USS Johnston found...

[SoonerP226]

First, here's a thumbnail sketch of what happened to the USS Johnston during the Battle off Samar from the US Naval War College. It's covered in more detail in Hornfischer's master work on the subject, Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors.

Note that her skipper, CDR Ernest E. Evans, who posthumously received the Medal of Honor for this action, was a Tulsa boy.

Now, here's the new footage of the wreck of the Johnston:

 

[SoonerP226]

I just realized that the second video is from '19, but the Johnston was recently in the news. It looks like someone else dove on her, and got more footage of her wreck.

Her bridge:

Her bow:

 

[Catt57]

Here's a documentary on the Battle of Leyte. It focuses on the USS Enterprise but provides the context of why the USS Johnson was left to face a superior force and tells how she and her fellow ships stood their ground and herocially managed to turn back the enemy just before she was sunk.

 

[Gunbuffer]

Awesome. The pacific naval war was a meat grinder. So many heroes without graves

 

[SoonerP226]

I just learned something interesting. The USS Johnston displaced 2700 tons. Turret 2 on the USS New Jersey weighs 2200 tons.

That kind of gives you an idea of how far above their weight class the "Little Boys" were punching in the Battle off Samar, and why the skipper of the USS Samuel B. Roberts said:

This will be a fight against overwhelming odds from which survival cannot be expected. We will do all the damage we can.
-- Lieutenant Commander Robert W. Copeland, Captain of the USS Samuel B. Roberts, before engaging the Japanese "Center Force" off Samar

I think these two quotes found in Last Stand Of the Tin Can Sailors pretty well cover it:

In no engagement of its entire history has the United States Navy shown more gallantry, guts and gumption than in those two morning hours between 0730 and 0930 off Samar.
-- Samuel Eliot Morison, History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XII, Leyte

Here, then, beyond citations and medals and unexercised bragging rights, is the true legacy of the Battle off Samar. It gave substance to a living tradition. The story, the history, of Navy men in extremis animates the idea that Americans can do anything when it is necessary and when it counts.
-- James D. Hornfischer, Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors