Fifteen rounds. Five ships. Zero American losses.
On the night of December 11, 1944, the Japanese Imperial Navy sent a convoy into Ormoc Bay to reinforce their crumbling defensive line on Leyte. What they didn't know was that the 77th Infantry Division — a unit of middle-aged civilians from New York and New Jersey — had turned the waterfront into something no Japanese captain could have anticipated.
The 77th had no warships. No Navy support that night. What they had were M10 Tank Destroyers — vehicles designed to kill German tanks in Europe. Nobody had ever fired a tank destroyer at a ship. Nobody knew if it would work.
Eighteen minutes later, the answer was written across Ormoc Bay. And nothing like it ever happened again in the entire war.
The other divisions called them the Old Bastards. The Japanese had a different name for them — one that translated roughly to demons who take no prisoners. After that night, both names made sense.
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