedo bombers combat air patrols typically accounted for 60 percent of Kamikaze losses note we started the war with the Wildcat a poor performer against the zero but we traded numbers to offset the advantage of the airframe of the battleships the USS California with Admiral olendorf aboard was the flagship of the task group commissioned in 1921 she was not very fast nor could she go very far on a tank of gas but she did sport 12 14-inch guns and at 32 000 tons she could dish it out and she could take it sunk at Pearl Harbor she'd spent years being rebuilt and had only returned to battle in mid-44 with a new and impressive anti-aircraft battery among the van group two of the heavy Cruisers were the USS Louisville and her sister ship to Portland and they were real Beauties they were fast they had long legs and they were very lean their 8-inch guns also gave them a very serious bite built in the early 30s the Louisville was known as the lady Lou and also the lucky Lou because despite serving in every theater since the outside of the war and even being hit by a torpedo that did not explode she had only lost a few of her air crew up to this point in time the lady Lou and the Portland also had the best anti-aircraft Gunnery crews in the entire task group because they had been in action since day one while most of the other ships in the group had only been afloat for a year or two rounding out the screen were the Destroyers like the fletcher-class USS loyza her main job was anti-submarine defense although she could pitch in on air defense as well with such formidable defensive forces arrayed against it and so few planes left with which to counter the next American thrust Kamikaze units adopted every trick to avoid combat air patrols and confuse radar at Leyte golf the High Altitude attack was most often employed approaching its small groups from different directions above 20 000 feet the planes pushed over at about nine miles into a maximum speed power dive that ended up in an even steeper angle carrying bombs in a full fuel load into the deck of a ship however the Hangul approach could be countered by the combat Air Patrol and radar-guided anti-aircraft fire from much of the task group at Lincoln golf the low-level attack was adopted now small groups hugging the deck would approach from different directions through cloud cover and especially from Overland when in gun range they would split up and maneuver radically the zero with a fighter pilot at the controls was the very best at this when they got close to a carrier battleship or cruiser they would pop up and dive into the deck on Final Approach for carriers they would aim at planes on the deck or at the island for battleships and cruisers they would aim at the bridge attacks on destroyers and smaller ships went straight in and attempted to hit the hull at the water line they would also fly towards one ship and at the last moment turned quickly to crash into another nearby before it's any aircraft guns could engage of course if they were taking hits they would attempt to crash into the nearest Target of opportunity a grim efficiency was realized in the early going that only encouraged expansion of the program here are the statistics of the first four months of the Kamikaze Corps the numbers below each bar show the Kamikaze and normal bombing and torpedo attacks flown in a given month nearly 500 at Leyte then about 200 a month in November December and January the percentage of Kamikaze to normal attacks is given by the yellow bar starting in November nearly 50 percent of all attacks were kamikaze the blue bar shows the percentage of Kamikaze attacks that either hit or crashed close enough to a ship to cause damage and death nearly or above 50 percent for the entire Philippine campaign the orange bar next to it is the percentage of normal attacks that hit or damage the ship three percent or less for every month these were not tactics adopted by choice these were tactics adopted by necessity unlike most Japanese war records the Kamikaze records are largely intact and are held in reference at the asicuni war Shrine in Tokyo Japan using these primary sources along with deck logs action reports and personal accounts from Allied ships we will now reconstruct the Kamikaze attacks against the USS Louisville on January 5 and 6 1945. the translated records show that on January 5 the Japanese Navy sent 17-0 Fighters and the Army sent four vowels and three Oscars to attack the task group 75 miles west of Luzon the attacking planes sorted from several airfields north of Manila just before sunset on January 5 three planes came in on the deck and were engaged by the 5-inch battery of the screen the first plane a zero was shot down by the Portland the second plane likely another zero was shot down close aboard the Aussie Destroyer arunta the third plane another zero closed in on the loose Port bell all guns that could bear blazing away like Fury actually hitting it and starting it on fire but it plowed on relentlessly the loose Skipper ordered hard a port to minimize his Target area but it was too late and the lady Lou finally craps out taking one squarely on the chin minutes before the attack began two destroyers left the inner screen leaving a big hole on the left side of the formation which may have been exploited all three planes used the Destroyers to screen themselves from the anti-aircraft fire of the heavy ships on being hit the Lou sheered out of column Deport several ships reporting her out of control the Destroyer loitsa followed to assist the butcher's bill was extensive Captain Hicks six officers and 56 men were wounded mostly with flashburns of the first and second degree miraculously only one man was killed the damage to the ship was also extensive the number two tour was largely destroyed with the bridge mark IV radar and 5-inch director all badly damaged some members of the crew were more fortunate than others many of the injured were among the gun Crews here we show half of the 20 millimeter personnel two members Enrico trota and pappy Blaylock were extremely lucky because these two were below decks having dinner when the attack began had Enrico been at his action station number four 20 millimeter Mount just below turret 2 on the port side he also would have been badly injured or killed by this point my research had answered my two foremost questions with more than a few surprises found along the way but I had noticed something odd in the movie footage of the attack on the ship so I requested that the National Archives send the film of the attack to our Atomic test film Restoration Group at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory they produced a high resolution digital copy that revealed a unique moment in the history of combat photography the attacking plane is closing on the Louisville's Port bow in a shallow dive the pilot actually got out of the cockpit and ran across the wing he made it to the end of the wing crouched as if to Spring and popped his parachute but as he tumbled it failed to fully deploy watch the airplane but a jumping Kamikaze Colin lore suggests they did not even carry parachutes in fact all Pilots were assigned a parachute but they mainly used them for seat cushions according to sabiro Sakai one of Japan's few remaining Aces no fighter pilot of any courage would ever allow himself to be captured by the enemy it was completely Unthinkable and yet this one jumped furthermore I contend that this was a deliberate premeditated Act consider one the planes in a shallow dive with wings level an easy target for the ship's guns two the plane is coming in almost on the bow minimizing the number of guns that could fire at it and three it's flying very slowly the zero could reach over 300 knots in a dive I've inserted a red line indicating the path a pilot would take to hit the bridge you can just see the pilot leaving the cockpit the landing gear is also dropping probably from getting hit earlier in the attack at this point the pilot has reached the end of the wing 18 feet from the cockpit my brother who jumps out of perfectly good aircraft for Fun and Profit assures me that the plane had to be going less than 80 miles an hour for the pilot to have reached this point here the plane is descending and departing from the target Glide slope and beginning to side slip since no one is at the controls note the gear is now fully extended indicating that the aircraft is indeed an a6m zero fighter impact is imminent but the plane is not going to hit the bridge but rather the number two turret starting it on its Incredible Journey the pilot is still tumbling and apparently his shoot is starting to deploy old parachutes like this one were designed to deploy at or above 150 miles an hour used as a seat cushion it's likely he did not pack it very carefully and if he had just hung on for a few more seconds well perhaps he just wanted to admire his anti-work we'll never know another personal account this time from ship's surgeon Lieutenant Commander William Johnson who was at a forward aid station with orders to first check on Admiral Chandler if the ship got hit he exited onto the starboard side of the foxel deck just aft of turret one and immediately came across two Sailors who were kicking the crap out of a Japanese pilot the pilot was dead having been slammed into the ship's Side by his parachute that had hung up on the rightmost gun of turret 2. the good doctor not wishing to see the body defiled any further whipped out his sheath knife cut the shrouds and ordered the semen to toss the fellow overboard despite the damage the Louisville led her division in fire support missions the next day under sporadic Air Attack only to have the kamikazes return with a Vengeance at sundown Japanese records indicate 28 Kamikaze planes attacked the task group inside lingai and golf on January 6. the Navy sent 17-0 Fighters two Judy dive bombers and one Jill torpedo bomber the Army sent four Val dive bombers and two Oscar and two Nick Fighters the California with Admiral olendorf aboard was the first ship to get hit by a zero she was also hit by a five-inch round from one of her overzealous escorts both starting large fires 44 men were killed and 155 were wounded the California built at mayor Island stayed in the fight until the amphibious Landings were completed the light Cruiser Columbia was up next with an Oscar scoring on her fantail more than 20 men jumped overboard to escape the massive fires but 24 men were killed in action and 97 were wounded then another zero streaked in from starboard likely heading for the Portland then executed an extremely hard Left Bank and the lady Lou is hit again an encore of death and destruction Ted Waller 40 millimeter gun director aboard the Portland just ahead had a ringside seat for this one the attack came in on the deck from the beaches with no radar warning 5-inch gun Captain Paul Franz stated they were buzzing around like big Angry bees the Lou again sheared out of column Deport followed by the loitsa Destroyers Kimberly and Izard also stood by to pick up men in the water from the loo and Colombia then rejoined the task group outside lingayan golf this image taken from the battleship Colorado shows the California being hit note the heavy smoke from the main battery and anti-aircraft guns of nearly every ship this smoke effectively screened the attacking planes casualties were extremely heavy rear Admiral Theodore Chandler Commander Cruiser division four six officers and 22 men of the Louisville were killed in action six other officers and 49 men were wounded most of the wounds were due to shrapnel most of the dead from Burns many of the third and fourth degree ten of these were unable to be identified and listed as missing in action the damage to the ship was also extensive the plane carried a bomb under each Wing that exploded on two deck levels on the signal Bridge radar and radio rooms were destroyed nearly all radio antenna were damaged and many specialists were casualties radio men Harry Minton was a lucky man this day the plane piled up against the forward stack dishing it severely Admiral Chandler was also on this deck level when the plane hit the other bomb destroyed any aircraft mounts and sprayed the area with lethal fragments Papi Blaylock was killed here the lady Liu staggered back to her feet and after regaining the task group Admiral olendorf decided his former Flagship had had enough next morning she was ordered West to operate with carrier task group where she buried her dead she then escorted a group of cripples to Leyte golf where she landed her wounded and under the command of her EXO William McCarty she began the long trip home to Mare Island after her departure the beatings continued with no improvement in morale over the next 10 days 67 ships were damaged and 24 sunk by kamikaze aircraft highlighted here are the ships in the van group that were hit the Plucky Destroyer lloydsa after a few close calls ended her combat career at Okinawa again at the hands of a kamikaze pilot the Louisville spent nine weeks at Mare Island to repair her structural Ordnance electrical and fire damage the yard had to write the damage report since her few remaining officers had been standing watch on watch for almost a month the crew were granted two weeks leave in two waves 40 never returned preferring arrest to returning to action the damaged turret was replaced with a spare on hand built by the yard Ralph Hopkins who joined the ship in March said it only took a day to swap out the old and in with the new the new turret was built without rivets or bolts as seen in the photo here welding techniques had indeed come a long way since 1930. the damaged turret was repaired and put on the spare turret slab but it was not needed before the war ended and it sat on the dock for 12 years before Irv Woodward got the bright idea to haul it out to the desert to face nuclear Fury 60 years later it's still there Locked In Time likely to remain so forever and so we pay tribute to the USS Louisville and all who served aboard her she served her country long after her last Salvo was fired to all who Go In Harm's Way and those who support them thank you many people aided me in this research particularly ships historian Don Montgomery and my colleague Jerry Leslie Don's exhaustive collection of photographs formed much of this presentation Paul kogan of the National Archives and Dennis Kelly were also invaluable by providing crucial documentation translators akitaka nishimura and Hiroshi Saito were also crucial as well and my laboratory colleagues Richard Ward Don Smith and Jim Moya played substantial roles Louisville crewman provided rare insights Mike Marino Harry Minton and Ralph Hopkins access to the gun turret and its history at the test site was greatly facilitated by three gentlemen in particular Chuck Costa Ernie Williams and Nelson Cochran here we are on the day I inspected the gun turret and found much of the evidence that led to its true identity a true Band of Brothers I will cherish my memories of them all the days of my life but three crewmen who I had the distinct honor to correspond with deserve special mention Ted Waller Paul friends and Enrico troda fair wind and following Seas to learn more about the mystery of the gun turret in the desert consult my technical report or the August 2017 issue of C classics

Channel: Jumpin Kamikaze

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Id: eZLgfgO5gng

Length: 32min 53sec (1973 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 19 2023