Battle of Leyte Gulf
Battleship Musashi - October 22nd, 1944 - Just 3 days before her sinking, seen here leaving the port of Brunei, the Musashi was a Yamato-class battleship and to this day one of the two largest ships of her class ever (her sister ship being of equal size).
October 1944 - Flight log of Jack Lawton who flew two missions during the Battle of Leyte Gulf on October 25th, 1944. It should be noted that Jack was wounded on October 15th, 1944 and received the Purple Heart but still went on to continue fighting.
My Grandfather was interviewed for the book “Inferno” by Joseph A. Springer, which was about the life and death of the USS Franklin (his ship) in World War II. One of my favorite quotes from the book was about the Battle of Leyte Gulf:
“There was a tremendous amount of flak after we got down on the deck. I felt the plane shimmer and shudder with every impact of every round, but the Grumman held together. The flak was bad enough, but then the Japs fired their big guns at us. I mean … the big guns — the 18-inchers. The Jap gunners fired into the water, raising these huge geysers we had to fly around. Running into one of these geysers would be like running into a mountain. Even at a distance, I felt the muzzle blast each time they fired. I could swear the wings were ready to fold every time these huge shockwaves hit us.
Larry French always told us that the key to success was to get in tight. So I got real close to the wagon before I released, but I can’t tell you if I got a hit or not. I was so damned busy flying and trying to survive … I was busy as hell trying to do whatever I could to make things harder on the Jap gunners.
In reality, we were doing what were supposed to do and we all knew it. This was it. This was the payoff. And the most important thing to me, as the pilot, was I didn’t want to make a mistake. It seemed a shame to go through all of that training and hard work … not to mention jeopardize the lives of my two crewmen just to screw it up in the last seconds of my run into the target. I think that’s what motivated all of us to fly into the and through that madness.”
-Jack Lawton, Ensign, VT-13, TBF/TBM Pilot
October 1944 had to be one of the most intense times in my Grandfather’s life. He was actively involved in at least 7 sorties over various days where he saw action from Okinawa, Formosa, Luzon and then on to the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
The key for the US strike force was to disable the formidable Japanese battleships and his squadron was tasked with taking on the Battleship Musashi. By this time in the war, the usefulness of battleships had dwindled with the rise of the aircraft carrier but these ships were still important assets and could cause all kinds of headaches. In addition to their anti-aircraft batteries, the Japanese had taken to aiming their 18-inch guns at the water in an effort to create enormous water plumes that would knock down attacking aircraft.
On the two missions he flew on October 25th, 1944, he had one 2,000 lbs bomb and 2 x 1,000 lbs bombs (see the flight log) on each of his passes. The Musashi took direct hits from 19 torpedos and 17 bombs before finally sinking late that night.
Musashi under attack by American carrier aircraft during the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
An example of the Grumman TBM-1C “Avenger” that my Grandfather flew during September & October 1944. While the design was by Grumman the “TBM” planes were manufactured by General Motors.