USS Astoria (CA-34) - Too Stubborn To Sink, Until The Last Moment
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- Опубліковано 10 лют 2025
- There are few stories as terrible for the USN as the Battle of Savo Island. One cruiser damaged, and three- of the same class, no less -sunk in one battle.
This video will look at the oldest of the three, USS Astoria. Sometimes called the nameship of the Astoria-class, sometimes not. No matter what you call the class, this was one of the most advanced cruisers of the 1930s. And certainly one of the most capable.
Unfortunately, her service career would not give the cruiser the chance to show this. Failed escort missions, leading into a nighttime ambush that few ships could hope to survive.
Yet, Astoria gave it a good shot. She might even have survived, if the fires could have been contained. That's nothing to sneeze at.
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My father was on the Astoria during the Battle of Savo Island. He spent some hours in the ocean before he was rescued when Astoria sank. I will never forget his stories of this event. After this sinking he went to submarine school and spent the rest of the war on USS Guavina (362) completing 6 successful war patrols. He retired from the Navy and silent service in 1962
God Bless your Dad!! 🙏🇺🇸❤
Your Dad is part of the Greatest Generation To Have Ever Walked The Earth!! 🇺🇸🙏❤💙
Do you think that you have enough information about what your Dad did during WW2 to be able to maybe write a book??
We need to get as many of these Heroes stories on page so the younger generations can know and understand what the young men like your Dad did to help win the War!!
Very much respect and gratitude for what your Dad did during his service in the US Navy in the Pacific Theater during WW2!! 🙏🇺🇸❤💙
@@OrbitFallenAngel Thank you for your kind words. All of these young men were so special and heeded the call of their country. I don't know what would happen today. If you look up the war patrols of Guavina you will get a sense of what Dad went through in the submarine service. One particular patrol was especially terrifying. My son has talked about writing a book about Papa, I hope he does. Dad rests in peace at Arlington National Cemetery
Bless your father. My mothers brother, Charles Quallen, was missing, presumed killed in the attack. I often wondered what happened to him that night. She passed away in 2018, and among her memorabilia was the letter from the Navy informing the family of their loss. 🕊️
@@BilboBegginz I am very sorry to hear of your family's loss. I feel very fortunate that Dad was not injured. The Battle of Savo Island was the worst defeat in US Navy history. Many good sailors were lost that day. God Bless them all
"Not many of our large pre-war cruisers survived the war, did they?" was my first thought, so off to sources to validate: 3 of 7 New Orleans class, 1-2 of the Portland class, 3-6 of the Northhampton, and 0-2 of the Pensacola class and the Wichita. That's 7 of 18 prewar large cruisers.
5 of the 7 were lost in the Guadalcanal campaign, which shows how much of a brawl that was
@@PlayerLetterR
Each side lost 24 ships - *_EACH SIDE_* .
Never did a body of water hold a nick name so appropriate as _"Iron Bottom Sound"_
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Whats also crazy is almost the entire New Orleans class could’ve easily been sunk at Guadalcanal
@@trenchraiderbricks6734 San Francisco, New Orleans and Minneapolis had some magnificient crews that managed to keep them afloat. Also, Pensacola, Portland and Chester were lucky to not be sent to the bottom. If the damage sustained was a bit more severe, if the shells and torpedoes struck more vital areas or actually hit the ships in greater numbers, Guadalcanal could have been remembered as the US Navy's heavy cruiser graveyard. 6 of the Astoria/New Orleans class, both Salt Lake City/Pensacola class, 1 Portland class and 3 Northampton class could have been resting on the bottom in those waters around Guadalcanal.
ALMOST ALL WERE SUNK BEFORE THE US NAVY HAD ANY IDEA ABOUT THE POWER AND RANGE OF JAP TORPEDOES! Not many,seems like 11 of the 18 survived! How many JAP CRUISERS SURVIVED ! Not any?
What a valiant effort for such an unfortunate ship. I have to say that the men that crewed her were the best that any captain could have hoped for.
The thing with the Solomon's Campaign was that the Japanese were at their peak strength in surface warships. They had rehearsed Night Battles to the point of losing ships through accidents and their Night Vision was Excellent.
The Americans had trained in Daylight Gunner - and they were fairly good at that - but not at all in Night Battles. Their Night Vision was horrible and what Radar they had was early and the Captains didn't know how to use it.
Each side lost two capital ships, the Americans two Aircraft Carriers and the Japanese two Battleships.
The Japanese had torpedoes on both their cruisers and destroyers - and while the Americans had the utterly execrable Mark 14's - the Japanese had the Long Lance which was head and shoulders better than anything anyone else had.
The key to the Campaign - and what made his career - was Halsey was put in command - and he didn't hesitate to send his ships in to take on the Japanese. Both Sides shot each other to pieces and thousands of crewmen were lost.
The thing was - which the Japanese Captains were very aware of - the United States could replace it's losses - and the Japanese could not.
Of the Japanese Battleships at the beginning of the war - only the _Yamato_ and _Musashi_ had been laid down after WWI. They had done what they could to upgrade the others but ... there's only so much they could do. Besides all the Standard American Battleships - the US had the new _North Carolinas_ the _South Dakotas_ and the _Iowas_
To understand why the Japanese attacked the Allies - you need to understand things that are beyond the scope of this UA-cam Comment. I'll sum it up by saying that rather than back down - they committed suicide and when they made the decision - they knew that is what they were doing. After that - they tried to bullshit themselves that they could survive - but bull shit was all it was.
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This! I love your comment!
You have quite literally summed it up very articulately and beautifully.
I concur with everything you have said.
Like honestly I don't think I could add anything else. Because you have already said it.
MY UNCLE TO BE WAS IN THE ENGINEERING DIVISON OF THE USS CALIFORNIA WHEN IT WAS SUNK AT PEARL HARBOR ON DECEMBER 7, 1941.
THE NAVY SENT HIS PARENTS THE MISSING IN ACTION TELEGRAM, JERRY WAS CUT OUT OF THE HULL AND LIVED TO 2005.
Thanks for sharing that with is Steven! That's an awesome story! RIP to your Uncle Jerry, he has my most heartfelt thanks for his service.
Was he at her recommissioning?
BUT WHY ARE YOU SHOUTING?
One of the Very Few times CNO King was awakened at night. "I'm very sorry to disturb you Admiral, but I have news you Must Hear, and it is Not good."
I think it would be interesting to see a video on what percentage of our prewar fleet survived the war. We seem to have lost a decent percentage of it around Guadalcanal alone.
The way I understand how the class naming works is which ship was ordered first gets the class name, not which gets laid down and built first
Great video man, keep 'em coming! :)
The Omaha Class(CL) kept 6 of its 10 original torpedo tubes throughout the war, even after their AA refit.
Your videos are so well researched. Keep 'em coming!
Not sure if they have been found but wouldn’t mind seeing you cover the two IJN destroyers Hayate and Kisaragi that were sunk during battle of Wake Island just prior to it falling; Think they were officially the first enemy ships sank in the war (as in after US declared it)
Another great video. Thanks for the History lesson. Keep them coming!!!
Astoria and San Francisco got pounded to an oblivion during the battle of Salvo Island. We lost some good Admirals during this battle. I believe the biggest downfall was the Navy design to putting the amount of aviation fuel on these ships.
Vincennes was lost at savo island, San Francisco was pounded during the naval battle of Guadalcanal
@@manveerparmar6570
San Francisco also sank the other American flagship present (Atlanta) for Friday 13th.
@@manveerparmar6570 you are correct....I knew I was off after I posted. Thank you.
Just steam out east of Savo, park, and take a nap. The IJN will awaken you in time for the show.
Man, I would've loved to seen a 1930s or 1940s US Navy ship commissioning.
I still can't believe there are no surviving photos of her the next morning.
Long live the Nasty Asty!
❤
do u have the wreck vid of astroia
Perfect pronunciation of CANBERRA ! 👍🏻❤️🇦🇺
Please find some information about the Omaha-class ships that had their casemates replaced with twin-gun turrets.
Or at least a video on CL-8 USS Detroit, present at both Pearl Harbor and Tokyo Bay.
Actually class ship name changes are extremely common in the USN for example the atomic submarine USS THRESHER SSN-593 which was lost in 1963 was the class bost but after her loss the next boat in line to be commissioned was the USS PERMIT SSN-594 was named as the class ship after the THRESHER was lost.
Extremely common to the point where you can recite a single case which is already mentioned in the video & has some very obvious special circumstances surrounding it. Extreeeeeeeemely common.
Compro 900.000 navios dessa classe para a marinha do Brasil Rio de Janeiro niteroi Brasil
HUGE TORPEDO HOLE.