USS Minneapolis

this episode of the history guy brought to you by magellan tv in their new documentary series world's greatest ships by november 30th 1942 the battle of guadalcanal was more than three months in and for the japanese the situation was becoming desperate between the presence of the united states navy and the cactus air force the supplies reaching the japanese troops on the island had reduced to a trickle faced literally with starvation the japanese were forced to take greater and greater risk to try to supply those troops the night of november 30th the force of japanese destroyers moved in in a daring plan that was intended to minimize the risk to the ships and they were met by the ships of the united states navy's task force 67 led by their flagship uss minneapolis it would become as one naval officer later said the crucible by which the very nature of the u.s navy and its weapons was tested it is history that deserves to be remembered uss minneapolis is a great ship that deserves to be remembered and if you're a fan of naval history and great ships then you'll love the new magellan tv series world's greatest ships where popular british engineer and adventurer rob bell goes inside of and tells some of the stories of some of the world's greatest ships like the golden hind the mary rose and the ark royal i know that many of you already magellan tv subscribers and great documentaries like world's greatest ships of the reason fans of history appreciate their subscription to magellan tv if you like the history guy you'll love magellan tv where there's more than 3 000 great documentaries everyone worth watching and they add new great documentaries like world's greatest ships every week it's a compelling reason to continue watching magellan tv to show their appreciation for history guy viewers magellan tv is offering the first episode of world's greatest ships for free view for the next seven days that means if you don't currently have a magellan tv membership you can still stream the first episode of world's greatest ships from today december 10th through december 16th for free and if you're not already a magellan tv subscriber well then gosh you really should be and what would be more fun than sharing with a friend because now until the end of december you can take advantage of a special holiday offer where if you buy an annual membership you get a second one free just use the link in the description and make sure and check out world's greatest ships allied forces landed at guadalcanal part of the solomon islands chain on august 7th 1942 maybe the first american amphibious landing of the war months before the beginning of operation torch and represented the first major land offensive against the japanese the landing was actually committed to somewhat quickly in response to the japanese construction of an air base on the island which would have represented a direct threat to australia and new zealand u.s forces hastily put together planning for the landing captured the incomplete air base and finished the construction dubbing the base henderson field capture the air base was only the beginning of what became a protracted and hard-fought offensive on the island with multiple japanese attempts to retake the air base with its capture the us was able to maintain ear superiority in the region throughout the campaign along with the assistance of aircraft carriers but the fighting was not easy and especially in the early period somewhat tenuous the first battle of sabo island fought on august 8th and 9th resulted in a major defeat for allied naval forces threatened in the entire landing however japanese forces withdrew allowing the allies to secure the beachhead in the ensuing months the allies continued to advance and fight several battles at significant cost in men and material but applying significant pressure on japanese forces including essentially cutting off supply to the island for the last two weeks of november japanese submarines brought in supplies by night but were only able to bring in about one day's worth of supply each night and not enough to solve supply issues an attempted train of bases meant to facilitate barge transports also failed thanks to american bombings the only way the japanese were able to bring in reinforcements was via warships which were able to move quickly and under the cover of night however the warships were unable to bring significant amounts of supply or much heavy equipment by november 26 the japanese 17th army was in dire straits and a new strategy was devised the japanese navy did not want to lose its own precious destroyers and so decided to limit their exposure as much as possible ultimately they planned on having destroyers drag hundreds of fuel drums behind them sealed and filled with food and medical supplies instead of reaching the shore to deliver the supplies the destroyers would approach the shore and make a sharp turn cutting the drums free and launching them towards the shore ground forces could then swim out and secure the supplies in much greater amounts than provided by the submarines on november 30th the japanese planned on making their first delivery task force 67 was formed on november 24th by admiral halsey the task force was made up of four heavy cruisers the minneapolis new orleans pensacola and northampton the light cruiser honolulu and four destroyers the fletcher drayton mari and perkins on november 28th we're admiral colton wright was made commander of the task force and chose minneapolis as his flagship the minneapolis was a new orleans class cruiser the last class built to follow the rules laid out by the washington naval treaty of 1922. she was originally classed a light cruiser but reclassified as a heavy cruiser shortly after she was laid down at the philadelphia navy yard in june 1931. the actual definition of a heavy cruiser was not established until the london naval treaty in 1930. because of the treaty the ship was limited to a displacement of ten thousand tons equipped with nine eight inch fifty caliber naval guns in three turrets she was launched in september 1933 commissioned on may 19 1934 stationed at pearl harbor she was outside of the harbor for gunnery practice on december 7th and immediately began patrol duties she'd play a large role in the pacific beginning with the allied raid on the marshall and gilbert islands she was present at the battle of coral sea where she screened the lexington and shot down three enemy bombers she later rescued survivors from the lexington when she was scuttled she was also present at midway before being dispatched to protect carriers during the guadalcanal landings by then she was under the command of charles rosendahl who had served in the navy since world war one and in served aboard several naval airships earning the distinguished flying cross after successfully landing the bow portion of uss shenandoah after it broken up mid-flight and witnessed the destruction of the hindenburg on november 29th allied intelligence intercepted a message about the attempted resupply by the japanese destroyers the following day right and task 467 were dispatched to intercept the japanese destroyers leaving just before midnight from vanuatu on november 29th before arriving the allied ships were joined by two additional destroyers which wright ordered to take positions behind the rest of the ships the japanese destroyers were commanded by rear admiral rizo tanaka the primary leader of the so-called tokyo express supply line to guadalcanal the japanese ships left from their station in the shortland islands on the night of november 30th tanaka's flagship was the destroyer naganami and he led seven other destroyers six of which were carrying supplies the supply destroyers had left behind all of their reloads of torpedoes to save weight carrying only six apies one for each torpedo tube the american forces took position in iron bottom sound so named because of the number of ships and planes that had sunk there in the battle over the island and launched float planes prepared to drop flares at 5 pm on november 30th at 10 pm the ships went to battle stations destroyers were led by the fletcher captained by commander bill cole who had worked on the development of radar the destroyers were equipped with radar on the fletcher carried an experienced radar team the destroyers waited near salvo island for contact the japanese had in an attempt to avoid allied scouts taking a longer path to the island but their leaving had been noted by an australian coast watcher on bougainville island tanaka received word from friendly scouts that an enemy force of 12 enemy destroyers and nine transports have been cited tanaka told his men that there was a great possibility of an encounter with the enemy tonight in such an event utmost efforts will be made to destroy the enemy without regard for unloading supplies according to admiral tanaka his ships passed several island around 11 pm minutes later three enemy planes with lighted navigation lights were observed toward of our course circling at low altitude tanaka later wrote since no aerial flares have been observed we concluded the planes were not yet aware of us meanwhile at 1108 the american destroyers had detected the enemy ships via radar radar aboard the minneapolis made first contact minutes earlier the ships changed course and at 11 16 began requesting permission to fire admiral wright gave permission four minutes later and the destroyers fired their torpedoes however only two of the de servers had positive radar contacts and fired full salvos and the maori didn't fire at all according to wright's plan the destroyers were immediately to change course to clear the firing lines for the cruisers waiting behind them within a minute wright gave the orders to open fire those four minutes would prove to be pivotal while the destroyers were in excellent position to fire when they initially requested permission four minutes later the torpedoes fired would fail to find any targets at all the japanese were not a surprise as wright may have hoped only minutes after seeing the planes one of the ships reported cited what appeared to be enemy ships bearing 100 degrees and a moment later seven enemy destroyers sighted the japanese have been preparing to throw the drums overboard for the supply run but tanaka immediately ordered his men to battle stations within moments the fault planes dropped flares the moment these parachute players burst into light enemy ships opened fire on the nearest ship tanaka reported that ship was the destroyer takonami which was destroyed by fire from the minneapolis close and attack was tanaka's order and the japanese destroyers returned fire naka also reported that numerous illuminating shells and parachute flares brightened our vicinity so that it was extremely difficult to make out the formation of the enemy fleet but the american ships were struggling just as much to make out the enemy fleet behind the minneapolis the other cruisers struggled to cite targets while the two destroyers at the rear never picked up the enemy on radar by 11 25 the american forces were untouched and believed that they had sunk several enemy ships but things quickly changed at 11 27 minneapolis was struck by two torpedoes the first hit near the bow while the second struck one of the ship's fire rooms the folk saw the ship broke into flames but the entire bow section tore loose and 80 feet of the front of the ship folded downward dangling from the hull clouds of smoke and accurate fumes billowed of the bridge the later reports stated that the flagship shuttered and rolled drunkenly from side to side the minneapolis still managed to return fire but soon power failed to all the turrets and animal right ordered the honolulu to take over command of the task force less than a minute later the new orleans which had been following so close that it had to change course to avoid ramming minneapolis was hit by another torpedo the ford magazines and gasoline storage exploded blowing away her bow as well including the first turret the third cruiser pensacola sheared out of line was hit 11 minutes later the fuel tank was hit and the ship's crew would fight blazing fires for the rest of the night the northampton was hit nine minutes after that and damaged so severely that it sank on the japanese side tanaka reported that his flagship a target herself of a tremendous concentration of enemy gunfire miraculously sustained no direct hits only one of the eight destroyers sank for the u.s the battle was a disaster four of the five cruisers were knocked out of action one for good we're admiral samuel j cox director of naval history and heritage command considers the battle to rank among the greatest defeats of the u.s navy but the americans had prevented the supply run and the japanese victory had negligible effect on the overall battle for guadalcanal later criticism fell upon the destroyers especially on captain cola the fletcher wright determined these stars had fired too early and then should have returned to help the cruisers instead of retiring cole the commanders of the destroyers disagreed wright's delay and their orders requiring them to request permission to fire ignored the historic commander's expertise with their own ships among the targets to escape the optimum firing solutions likewise the cruisers failed to maneuver in anticipation of what should have been an expected torpedo attack in general the failure of the cruiser captains to respond to the changing events of the battle and their inexperience with radar would prove to be a failure of doctrine and command leading to a nearly unmitigated debacle with right at its center wright received no reprimand but was reassigned from a combat command to the navy staff in washington dc and after losing four more cruisers and similar actions a task force commander said that there was a basic fallacy of chasing japanese torpedo boats with cruisers the most important consequence however was a better understanding of how to use destroyers fletcher's officers helped to develop the first cic handbook for destroyers in a later study led to destroyers being freed to attack independently which became a tenant of u.s navy destroyer doctrine finally the japanese failure to resupply its troops contributed to their decision to abandon the island the minneapolis and new orleans almost miraculously were both able to keep their ships afloat and reach the u.s naval base on the island of tulagi where emergency repairs could save the ships captain rosendahl of the minneapolis first sailed towards guadalcanal hoping that it could beach it on an american-controlled shore but the ship proved to be able to sail only at about three knots with the help of seabees at tulagi the ship was repaired well enough to be sent to california where a new bow could be built rosendahl was awarded the navy cross for saving the ship the minneapolis would return to service in august 1943 to serve in every major pacific operation except iwo jima including the recapture of guam the battle of surigao strait and okinawa she earned 17 battle stars during the war making her one of the most decorated ships of the war along with the remaining four new orleans class cruisers she was decommissioned after the war the minneapolis was sold for scrap in 1959 the minneapolis served with distinction throughout the war and participated in a huge number of naval battles and landing operations including her rather dramatic role in the battle of tasafaranga the fact that the ship survived such horrific damage is his testament to the skill and heroism for crew and despite the japanese naval victory the action went a long way towards convincing japan that they could not hold guadalcanal that retreat from guadalcanal was the beginning of the end for japan they would spend the rest of the war on the defensive i hope you enjoyed this episode of the history guide short snippets of forgotten history and if you did enjoy feed the algorithm by making a comment or clicking that like button if you have suggestions for future episodes please send those to our suggestions email box check out our webpage at thehistoryguy.net and of course we're on facebook instagram and twitter you can book a special message from the history guy on cameo and check out our merchandise teespring.com and if you'd like more episodes of forgotten history all you need to do is subscribe [Music] you

Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 108,638

Keywords: history, history guy, the history guy, wwii, uss minneapolis

Id: iV7AgQlp6MU

Length: 14min 44sec (884 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 10 2021

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[u/Intel8008]

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