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Ahead, on McDermut’s
bridge, CO C.B. Jennings ordered up none of the small speed changes that
infuriated the snipes and earned him the name ‘Jingle Bells’ Jennings.
Instead, McDermut plowed steadily through the dark, first at 20 knots and
then at 25. Below, on the main deck, starboard side, Motor Machinist Mate
Dick Ralstin huddled with the rest of forward repair—a damage control party
of deck and engineering rates.
The temperature topside
was 80 degrees; bridge, torpedo and gun crews on the 40s and 20s caught the
breeze stirred by the ships’ movement. Crews at interior battle stations got
no relief behind dogged portholes and watertight doors, in the confines of
CIC, radar and gun plot rooms, in the swelter of engineering spaces,
standing, sitting or waiting in darkness or under the spectral glow of red
battle lamps.
While the U.S. ships
steadily accelerated, the Japanese redeployed forces into battle formation.
Destroyers, Asagumo, Michishio, Shigure and Yamagumo, moved to the van,
trailed by battleships Yamashiro and Fuso and cruiser Mogami at
one-kilometer intervals. Neither side had yet found the other on radar. The
Japanese ships traveled north at 25 knots. The two short southbound columns
of five American DDs and the longer northbound formation of seven Japanese
DDs, battleships and cruiser converged at a combined speed of 45 knots,
quickly ratcheting up to 55 knots—a land speed exceeding 60 miles per hour.
They were like darkened, barreling trains converging onto the same set of
tracks. (excerpt from
The Last Epic Naval Battle, Voices from Leyte Gulf)
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