Press release No. 153

Some where in the Pacific - July 6, 1945 -

Salores aboard this trim Destroyer "beleive in miracles", so they say, after an incident that accured recently during a sustained night air attack by enemy suicide torpedoe bombers in which three destroyers were credited with two kills and driving off numerous other attacks by Jap planes.

Silhoutted against on of the brightest full moons in months the ship was pattroling a forward area in company with two other destroyers when the alert was sounded warning of "many bogies" approaching simultaneously from several different directions.

Using the almost daylight brightness to press home the attack, ten or twelve single and double engined planes tried numerous times to breach the heavy anti-aircraft barrage throun up by the destroyers which presented clearly outlined targets.

During the peak of the attack at which time the Jap planes were closing in on thec destroyer group, bridge personel heard the sky lookout shout, "moon eclipen, bearing 160 degrees relative, position angle 45."

The skipper, Commander A. E. Teal, USN, who hails from Sanfrancis Calif., appraised the phenomenom, telling gunners to keep blazing away until "they can't see you but they can feel you",. Afew moments later two planes were seen to crash into thev sea.

THe eclipse developed into a total-shortly- one shortly afterward, blanketing the entire area in darkness. Observing it's contribution to the routing of the Jap attack, Comdr., Teal remarked that he felt "like Mark Twain's Connecticut Yankee during the blackout."

Read the diary entry about the Eclipse which occured June 23, 1945

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