The Crow's Nest

 October 25 th , 1944. The crew of USS St Lo headed about a routine day of flying ops supporting U.S. marine operations. Earlier in the day, Admiral Halsey had taken his 3 rd fleet north, chasing a suspected remnant of the Japanese carrier force. Little did Halsey know, he wouldn’t see combat that day, and by heading north he had inadvertently caused one of the most one-sided naval battles in history. The Battle off Samar was just one of four such engagements fought around the Philippines in late October 1944, they were all fought to counter one single Japanese operation; Operation Shō-Gō 1. This consisted of a diversionary Northern Force, along with an attacking Centre and Southern force intended to catch U.S. forces in a pincer maneuver. The Centre force of the Japanese operation was the most impressive containing 5 battleships; including both Yamato battleships (the largest, most heavily armed ships ever actually built), 12 cruisers, and 15 destroyers. Despite this however th...

In September 1939, the United Kingdom and France went to war side by side against the German Reich. Just 12 months later, these erstwhile allies, who’s officers and men had fought, bled, and died together, were taking aim at each other.  In the post WW1 environment, nobody wanted to repeat the same mistakes. And so, with the ink barely dry on the Treaty of Versailles, demilitarisation and disarmament agreements were being drawn up - such as the Washington Naval Treaty and the London Naval Treaty.  All of this meant that by the 1930’s, the Royal Navy was at its smallest in decades resulting in the navy being forced to change its policy and become reliant on allies to gain naval superiority, in the event of war. This became even more imperative as Italy joined the war on Germany’s side, meaning that the allies’ position in the Mediterranean and North Africa was no longer secure.  Despite the heroic effort of men on the ground in France, by mid-June 1940 President Renault of...