geofflambert -> RE: unknown IJN Battleship (9/6/2017 5:54:25 PM)
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From page 237 of "Sea of Thunder": from a lookouts memoir, a Mr. Kosaku Koitabashi: "Rain squalls swept in, "but it didn't seem like the tropics," remembered Koitabashi. "It was foggy. There was no visibility." When a dark shape loomed up behind the Yamato, Koitabashi and the other lookouts cried out a warning. The battleship Kongo came surging out of the murk, nearly staving in the Yamato's stern. The two behemoths swung apart at the last moment. The squalls passed and the night cleared as the fleet entered the empty Philippine Sea at twenty minutes past midnight on the morning of October 25." From page 236 of "Sea of Thunder": "About a half-hour before midnight, a dive-bomber off the Independence, piloted by Lt. Phelps flew high above the narrow western entrance of the San Bernardino Strait. There, in solemn single-file procession, were more than a dozen Japanese warships, including four battleships. Lieutenant Phelps could see the ships playing their searchlights off the high cliffs at the entrance of the strait as the column crept through the narrow waters. It was the last look at Kurita's fleet that Phelps, or any American pilot, would get that night."
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