The Fletcher class of destroyers was by any metric one of the most successful warships ever designed. Design work started in late 1939, and 175 of them were built by the time WWII had ended, and they remained in service for decades postwar in navies across the globe.
Nineteen of these ships were lost during WWII, and six more were damaged beyond repair. But out of all of them, one would be hard-pressed to say that any fought to the end as valiantly as the ships of Taffy 3 near the island of Leyte.
A cross-section drawing showing the major compartments of a Fletcher class destroyer.
“This is going to be a fighting ship. I intend to go in harm’s way, and anyone who doesn’t want to go along had better get off right now.”
- Commander Ernest. E. Evans
October 20th, 1944 saw the Sixth Army land on the island of Leyte, to start the liberation of the Philippine islands from Imperial Japan. The Japanese had contingencies for many locations where they expected the Americans to invade, despite the disaster of Shō-Gō 2 (October 12-16th, 1944. The Japanese suffered heavy damage to facilities on Formosa and lost hundreds of aircraft for very little gain), once it was clear that the Philippines were the target, they set Shō-Gō 1 into effect.
Shō-Gō 1 was a three-part plan, with two forces of large surface combatants moving into Leyte Gulf via the Surigao Strait in the south (the Southern Force under Nishimura) and via the San Bernadino Strait in the north (the Center Force under Kurita), meanwhile the remains of the Japanese carrier forces (the Northern Force under Ozawa) would be a decoy to draw the bulk of the American fast carrier force and their escorts away from the gulf. It was expected that with them out of the way, the Japanese surface forces would be able to reak havoc on the transport ships and their small escorts that were left behind.
The Southern Force was essentially annihilated on the night of October 24-25th by an American task force in Surigao Strait. In the Palwan Passage on the 23rd and in the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea on the 24th the Center Force was mauled by American submarines and carrier aircraft. But Kurita was able to feign retreat and make it appear that he was withdrawing, leading Admiral Halsey to order his carrier forces north to destroy the Northern Force, putting them out of position for when the Center Force came about and steamed into the waters off the island of Samar on the morning of October 25th.
Three American task forces were positioned to support the army, known as Taffy 1, 2, and 3. Taffy 3, designated Task Force 77.4.3, consisted of six escort carriers, three destroyers, and four destroyer escorts.
These ships were outnumbered, outgunned by an absurd margin, and had no chance to even run away unless they left the escort carriers and the army totally exposed.
With no other option, they still pressed the attack against the Center Force. In this battle, two Fletcher class destroyers were sunk, USS Johnston (DD-557) and USS Hoel (DD-553).
At 0650 contact was made with the Center Force, as the Japanese warships opened fire on the small warships of Taffy 3. As the carriers made their way to the south at their top speed, the destroyers and destroyer escorts laid smoke screens to cover their retreat. Ten minutes later Johnston opened fire at extreme range at the Japanese cruisers that were closing in, and her commander, Ernest Edwin Evans (photograph below), gave an order that would earn him the Medal of Honor, and cost him his life.
"Flank speed, full left rudder."
Johnston charged the Japanese force at her top speed (more than 36 knots), firing her 5'' guns at Kumano, the lead cruiser in the Japanese line. To evade shellfire, Johnston used a tactic of turning towards the splashes of the last Japanese miss, on the logic that they wouldn't be shooting at the same place twice. Several hits were scored, setting fires on the area around Kumano's bridge, though the 5'' shells had no chance of actually penetrating into the cruiser's vital spaces. But, Johnston had a weapon that could.
At a range of five miles, Johnston fired a full spread of ten torpedoes towards Kumano, and at 0724 at least one of these torpedoes hit home. The Mark 15 torpedo blew off a large chunk of her bow, cutting Kumano's speed to 15 knots, and forcing her to withdraw from the battle.
But retribution was not long in coming, as a barrage around six shells struck aft (1-3 on the drawing below estimated to be 8'' or so from the heavy cruisers, hits 4-6 estimated to be 5'' from the same ships). The aft engine room (which drove the portside screw) was disabled, power was cut off to the rear gun mounts and the steering gear, several electrical fires were started, and several compartments started to flood. Johnston's speed was cut to a reported 17 knots (though her loss report suggests that 20-25 would be more reasonable with the reported machinery condition) with the functional propeller shaft. Starting at about 0730, a rain squall gave cover as repairs were made.
Several minor hits were suffered over the next hour and a half, as Johnston engaged the Center Force with her 5'' guns at ranges from 12,000 to 6,000 yards. Three major hits forward at 0910 set major fires and forced the abandonment of the bridge, and Commander Evans conned the ship from the stern until 0940. The crippled destroyer took more hits during this time, until the forward fireroom was disabled, leaving Johnston dead in the water. With the Japanese closing in (as close as 1,000 yards), all watertight hatches were opened in the bow of the ship, and she was abandoned.
Johnston's bow went under around 1010, she rolled over, and sank quickly. Nearly fifty hours later, only 141 of Johnston's complement of 327 were rescued. It is estimated that 50 were directly killed in action, 45 more died from their injuries after abandoning ship, and 92 others were seen alive in the water but were never recovered.
Commander Evans was seen in the water after giving the order to abandon ship, but he was not among those rescued.
A diagram from Johnston's loss report, showing the extent of the damage before she sank.
"The skipper was a fighting man from the soles of his broad feet to the ends of his straight black hair. He was an Oklahoman and proud of the Indian blood he had in him. We called him-though not to his face-the Chief. The Johnston was a fighting ship, but he was the heart and soul of her."
- Ensign Robert C. Hagen, gunnery officer, USS Johnston
The Wreck
At a depth of 20,400 feet (6,220 meters), this wreck is the deepest shipwreck ever discovered.
Sonar scans at a depth of 19,685 feet (6,000 meters) showing the large debris field.
This is the first funnel that was discovered, apparently the first large piece of debris that the ROV came across.
These are the liners of two funnels for Fletcher class destroyers, the top cap the funnel that can be seen in the lower photo is distinctively Fletcher in design.
The remains of Mount III, some type of enclosed, single, base ring mount. Almost definitely a Mark 30 of some mod, though since there were some 85 different mods of the Mark 30 it's hard to tell which exactly it was. The Mod. 70 drawing below will suffice to give an idea of what the construction of these weapons was like.
Johnston had five of these mounts, controlled by a Mark 37 Gun Fire Control System located above the bridge. Also, these are mounts, not turrets, as they do not have a rotating structure below the deck.
The number of this mount can be determined by the arrangement of the hatches, with two on the far left of the above photo, and one watertight on that is more clearly seen in the lower photo.
The two hatches at the rear opened to a passageway, which contained the hoist that carried shells and powder from the magazines up to Mount III. Around the base ring were four vents that came up from the rear engine room, these can be faintly seen, though most of the internal structure of the compartment has been destroyed.
According to the report on Johnston's loss, hit #9 struck just forward of this mount and caused heavy casualties, but did not do serious damage. It is possible that some of the directly visible damage is from this hit, but due to the damage, it's hard to say.
Looking at the front of the mount, most of which is buried in the sediment. The 'T' shaped object on the right side above the barrel of the 5''/38 is a catwalk that ran along the starboard side of the superstructure deck, past the torpedo tubes, towards the locations of the 40mm guns.
In the lower left of the shot is a plume of silt kicked up by the ROV to keep it from sinking all the way, as it suffered major negative buoyancy changes.
This is one of Johnston's two prop shafts, though it's not clear if this is the port or starboard shaft.
And this is one of the two screws, in the surveyed debris field only one shaft and screw was discovered, which has sparked speculation that will be expanded upon below.
This is the only part of the weather (upper) deck that was identified, but there aren't enough identifying features to say where exactly it came from. The deck was ringed by open chocks like the one seen on the lower right, and the rest is so badly mangled that making further attempts at identification is futile.
This is the roof of one of the 5'' mounts, resting inverted on the seabed. The hatch for the gun captain can be seen in the upper right corner.
This is a section of the hull from below the waterline, as can be told by the faint traces of red anti-fowling paint. Again, it's so small and so badly mangled that there isn't a way to tell what part of the ship it's from.
The mast, with the top in the bottom center and the base in the middle distance. Johnston carried a large SC air and surface search radar, and small SG surface search and navigation radar on this mast.
Another large section of debris, possibly part of the waterline since some red paint can be seen on the right side, but it's hard to say. The white paint might be internal portions of the hull though.
This is another chunk of debris of indeterminate origin. Some of the holes have remains of glass in them, which would indicate something external like the bridge. But it's hard to say with how badly damaged it is.
This is the base ring for either a 5'' or a 40mm mount, mangled beyond exact identification.
Here is something interesting though, a gully or trench from something large that slid downhill, deeper into the Philippine Trench. Speculation points to this being a larger section of the hull, but the Petrel's ROV was suffering from technical issues, requiring constant thrust applied to keep it from sinking, so they did not follow this trench to see what was at the end of it. Though they did say that during future surveys they intend to try and follow up on this.
A large blue painted piece of aluminum debris, which points to Johnston. The exact identification of the wreck will be outlined at the end of this post, explaining why it's believed that this is Johnston and not Hoel.
This is a floating life net storage basket. There were five of this style of basket on Fletcher class destroyers, two located on each side of the Number IV 5'' mount, two hanging from a platform attached to the rear funnel, and a single basket attached to the superstructure just aft of Mount I. Two more curved baskets were attached to the searchlight platform ahead of the forward funnel.
This is the top of another 5'' gun mount, with a blast shield for the gun captain. Since there are so few photos of Johnston, the shield alone isn't very much of an identifying element. The consistent color over the top of the mount is a point towards this being Johnston.
Another 5'' mount, though it's not immediately clear if this is a deck-mounted or a superfiring mount due to the damage, a probable conclusion can be drawn. Speculation by the author is that this Mount II based on the color change from the rusted internal structure seen in the lower photo.
The handling room for the Number II mount has one exterior wall, several supports as can be seen on the diagram, and the mostly intact bulkhead is also the one that wouldn't have a hatch through it.
Some other debris that is essentially unidentifiable. In the top left of the lower photo is something that looks to be a red tank, and there is something that appears to be a dial in the lower center, but the damage is just too extensive.
So, What Ship is This?
What makes it more likely that this wreck is USS Johnston instead of USS Hoel?
The location of the wreck, near the southern end of the scouted battlefield, points to Johnston. While exact locations aren't published for warships like this, Johnston was able to move southwest while engaging the Japanese force even after Hoel was disabled and sunk. Based on the sequence of events described in, and maps from The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors (map shown below), Johnston was about five nautical miles southwest of where Hoel sank.
Twenty minutes after the time shown on this map, Johnston was dead in the water due to several more heavy hits that finally disabled her last engine. While combat records and the recollections of survivors aren't always especially accurate regarding the final sinking locations of ships, particularly considering the depth of the water which would allow the ship to drift extensively once submerged, the recorded locations are compelling evidence that this is Johnston.
Second is the lack of any apparent camouflage pattern. From the available information, Hoel was painted in Measure 31/1D, a dazzle pattern consisting of ocean gray, deck blue, and dull black paint (diagram of this pattern below). There is no evidence of this sort of pattern on the wreck, either from the lines between patches or from clearly different colors on different parts of the wreck.
The most apparent location where this would be seen if this were Hoel would be on 5'' Mount III. As when in a neutral position, the starboard side of the mount, including part of the face, would have been painted dull black, which is nowhere to be seen on the wreck. A photo of Hoel around October 1944 can be seen below, which shows the starboard side of the Number III mount and its black paint.
Johnston, on the other hand, was decked out in Measure 21, which was navy blue on all vertical surfaces and deck blue on all horizontal surfaces. The photo of Johnston below from September 19th, 1944, shows an entirely uniform, dark paint scheme.
Last of all is the condition of the wreck itself. Johnston took a multitude of heavy hits during the battle, but after she sank it was reported that there were two large explosions. Speculation generally points to either the boilers or depth charges as the source, either one of which would be enough to shatter the already badly damaged warship.
Considering all of the above, until further surveys of the battlefield are made to confirm the identities and locations of the wrecked destroyers, it is reasonable to say that this is the wreck of the USS Johnston (DD-557).
Sources:
Wreck photos from the R/V Petrel Facebook page.
https://maritime.org/doc/plans/index.htm - General Plans for the Fletcher class Destroyer.
http://www.navsource.org/archives/05/557.htm - Photos of USS Johnston.
https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/j/johnston-i.html - Ship History.
https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/ships/modern-ships/johnston.html - Ship History.
The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors: The Extraordinary World War II Story of the U.S. Navy's Finest Hour - Hornfischer, James D.
http://www.shipcamouflage.com/fletcher_class.htm - Camouflage Information.
http://www.cmohs.org/recipient-detail/2730/evans-ernest-edwin.php - Commander Evans's Medal of Honor Citation.
Nineteen of these ships were lost during WWII, and six more were damaged beyond repair. But out of all of them, one would be hard-pressed to say that any fought to the end as valiantly as the ships of Taffy 3 near the island of Leyte.
“This is going to be a fighting ship. I intend to go in harm’s way, and anyone who doesn’t want to go along had better get off right now.”
- Commander Ernest. E. Evans
October 20th, 1944 saw the Sixth Army land on the island of Leyte, to start the liberation of the Philippine islands from Imperial Japan. The Japanese had contingencies for many locations where they expected the Americans to invade, despite the disaster of Shō-Gō 2 (October 12-16th, 1944. The Japanese suffered heavy damage to facilities on Formosa and lost hundreds of aircraft for very little gain), once it was clear that the Philippines were the target, they set Shō-Gō 1 into effect.
Shō-Gō 1 was a three-part plan, with two forces of large surface combatants moving into Leyte Gulf via the Surigao Strait in the south (the Southern Force under Nishimura) and via the San Bernadino Strait in the north (the Center Force under Kurita), meanwhile the remains of the Japanese carrier forces (the Northern Force under Ozawa) would be a decoy to draw the bulk of the American fast carrier force and their escorts away from the gulf. It was expected that with them out of the way, the Japanese surface forces would be able to reak havoc on the transport ships and their small escorts that were left behind.
The Southern Force was essentially annihilated on the night of October 24-25th by an American task force in Surigao Strait. In the Palwan Passage on the 23rd and in the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea on the 24th the Center Force was mauled by American submarines and carrier aircraft. But Kurita was able to feign retreat and make it appear that he was withdrawing, leading Admiral Halsey to order his carrier forces north to destroy the Northern Force, putting them out of position for when the Center Force came about and steamed into the waters off the island of Samar on the morning of October 25th.
Three American task forces were positioned to support the army, known as Taffy 1, 2, and 3. Taffy 3, designated Task Force 77.4.3, consisted of six escort carriers, three destroyers, and four destroyer escorts.
These ships were outnumbered, outgunned by an absurd margin, and had no chance to even run away unless they left the escort carriers and the army totally exposed.
With no other option, they still pressed the attack against the Center Force. In this battle, two Fletcher class destroyers were sunk, USS Johnston (DD-557) and USS Hoel (DD-553).
At 0650 contact was made with the Center Force, as the Japanese warships opened fire on the small warships of Taffy 3. As the carriers made their way to the south at their top speed, the destroyers and destroyer escorts laid smoke screens to cover their retreat. Ten minutes later Johnston opened fire at extreme range at the Japanese cruisers that were closing in, and her commander, Ernest Edwin Evans (photograph below), gave an order that would earn him the Medal of Honor, and cost him his life.
"Flank speed, full left rudder."
Johnston charged the Japanese force at her top speed (more than 36 knots), firing her 5'' guns at Kumano, the lead cruiser in the Japanese line. To evade shellfire, Johnston used a tactic of turning towards the splashes of the last Japanese miss, on the logic that they wouldn't be shooting at the same place twice. Several hits were scored, setting fires on the area around Kumano's bridge, though the 5'' shells had no chance of actually penetrating into the cruiser's vital spaces. But, Johnston had a weapon that could.
At a range of five miles, Johnston fired a full spread of ten torpedoes towards Kumano, and at 0724 at least one of these torpedoes hit home. The Mark 15 torpedo blew off a large chunk of her bow, cutting Kumano's speed to 15 knots, and forcing her to withdraw from the battle.
But retribution was not long in coming, as a barrage around six shells struck aft (1-3 on the drawing below estimated to be 8'' or so from the heavy cruisers, hits 4-6 estimated to be 5'' from the same ships). The aft engine room (which drove the portside screw) was disabled, power was cut off to the rear gun mounts and the steering gear, several electrical fires were started, and several compartments started to flood. Johnston's speed was cut to a reported 17 knots (though her loss report suggests that 20-25 would be more reasonable with the reported machinery condition) with the functional propeller shaft. Starting at about 0730, a rain squall gave cover as repairs were made.
Several minor hits were suffered over the next hour and a half, as Johnston engaged the Center Force with her 5'' guns at ranges from 12,000 to 6,000 yards. Three major hits forward at 0910 set major fires and forced the abandonment of the bridge, and Commander Evans conned the ship from the stern until 0940. The crippled destroyer took more hits during this time, until the forward fireroom was disabled, leaving Johnston dead in the water. With the Japanese closing in (as close as 1,000 yards), all watertight hatches were opened in the bow of the ship, and she was abandoned.
Johnston's bow went under around 1010, she rolled over, and sank quickly. Nearly fifty hours later, only 141 of Johnston's complement of 327 were rescued. It is estimated that 50 were directly killed in action, 45 more died from their injuries after abandoning ship, and 92 others were seen alive in the water but were never recovered.
Commander Evans was seen in the water after giving the order to abandon ship, but he was not among those rescued.
"The skipper was a fighting man from the soles of his broad feet to the ends of his straight black hair. He was an Oklahoman and proud of the Indian blood he had in him. We called him-though not to his face-the Chief. The Johnston was a fighting ship, but he was the heart and soul of her."
- Ensign Robert C. Hagen, gunnery officer, USS Johnston
The Wreck
At a depth of 20,400 feet (6,220 meters), this wreck is the deepest shipwreck ever discovered.
Sonar scans at a depth of 19,685 feet (6,000 meters) showing the large debris field.
This is the first funnel that was discovered, apparently the first large piece of debris that the ROV came across.
These are the liners of two funnels for Fletcher class destroyers, the top cap the funnel that can be seen in the lower photo is distinctively Fletcher in design.
The remains of Mount III, some type of enclosed, single, base ring mount. Almost definitely a Mark 30 of some mod, though since there were some 85 different mods of the Mark 30 it's hard to tell which exactly it was. The Mod. 70 drawing below will suffice to give an idea of what the construction of these weapons was like.
Johnston had five of these mounts, controlled by a Mark 37 Gun Fire Control System located above the bridge. Also, these are mounts, not turrets, as they do not have a rotating structure below the deck.
The number of this mount can be determined by the arrangement of the hatches, with two on the far left of the above photo, and one watertight on that is more clearly seen in the lower photo.
The two hatches at the rear opened to a passageway, which contained the hoist that carried shells and powder from the magazines up to Mount III. Around the base ring were four vents that came up from the rear engine room, these can be faintly seen, though most of the internal structure of the compartment has been destroyed.
According to the report on Johnston's loss, hit #9 struck just forward of this mount and caused heavy casualties, but did not do serious damage. It is possible that some of the directly visible damage is from this hit, but due to the damage, it's hard to say.
Looking at the front of the mount, most of which is buried in the sediment. The 'T' shaped object on the right side above the barrel of the 5''/38 is a catwalk that ran along the starboard side of the superstructure deck, past the torpedo tubes, towards the locations of the 40mm guns.
In the lower left of the shot is a plume of silt kicked up by the ROV to keep it from sinking all the way, as it suffered major negative buoyancy changes.
This is one of Johnston's two prop shafts, though it's not clear if this is the port or starboard shaft.
And this is one of the two screws, in the surveyed debris field only one shaft and screw was discovered, which has sparked speculation that will be expanded upon below.
This is the only part of the weather (upper) deck that was identified, but there aren't enough identifying features to say where exactly it came from. The deck was ringed by open chocks like the one seen on the lower right, and the rest is so badly mangled that making further attempts at identification is futile.
This is the roof of one of the 5'' mounts, resting inverted on the seabed. The hatch for the gun captain can be seen in the upper right corner.
This is a section of the hull from below the waterline, as can be told by the faint traces of red anti-fowling paint. Again, it's so small and so badly mangled that there isn't a way to tell what part of the ship it's from.
The mast, with the top in the bottom center and the base in the middle distance. Johnston carried a large SC air and surface search radar, and small SG surface search and navigation radar on this mast.
Another large section of debris, possibly part of the waterline since some red paint can be seen on the right side, but it's hard to say. The white paint might be internal portions of the hull though.
This is another chunk of debris of indeterminate origin. Some of the holes have remains of glass in them, which would indicate something external like the bridge. But it's hard to say with how badly damaged it is.
This is the base ring for either a 5'' or a 40mm mount, mangled beyond exact identification.
Here is something interesting though, a gully or trench from something large that slid downhill, deeper into the Philippine Trench. Speculation points to this being a larger section of the hull, but the Petrel's ROV was suffering from technical issues, requiring constant thrust applied to keep it from sinking, so they did not follow this trench to see what was at the end of it. Though they did say that during future surveys they intend to try and follow up on this.
A large blue painted piece of aluminum debris, which points to Johnston. The exact identification of the wreck will be outlined at the end of this post, explaining why it's believed that this is Johnston and not Hoel.
This is a floating life net storage basket. There were five of this style of basket on Fletcher class destroyers, two located on each side of the Number IV 5'' mount, two hanging from a platform attached to the rear funnel, and a single basket attached to the superstructure just aft of Mount I. Two more curved baskets were attached to the searchlight platform ahead of the forward funnel.
This is the top of another 5'' gun mount, with a blast shield for the gun captain. Since there are so few photos of Johnston, the shield alone isn't very much of an identifying element. The consistent color over the top of the mount is a point towards this being Johnston.
Another 5'' mount, though it's not immediately clear if this is a deck-mounted or a superfiring mount due to the damage, a probable conclusion can be drawn. Speculation by the author is that this Mount II based on the color change from the rusted internal structure seen in the lower photo.
The handling room for the Number II mount has one exterior wall, several supports as can be seen on the diagram, and the mostly intact bulkhead is also the one that wouldn't have a hatch through it.
Some other debris that is essentially unidentifiable. In the top left of the lower photo is something that looks to be a red tank, and there is something that appears to be a dial in the lower center, but the damage is just too extensive.
So, What Ship is This?
What makes it more likely that this wreck is USS Johnston instead of USS Hoel?
The location of the wreck, near the southern end of the scouted battlefield, points to Johnston. While exact locations aren't published for warships like this, Johnston was able to move southwest while engaging the Japanese force even after Hoel was disabled and sunk. Based on the sequence of events described in, and maps from The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors (map shown below), Johnston was about five nautical miles southwest of where Hoel sank.
Twenty minutes after the time shown on this map, Johnston was dead in the water due to several more heavy hits that finally disabled her last engine. While combat records and the recollections of survivors aren't always especially accurate regarding the final sinking locations of ships, particularly considering the depth of the water which would allow the ship to drift extensively once submerged, the recorded locations are compelling evidence that this is Johnston.
Second is the lack of any apparent camouflage pattern. From the available information, Hoel was painted in Measure 31/1D, a dazzle pattern consisting of ocean gray, deck blue, and dull black paint (diagram of this pattern below). There is no evidence of this sort of pattern on the wreck, either from the lines between patches or from clearly different colors on different parts of the wreck.
The most apparent location where this would be seen if this were Hoel would be on 5'' Mount III. As when in a neutral position, the starboard side of the mount, including part of the face, would have been painted dull black, which is nowhere to be seen on the wreck. A photo of Hoel around October 1944 can be seen below, which shows the starboard side of the Number III mount and its black paint.
Johnston, on the other hand, was decked out in Measure 21, which was navy blue on all vertical surfaces and deck blue on all horizontal surfaces. The photo of Johnston below from September 19th, 1944, shows an entirely uniform, dark paint scheme.
Last of all is the condition of the wreck itself. Johnston took a multitude of heavy hits during the battle, but after she sank it was reported that there were two large explosions. Speculation generally points to either the boilers or depth charges as the source, either one of which would be enough to shatter the already badly damaged warship.
Considering all of the above, until further surveys of the battlefield are made to confirm the identities and locations of the wrecked destroyers, it is reasonable to say that this is the wreck of the USS Johnston (DD-557).
Sources:
Wreck photos from the R/V Petrel Facebook page.
https://maritime.org/doc/plans/index.htm - General Plans for the Fletcher class Destroyer.
http://www.navsource.org/archives/05/557.htm - Photos of USS Johnston.
https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/j/johnston-i.html - Ship History.
https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/ships/modern-ships/johnston.html - Ship History.
The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors: The Extraordinary World War II Story of the U.S. Navy's Finest Hour - Hornfischer, James D.
http://www.shipcamouflage.com/fletcher_class.htm - Camouflage Information.
http://www.cmohs.org/recipient-detail/2730/evans-ernest-edwin.php - Commander Evans's Medal of Honor Citation.
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