USS Mahan (DD-364) - Fate

Fate

The fate of Mahan was set in motion in November 1944, when bad weather and hostile terrain bogged down the ground campaign to seize Leyte from the Japanese. The chief impediment to retaking all of Leyte was the Japanese ability to reinforce and resupply its headquarters at Ormoc City, on the west side of Leyte, and the Americans' inability to counter this advantage. Thus, the unavoidable decision was made to attack Ormoc by amphibious means.

On the morning of 7 December 1944, three years to the day after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, troops of the 77th Army landed south of Ormoc City. At the same time, Mahan was patrolling the channel between Leyte and Ponson Island. The amphibious strike by the infantry met with little opposition, but nine Japanese bombers and four escort fighters converged on Mahan. “Observers were to record of this, one of the most unusual and devastating of kamikaze assaults of 1944, that the Japanese aircraft used torpedo-launching tactics, but when they had been hit they switched to kamikaze attacks, diving on Mahan ...” During the assault, US Army fighters downed three Japanese aircraft and damaged two more; Mahan blew four out of the sky but took three direct kamikaze hits. ..."the most calamitous a direct hit to the superstructure near the No. 2 gun." Awash in flames and explosions, Commander E. G. Campbell, the skipper, turned Mahan toward the picket line as the last hope of salvaging his ship. With that gone, he gave the order to abandon ship. Destroyers Lamson and Walke rescued the survivors: one officer and five men were missing and thirteen seriously wounded or burned. Mahan had met her Waterloo at the Battle of Ormoc Bay and was sent to the bottom by the friendly fire of USS Walke (DD-723).