Kagero-class destroyer It is frequently said that the photo showing USS Gambier Bay under fire with a Japanese heavy cruiser visible on the horizon, is "the only photograph from the Pacific war showing a US and Japanese ship on the same negative in daylight." Thanks to the recent purchase of several back issues of the War Dept./Navy Dept. wartime Recognition Journal, I can now demonstrate that this is not the case. The photo at right is scanned from page 42 of the May 1945 edition. It shows the US Fletcher-class DD USS Burns (DD-588) attacking the Kagero-class destroyer Maikaze at Truk in February 1944. The range is point-blank. The force that swept around Truk was TG50.9, made up of USS Iowa (BB-61), USS New Jersey (BB-62), USS New Orleans (CA-32), USS Minneapolis (CA-36) plus DesRon46 of DesDiv 15: USS Burns (DD-588), USS Izard (DD-589), USS Charette (DD-581), and USS Conner (DD-582). The photo was taken from the upper command level of the battleship Iowa. The block of numbers in the National Archives includes BuAir no 80-G-210980, 210982 and many others. There is a whole series on Burns sinking what was identified at the time as a small mine layer. The good views of Maikaze sinking were sent to ONI and not to BuAir, which would have caused them to end up in the National Archives 80-G file. Don Montgomery found them in the RG 38 (CNO) ONI file. The log of New Orleans and Minneapolis both state that Maikaze went down with its forward mount still firing. In the after-action report, it repeats the warning that a "no surrender" approach should be considered when dealing with Japanese ships. They referred to the ship as a lighter fleet unit and were surprised that once the ship was sinking, they did not stop firing and abandon ship. They compared the attitude to the Banzai spirit of the Army in actions on Pacific islands such as Tarawa, and considered that approaching sinking Japanese ships should be done so with caution and guns at the ready. Thanks to Don Montgomery at Naval Media and Allyn Nevitt for their contribution to this article. BT Back to The Naval Sitrep #18 Table of Contents Back to Naval Sitrep List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 by Larry Bond and Clash of Arms. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com