The American Destroyer That Charged an Entire Japanese Fleet — And Lived Long Enough to Win the Day скачать в хорошем качестве

The American Destroyer That Charged an Entire Japanese Fleet — And Lived Long Enough to Win the Day

THE DESTROYER THAT CHARGED BATTLESHIPS - USS Heermann at Leyte Gulf October 25, 1944. A 2,100-ton destroyer faces the 64,000-ton Yamato—the largest battleship ever built. The odds: 30 to 1. The distance: 4,400 yards. The order: CHARGE. When four Japanese battleships appeared on the horizon off Samar, Commander Amos Hathaway had two choices: run or fight. He chose to drive his tiny destroyer USS Heermann straight into the guns of the most powerful surface fleet Japan could assemble. For two and a half hours, he traded shells with ships that could sink him with a single hit. His sister destroyers Johnston and Hoel went down fighting. But Heermann survived—the only destroyer of Taffy 3 to make it out alive. This is the story of how one American warship charged an entire Japanese fleet, forced the super-battleship Yamato to turn away, and helped win one of history's most impossible naval battles. 🎯 IN THIS VIDEO: • The moment four Japanese battleships appeared at dawn—300,000 tons of warships against a handful of escort carriers • Why Yamato's 18.1-inch guns could fire 3,220-pound shells while Heermann's 5-inch guns fired 54-pound projectiles—a 58:1 disadvantage • The "lucky 13 minutes" when Heermann charged at 38 knots straight toward four battleships without taking a single hit • The torpedo attack at 4,400 yards that forced the world's largest battleship to flee—and why those 10 minutes changed everything • How Heermann dueled Japanese heavy cruisers "shell for shell" for over two hours despite being outgunned 10 to 1 • The hit that killed 5 men in Heermann's pilothouse—and why the crew kept fighting • Why Admiral Kurita, with overwhelming superiority, ordered his fleet to retreat from "small boys" that should have been annihilated in minutes • Commander Amos Hathaway's Navy Cross citation and what happened to him after the war • The real statistics: 1,161 American casualties vs. stopping a force that threatened 200,000 soldiers at Leyte Gulf This is the Battle off Samar—what Samuel Eliot Morison called the most gallant stand in US Navy history. Three destroyers and four destroyer escorts charged battleships. Two destroyers sank. One survived to tell the story. USS Heermann didn't just survive. She won.