Actually it was the Battle for Leyte Gulf.
Actually, it was at at the Battle of the Phillipine Sea. Nagumo had sent a task force of carriers, without planes, to divert the American battle fleet to the north while the Japanese surface units attacked by way of Surigao and San Bernadino Straits. When the San Bernadino operation developed, there was only a small escort carrier screen to stop them. Back in that time, messages included padding, which was designed to throw enemy cryptographers off, and was normally deleted from the delivered message. When Admiral Sprague came under attack, he sent a message "Where is Halsey? The world wonders. (Padding) When it was decoded, the padding was left in the message and Bill Halsey was miffed… HTH
Well the photo caption say’s it is the Pocahontas and gauging from the vehicle shadows the sun appears to be directly overhead which would pretty much tie it to around noon. So I agree with the photo caption.
I updated the caption after receiving answers to the original post.
I still agree with it!
LOL [(-D]
I am fairly convinced its 609, checking Prince’s book, studying other details than just the number,
Looks like the siderods are whiter in the pic, 608 shows unwhited siderods, but that could have been whited up later anyways, but it depends if 608 went into passenger runs or not as passenger engines usually got the spicing up.
Actually, it was the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Encypted message, with ‘padding’: “Turkey trots to water. Where is repeat where is Task Force 34? The world wonders”
And, I like the photo of the J [:)]
I tried to post the Powhatan Arrow shot, but it was rejected. I’m going to do some light editing and try again.
The world wonders is actually from the Alfred Lord Tennyson poem published in 1854. He was describing the Charge of the Light Brigade during the Battle of Balaklava during the Crimean War from the British involvement in the mid 19th century Crimean War (1854-56).
When talking about Leyte Gulf, one must remember that there were actually about four battles going on during that two day confrontation. Halsey to his credit wanted to destroy the Japanese Fleet in one giant Mahanan type battle. Unfortunately for Halsey and his battleships the Japanese had other ideas. If anyone is interested I would recommend two books. The first is by Lt Cmdr Thomas Cutler, USN (ret) “The Battle of Leyte Gulf” (HarperCollings 1994) and James Hornfischer’s “The Last stand of the Tin Can Sailors” Bantam Books 2004. Both very well written and accurate for that very confusing and in many ways historically ignored group of battles.
But if you are looking for a capsule version of all this, Stephen Howarth wrote a semi chapter on these battles in his excellent history of the US Navy “To Shining Sea” Random House 1991. He is actually very complementary of Halsey in a British sort of way.
And yes I like the photo of the J as well.
Grampaw:
No doubt to your grasp of the history,well stated.
However officially (no suprise) no one ever really owned up to who actually sent the Tennysonesq words. According to Harwath the padding was used by a literate man who remembered that the anniversary of the Battle of Balaclava and the charge of the light brigade was on the on the same day as the transmission.
The comparison of Sprague’s destroyers and escorts against overwhelming odds at Leyte Gulf does make for an interesting analogy of the two events.
Glad to be in the forum with you,
PL
The caption under the photo says the train is #4 the Pocahontas,and the engine is #608.