Cruiser Nashville and Nagato Maru

In a document on the Doolittle raid it was mentioned that once it was observed that there was a Japanese patrol boat, actually two(?), the other being the Nagato Maru that was destroyed by Cruiser Nashville finally after firing 938 six inch grenades shot in an hour. ANyone know if this is the real figure?

 

Just curious if Someone has more info?

 

Nitto Maru No.23

915 6-inch shells were expended according to NASHVILLE's CO. Afterwards to he was called on the carpet to explain his ship's poor shooting.

 

I thought it was Nanshin Maru No. 21 and 23 and an unknown one? It seems oddly difficult to find details on the incident...I can't find the actual Nashville war diary and others tend to be contradictory. Was it one, two, or three patrol craft? Was it only "6-inch"? Other sources state she fired her 5-inch guns as well. How many rounds were fired? 915? Or 928?

Part of the problem was that the DD and AO were detached on 17 April, so the best candidates for running down such small craft were absent. The patrol "ships" were also tiny, while the sea was pretty rough with 40-foot swells, which reportedly affected gunnery. Nor was it just Nashville firing, the Japanese vessels were also strafed by aircraft from Enterprise, which also had trouble hitting the targets.

Anyway, the first Japanese patrol craft was sighted at 0738, engaged at 0755, but it wasn't until around 1000 that the last of the three claimed reportedly sank.

 

The reports I have seen indicate only one vessel was engaged from 0755-1000. The other 2 patrol vessels were not sighted and engaged until 1400.

And another source that has 3 sunk by 1000, and no mention of attacks at 1400.

 

Yep, its all remarkably confused. If you read the COMTF 16 Action Report, the first patrol vessel was spotted at 0738 and engaged by Nashville at 0755. Nashville rejoined the TF at 1107 and then the second PC was spotted at 1410 and Nashville engaged and destroyed it too, by around 1425 when she recovered a downed SBD crew from Enterprise. So which was the third PC recorded sunk by CinCPAC in its "Report of Actions"?

 

Ok.

The NASHVILLE engaged only NITTO MARU No. 23. Enterprise aircraft were moving in to also attack NITTO MARU when they spotted NANSHIN MARU No. 21. NANSHIN MARU was sunk by aircraft alone - expending some 1200+ .50 caliber rounds. The planes then went on to attack NITTO MARU. NITTO MARU sank at 8:23am. NASHVILLE expended 928 6-inch rounds(915 to sink her & 13 more fired to clear the guns).

NASHVILLE would again engage another patrol boat sometime after 2pm, firing 102 6-inch & 63 5-inch rounds and prisoners were taken. This might be the NAGATO MARU or IWATE MARU No.1.

Source: Target Tokyo: Jimmy Doolittle and the Raid That Avenged Pearl Harbor by James M. Scott.

 

Mr. Scott has this passage

 

Thus, the timeline appears to be NITTO MARU & NANSHIN MARU are attacked and sunk in the morning. The NITTO MARU is sunk outright and NANSHIN MARU is severely crippled(scuttled by gunfire from light cruiser KISO the next day). NAGATO MARU & IWATE MARU are sunk later in the day, with the NAGATO being sunk outright and IWATE MARU sinking to damages with the remaining crew being rescued by I-74(later renamed I-174).

 

Never mind, the Enterprise Action Report cleared that up. The second sighting at 1400 was of two vessels. One was sunk and the other damaged and surrendered with five crew taken off. In the space of 13 minutes. Not too bad really given the sea state.

 

Norman Friedman's design history of US cruisers mentions an exercise, shooting at a stationary target on land, in which Savannah fired 138 6" in a minute, just over 9/minute/gun. Of course Nashville was in a different situation, presumably making corrections between salvos.

 

Given that the 6-inch guns could be loaded at up 20 degrees, this would cover most, if not all of the ranges of the engagement. So, there would be no additional time needed to lower the gun to a loading angle and raise the gun back up for correct range to the target. Thus, NASHVILLE could fire at maximum rate throughout the engagement. Also, since this was time critical(IIRC the bombers had not been launched yet), the NASHVILLE was likely banging away for all she was worth.

 

Okay, got past my duh moment and found the Nashville Action Report. She actually sighted the Japanese vessel at 0741 at 10,000 yards. They requested permission to open fire by flag hoist and COMTF 16 ordered them to sink it at 0752 and she opened main battery salvo fire at 0753 at 9,000 yards. Apparently no hits were observed...and elsewhere they described the targets movement as "like a yo-yo" as it slipped up and down 20 feet from crest to trough, which were also high frequency. Of course the waves also were affecting Nashville's stable element. So, a minute later they went to rapid fire, trying to drench the target. At 0755 they checked fire since the target was no longer observed due to so many shell splashes. At 0756 they resumed fire and the Enterprise aircraft started their attack runs. It is implied they checked fire again, probably to avoid own aircraft, and then opened fire again at 0804 when the aircraft cleared the target. The aircraft returned again at 0809 and Nashville closed, opening salvo fire at 0819. The enemy vessel was observed on fire at 0821 and sank at 0823. The last round of salvo fire was opened at 4,600 yards and was effective after the third salvo.

They expended 938 rounds of 6-inch, 13 of which were fired to clear guns at the end of the engagement.

The second sighting of two craft was observed by aircraft at 1409 and Nashville sighted them at 1411 at 10,700 yards. At 1415 and 1417 Enterprise aircraft attacked them, Nashville opened main battery salvo fire at 1422, checked fire at 1424, resumed fire 1425, checked fire 1427, opened fire with the 5-inch battery at 1429, checked fire at 1435, opened fire at 1439 with main battery, and ceased fire at 1440 as the enemy vessel (singular) was observed sinking. They rescued fire survivors 1446-1500, then rescued the crashed SBD crew at 1517. The second engagement used 102 rounds of 6-inch and 65 rounds 5-inch. The third vessel was damaged/sunk by the aircraft that crashed and Nashville lost sight of her during the second engagement.

Note on the second vessel. Reports later were she raised a white flag, but Nashville's report clarified they initially mistook the white-painted deck house - the rest of the sampan was painted black - for a white flag.

Nashville's commander observed there should have been standing orders to the screen to close and sink such vessels without requesting permission from the flag. They also opened fire at the longest range and closed directly at the target, which placed them at right angles to the waves and accentuated the apparent up and down movement of the target; it would have been better to approach from a bearing perpendicular to the troughs. He also observed that they had never fired in such conditions in practice. The use of rapid fire also led to extreme expenditures of up to 150 rounds per minute, but had no observed effect...salvo fire was more appropriate for the small target - note the difference in the two engagements.

It is also notable that they observed many of the "wond shields" (ballistic caps) of the 6-inch rounds coming off in firing - as many as 5 percent.