Why the 77th Infantry Division used tank destroyers against the Imperial Japanese Navy during WW2 — and why it only happened once in history. This World War 2 story reveals how General Bruce turned armor designed for German tanks into an improvised weapon nobody expected to work.
December 11, 1944. Major General Andrew D. Bruce commanded the 77th Infantry Division defending the Ormoc waterfront on Leyte, Philippines. Japanese vessels were approaching under cover of darkness to land reinforcements. Bruce had M10 Tank Destroyers positioned along the shore. Every training manual said this was impossible. The M10 was designed to kill German Panthers and Tigers in Europe, not engage warships. Command called it a waste of ammunition.
They were all wrong.
What the M10 crews discovered that night wasn't about following the manual. It was about mathematics in a way that contradicted everything they'd been taught. Three-inch armor-piercing rounds designed to penetrate tank armor behaved very differently against unarmored ship hulls. By the end of that night — when the Old Bastards fought the Imperial Navy — a tactical problem had been solved in a way nobody anticipated.
This engagement b
