Perhaps the single greatest display of anti-aircraft gunnery of WW2 came from the Sumner class destroyer USS Hugh W Hadley DD-774. While on picket duty off of Okinawa with the Fletcher class destroyer USS Evans, the 2 destroyers were attacked by over 100 Japanese aircraft on May 11th, 1945.
Using 1940’s era radar and computing, her six 5”/38 caliber cannons firing proximity fused shells, along with twelve 40mm Bofors and eleven 20mm Oerkilons shot down 23 attacking Japanese aircraft. (USS Evans shot down 15 as well) Ultimately, a couple of kamikaze airplanes got through as ammunition ran low and then a rocket propelled Ohka with a 2600 lb warhead finally put the destroyer out of commission, although she remained afloat and was towed home.
(my late uncle was a radarman aboard USS Oberrender DE-344 mentioned at the beginning of the article - she too was hit by a kamikaze and knocked out of the war)
USS Hugh W. Hadley
San Diego, CA area 23 December 1944 to 20 February 1945 period.
Battle damage diagram dated May 11 1945.
Using 1940’s era radar and computing, her six 5”/38 caliber cannons firing proximity fused shells, along with twelve 40mm Bofors and eleven 20mm Oerkilons shot down 23 attacking Japanese aircraft. (USS Evans shot down 15 as well) Ultimately, a couple of kamikaze airplanes got through as ammunition ran low and then a rocket propelled Ohka with a 2600 lb warhead finally put the destroyer out of commission, although she remained afloat and was towed home.
(my late uncle was a radarman aboard USS Oberrender DE-344 mentioned at the beginning of the article - she too was hit by a kamikaze and knocked out of the war)
USS Hugh W. Hadley
San Diego, CA area 23 December 1944 to 20 February 1945 period.
Battle damage diagram dated May 11 1945.
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