Message Forty-Two  (12-12-44)

Comments by Ari Phoutrides

This message is also interesting.  On December 10, 1944 the USS Hughes was on picket duty in the Surigao
Straits.  She was bombed and hit by a suicide plane amidships, knocking out her boiler and engine rooms. 
The Laffey was detached from our screening  station on a small task group, went alongside her and removed
casualties (she was dead in the water) and took her in tow for 2 hours until a seagoing tug arrived and took over. 
This was the first time our crew got a close up look on the damage a kamikaze could inflict.

On the bottom right hand of the msg, our skipper had written
"After she was hit by suicides at Leyte and we took her in tow".



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