Battle of Leyte Gulf

Cape Hatteras has been a deadly trap for sailors that have entered over the centuries. The stretch of shore is home to more than 600 shipwrecks off the shifting sandbars of the Hatteras Islands. The sandbars shift due to rough waves and unpredictable currents.

Victor Vescovo

Under a hail of Japanese fire, Johnston fired more than 200 rounds and 10 torpedoes at Japanese heavy cruiser, Kumano, which limped away and survived the battle (she was finally sunk by U.S. carrier aircraft from TF 38 while undergoing repairs in port at Dasol Bay, West Luzon, Philippines, on 25 November 1944).

Of Johnston’s complement of 327 officers and men, 141 were saved. Of the 186 men lost, about 50 were killed by enemy action, 45 died later on rafts from wounds, and 92 men, including Cmdr. Evans, escaped the ship before she sank but were never seen again.

The entire crew of the USS Johnston either went down with the ship or scrambled off just before it sank. 186 sailors died.

The only battleship sunk in a fleet action by either torpedo boats or destroyers was the obsolescent German pre-dreadnought SMS Pommern. She was sunk by destroyers during the night phase of the Battle of Jutland.

Now, imagery from the undersea technology company Caladan Oceanic, led by retired naval officer Victor Vescovo, has identified the ship by its hull number, 557. The warship was lost during the Battle off Samar, part of the larger, sprawling Battle of Leyte Gulf on October 25, 1944.

A privately funded expedition has successfully relocated, surveyed, and filmed the world’s deepest known shipwreck.

Gambier Bay was soon dead in the water as the battleship Yamato closed to point blank range. Gambier Bay was the only US Navy aircraft carrier sunk by surface naval gunfire during World War II.

She was sunk by a modified live Mk48 ADCAP torpedo fired from the Australian submarine HMAS WALLER. Builder: Ingalls Shipbuilding, West Bank, Pascagoula, Miss. Crew List: This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USS FLETCHER.