Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945 (The Pacific War Trilogy Book 3)

by Ian W. Toll

Two Nakajima “Kate” torpedo planes now began a run at the Idaho, attacking on her port quarter. A 5-inch VT shell triggered the first Nakajima’s bomb, destroying the aircraft so comprehensively that no wreckage or debris was seen falling into the ocean. The second Kate kept coming, momentarily shielded by the smoke from its destroyed twin. A 20mm mount finally stopped that plane at point-blank range, perhaps as near as 20 feet from the Idaho’s port quarter. Its bomb detonated, hurling wreckage and shrapnel over the deck, flooding eight of the ship’s torpedo blisters, and injuring a dozen men. From his station forward of the Idaho’s superstructure, Lieutenant Wallace thought the plane must have hit the ship. “A bomb exploding so close to you does not make a booming sound, as heard in the movies,” he observed; “It makes a crackling sound, like lightning.”