NEW JERSEY and the Battle of the Philippine Sea

[00:00:05]Hi, I'm Ryan Szimanski, curator for Battleship New Jersey Museum and Memorial.

[00:00:09]We're right around the 82nd anniversary of the Battle of Philippine Sea, and uh so we've been going through some of the uh various archival documents that we have relating to the battle. We have um the ship's battle report, we have the ship's deck logs, and honestly, you can't tell from those uh that this was the largest carrier battle of all time.

[00:00:34]Uh 24 carriers between the Japanese and the United States uh faced off with uh something like 1,500 aircraft um in one of the largest naval battles of the war.

[00:00:48]Uh one of the largest naval battles of all time for that matter.

[00:00:52]The the ship's deck logs and like check this out.

[00:00:56]They're she changes speed a couple of times, she cuts some boilers in and out. Uh like there is nothing in this deck log that indicates that there's a battle going on.

[00:01:10]The only thing that sort of indicates that fighting is happening is uh that a sailor lacerates their left scrotum while loading one of the ship's guns, which is a wild thing to put in the deck log. Like obviously people admitted to sick bay is always included in the deck log, um but they don't have how many shells are expended.

[00:01:37]Other accounts say that New Jersey shot down three or four aircraft, so she is uh firing her guns. The deck log doesn't really say that there is a major battle going on on June 19th, 1944.

[00:01:51]Um just that uh I think one sailor hits his head and uh one sailor gets an incredibly unfortunate injury um and can't uh it doesn't even say what kind of gun he was loading that did that. Did he drop a 5-in shell on himself while loading the gun at angle? Was it something like 40-mm clips? Like with I don't really want to think about that anymore.

[00:02:17]Even the the ship's battle report from that day uh which we'll show you right now is not even a full page long.

[00:02:29]Like it lists that multiple waves of aircraft come in and um New Jersey or other ships within sight are engaging them. Now, New Jersey and the other six fast battleships under Willis Lee are placed by Spruance in advance of the carrier task forces and they bear the brunt of the Japanese aviation attacks. Uh some of the battleships are even damaged during these attacks.

[00:02:57]But uh the the reports really really don't say much and don't if you're just flipping through the reports and you don't know anything else, you don't recognize the date you wouldn't really know that this was uh a particularly remarkable battle.

[00:03:15]What's interesting is that uh we also have several journals from sailors who were on board.

[00:03:22]Honestly, it's remarkable that we have these journals.

[00:03:26]One, you weren't supposed to keep those sorts of records cuz if something happens, the ship sinks and the journal floats and the enemy captures it, it tells a lot of information in it. You really weren't supposed to keep these sorts of records and uh and yet we have four or five that cover the entire war.

[00:03:43]When you have 3,000 sailors on board during that time period, you're going to get a couple of folks who who break the rules. They promised their mom or their partner back home that they were going to keep account. Um but even more remarkable than that these journals were kept at all is that these journals have found their way to the ship. Like how many of these have not survived the 80 years since the battle? How many of these the guy took home and then threw out after a year?

[00:04:15]Like the the fact that they not only kept these journals, these journals survived 80 years, and that at some point in the last 20 or 25 years since the museum has existed, they or their family have shown up and given those journals uh to the museum uh so that we can research them is really incredible.

[00:04:37]What's more incredible is that uh while the deck logs don't really give you much information, the journals do give you a much better play-by-play. Interestingly, uh some of the stuff in here is not accurate. It's it's uh a lot of hearsay. Not all of these guys are in places where they can see stuff.

[00:04:56]Some of these guys are in the engine rooms. So, it Uh so, it's interesting to see like it's a pretty well-documented thing that that uh there's a communication network on ships. It's even got a term, scuttlebutt, named after the the drinking fountains where you would gather to uh discuss gossip and things like that.

[00:05:21]But even in general quarters, where the ship is relatively locked down, information is being passed through the ship because many of these journals have uh timestamp entries and and they're more like um chronologies than an actual uh dear diary, today I felt sad because we were attacked again. Uh like diary entries. They they're um very much plane came in and this other destroyer started shooting at them that uh and stuff like that.

[00:05:54]It is really interesting seeing how much the sailors knew.

[00:06:01]They certainly seem to have an indication that this was a special day.

[00:06:04]In fact, this one journal I have here June 19th at the top of the page they listed as the Battle of Eastern Philippines.

[00:06:15]So, this is presumably being recorded the date of the battle.

[00:06:21]Historians have not yet come to the conclusion this is going to be called the Battle of the Philippine Sea. This guy just knows that they are east of the Philippines. So, that's what he is labeling this event and then I believe this is a journal entry from a Chief Felts.

[00:06:39]Interesting that a Chief is keeping a journal when you're not supposed to do that sort of stuff. But, Chief Felts joined the Navy in like 1936, 1937 so he's a pre-war guy from back when it was okay to do that and he seemed to keep journals of all of his time in the Navy. So, by by the time he gets to World War it seems to have just been a habit for him.

[00:07:01]Um but he's of course not the only sailor who does that.

[00:07:09]Another interesting thing about these journals is they they don't have their names on them by and large.

[00:07:16]Um not sure why that is. Usually when I get a new notebook the first thing I do is write my name on the inside cover and none of these journals have names on them except where the museum has gone in and penciled their names so that we can keep it with the rest of the collection. But, that's really the only way that we can match the journals to the sailors that gave them to us.

[00:07:45]Uh and that could be uh we don't want this to be found and then traced back to us uh sort of thing. It It could just be a cultural thing. You didn't put your name on journals. It's my book. Like I I don't need to write my name on my own book. Um unclear.

[00:08:02]Just an interesting observation that of the the four or five of these World War journals, not a single one has a name on it that's written by the person who kept the journal. It It really shows me uh the importance of journaling. The the official historic documents give us so little information, but we're able to build so much more from these journals that have been donated. Um looking back on on my 36-year life, it's interesting how many um historic events I've lived through already. Things like the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and uh the 2020 pandemic. Like things that historians will definitely be writing about in in a couple of years. Some Some stuff's already been written about.

[00:08:56]Uh so keeping a journal would be really important thing. How many of you guys out there keep a journal? It is uh valuable for historians later on.

[00:09:09]Let us know in the comment section down below how long you've kept one.

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