Death of the Machine Gun Cruiser-Kula Gulf

The Unauthorized History of the Pacific War

Captain William Toti, USN

Halsey, Station Hypo, World War Ii, Macarthur, Seth Paridon, Pacific War, History, Stavridis, Cactus Air Force, Fargo, William Toti, Aircraft Carriers, Nimitz, Mush Morton, Wahoo, Imperial Japan, Cruisers, Wake Island, Battleships, Spruance, Courses, Submarines, Midway, Cincpac, Guadalcanal, Documentary, Naval History And Heritage Command, Society & Culture, Admiral King, Imperial Japanese Navy, New Guinea, Cincpoa, Cryptology, Navy, Sam Cox, Pearl Harbor, Education, Bill Toti, December 7, Us Navy, Bombers, Fighters

4.8 • 654 Ratings

🗓️ 2 May 2023

⏱️ 77 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week Bill and Seth take a look at one of the lesser-known surface battles in the Pacific, the Battle of Kula Gulf. The team breaks down the gunfight and dissects the amazing survival story of the crew of the ship known as the "Machine Gun Cruiser", USS Helena (CL-50). Tune in and see what the fellas have to say.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to episode 210 of the unauthorized history of the Pacific War podcast.
0:15.9	My name is Seth Peridon, historian and deputy director of the Mississippi Armed Forces Museum here at Camp Shelby.
0:40.8	And with me, as always, is my esteemed co-host retired Navy Captain Bill Toey, former skipper of the Fast Attack Submarine U.S.S. Indianapolis, common to our submarine squad and Sierra Pearl Harbor, and many other assignments and postings. How are you this morning, Bill? I'm doing great. The weather's warmed up here in Florida. I thought it was in Maine for a while, and it's a bright, sunny day.
0:51.6	Yeah, it was rather nippy. It was ironic that we're recording this in March. March, today's the 21st. Yesterday was the coldest day that we've had all winter.
0:54.2	Yes, I'm here in Florida.
0:54.9	Incredible.
0:57.0	It was incredible, yeah, for this late.
1:01.2	But such as it is, living in the deep south, if you don't like the weather, as I say, wait five minutes and it'll change.
1:03.7	Well, this week, we're going to talk about an interesting engagement, shall we say.
1:10.5	Allied forces executed their first post-Guardic Canal Solomon's area offensive
1:14.4	when soldiers of the U.S. Army as well as U.S. Marines and Fiji Nationals landed on Rendova on June 30,
1:20.8	1943 and New Georgia on July 2nd, 1943. The goal of the New Georgia campaign was to secure
1:26.7	the newly constructed Japanese airfield at Munda on the southwest goal of the New Georgia campaign was to secure the newly constructed Japanese
1:28.0	airfield at Munda on the southwestern corner of New Georgia. Initial advances on New Georgia
1:33.1	from Zanana towards Munda were slow at best. The Green National Guardsmen of the 43rd
1:38.0	infantry division were finding life against both the jungle and the Japanese to be, shall we say,
1:42.5	difficult. In order to strengthen the American
1:45.3	advance and to theoretically cut off Japanese resupply and reinforcement lanes in the Zanana-Munda
1:50.5	area, the Americans landed another amphibious force at Rice Anchorage. Japanese keenly aware that
1:57.5	the loss of Munda and its precious airfield would put Bougainville and Rabaugh
2:01.0	under direct allied air threat were in no hurry to lose that territory. As such, the Japanese
2:06.8	resorted to their method of reinforcing garrisons via fast destroyers and planned for such a mission
	...

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