History…Coincidence?

So, John brings up Agincourt.

I will bring up Samar and Grenada.

0737 Mercury 33 v Taffy 33 Big fellows make first run, form on me in order, DREADNAUGHT, NEBRASKA, BRASSLOCK.

Little fellows form up for second run.

BRASSLOCK, wilco out.

JUGGERNAUT, wilco out.

DREADNAUGHT was USS SAMUEL B ROBERTS.

Seven destroyers and destroyer escorts were escorting 6 “jeep” carriers. The action was intense.

“…about the time of the torpedo attack, the destroyer JOHNSTON came by us and I saw her for the last time. That picture is engraved in my memory…She had taken a terrific beating. Her bridge was battered and had been abandoned. Her foremast, a steel tubular mast…had been split from shellfire and then bent down over itself…the mast was doubled over on itself and dangling down with its radar swinging just like a pendulum…. It gave me a hurt feeling to look at it. Her searchlights had been knocked off. One torpedo mount was gone and her No. 3 gun had completely disappeared. As she went by…she was limping along at a pretty slow speed…I saw her Captain. He was a very big man with coal black hair…he was standing on the fantail conning his ship by calling down through an open scuttle hatch into the steering engine room. I can see him now. He was stripped to the waist and was covered with blood. His left hand was wrapped in a handkerchief…he wasn’t over one hundred feet from us as he passed us on our starboard side…he turned a little and waved his hand at me. That’s the last time I saw him because JOHNSTON was sunk, too, a few minutes after we were.”

Those were the words of ROBERTS CO.

She sank, too.

At 0851 three 8-inch armor piercing shells struck ROBERTS….one below the water line….one in the IC room knocking out communications and electrical power….and one in the forward engine room rupturing a steam line. From this point on ROBERTS became the focal point of Japanese gunfire. Unable to match her previous speed, ROBERTS is hit by three 14-inch shells from battleship HIJMS KONGO. A 40-foot hole is ripped in her port side near the water line….the end for ROBERTS drew near. Shortly after 0910 LCDR Copeland ordered “abandon ship.”

In LCDR Copeland’s words….”I went on down the deck. Nothing about the ship portrayed her condition as much as the view I had when I turned from looking at those boys (the dead) and saw our motor whaleboat hanging in the davits with the boat gripes having been shot away…shrapnel had come and ripped the bottom of the boat out and the boat gripes away…so that she was dangling. She was still two-blocked up there at the davited heads, but she was dangling nevertheless…. Lieutenant Gurnett and I went forward up to the eyes of the ship, right up to the very bow. It was about twenty-five feet to the water because the bow was starting to come up. It was a good thing we went up there because we were able to spot a life raft more quickly than some of the men who left the ship fifteen minutes before we did because we knew where we were going…then we jumped.”

Less than three hours of combat. A force of four battleships, six heavy cruisers, two light cruisers, and eleven destroyers were damaged and turned away.

By a force which should by all rights have never engaged them.

Then of course (in our lifetime) we have Grenada.

US units involved in Urgent Fury started moving on the evening of 23 October. The plan for operation called for a combined initial attacks by rangers, marines, and paras, partially deployed from the air, and in part by amphibious landings. They were first to capture both airfields, and then neuralgic points around Grenada.

Of course, the first wave was to a large degree to consist of units trained for special purposes, like USN SEALs and US Army DELTA Force operators. Both were deployed to Grenada during the night to 24 October, with the help of Lockheed MC-130 Combat Talons of the 8th SOS, using the HALO-jump technique. The SEALs and DELTAs first took positions from which they could observe the situation on the two airfields, as the US commanders realized that they were lacking proper intelligence, and even the SR-71-overflights could not properly help.

Right from the start, the special troops encountered severe problems: for example, a group of SEALs jumped too far from the coast and fell into the water. Four operators did not manage to get free of their chutes and heavy equipment, and drowned. All of the survivors lacked good maps of Grenada: in fact, most of the US troops went into the battle using tourist maps! Time and again the SEALs and DELTA-operators stumbled over completely unknown enemy positions. Nevertheless, their insertions remained completely undetected by the opposition.

On the other side, on the morning of 24 October a Cuban Antonov An-24 transport landed at Pearl, bringing Col. Comaz to the island. Comaz was to take over the command of 53 Cuban instructors and 636 workers and lead them into the fight against the Americans. He could not do much, however, as there was simply not enough time. In the night from 24 to 25 October, around 2200hrs local time, additional SEALs were deployed to the northern coast of Grenada, where they were to do reconnaissance of the eventual defenses on local beaches. Their reports – exactly like those from the troops deployed the night before – brought no good news: the beaches were surrounded by coral reefs, and no amphibious landings were possible.

On the first view, it appeared as if the whole operation would have to be cancelled. Clearly, this was not possible any more, as at the same time as the additional SEALs were deployed to Grenada, already the first Lockheed C-130E Hercules transports of the 314th 317th, 459th, and 463rd TAW USAF, as well as the C-130Es of the 913rd TAW were starting from their bases in the USA, loaded with rangers of 82nd Airborne. The Hercules‘ were escorted by five MC-130Es, carrying rangers of the 75th Regiment, and a single Lockheed AC-130H Spectre-gunship of the 16th SOS/1st SOW that were to lead the attack against Point Salines. During their ten-hours long flight, the transports had to be refueled two times in the air from Boeing KC-135s.

I am not aware of a definitive history of the US intervention in Grenada, but one needs to be written. We lost a number of men, and we must keep their memory alive.

God bless Taffy III.