Wolverines vs Warships | The 77th ID Defend Ormoc Bay

Besides being one of the best-known American tank destroyers of the Second World War, and seeing widespread use among Allied nations through the Lend-Lease program, the M10 Wolverine Tank Destroyer has another strange claim to fame: it was one of the very few tanks to ever engage a naval vessel, and win.
The event in question is a little-known engagement that took place on the night of 11th-12th December, 1944, at Ormoc Bay, on the island of Leyte, during the Philippines campaign. That night, US infantry from the famous 77th Infantry Division, with armored support, successfully defended their beachhead against an attempted amphibious landing by Imperial Japanese Navy forces, ultimately resulting in M10s sinking a Japanese No.101-class landing ship.
According to the official history of the US Army 77th Infantry Division, this was the only time in the history of the Pacific War, and Second World War in general, that an infantry unit was credited with successfully sinking an enemy naval vessel from dry land.


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Sources: ‘The men who were there’, Ours to Hold it High: The History of the 77th Infantry Division in World War II, Washington Infantry Journal Press, 1947

M. Hamlin Canon, United States Army in World War II: The War in the Pacific: Leyte: The Return to the Philippines, Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army, 1954

William L. Griggs, Preludes to Victory: The Battle of Ormoc Bay in World War II, Atlantic Press, 1997

R.P. Hunnicutt, Sherman: A History of the American Medium Tank, Presidio Press, 1978

Ushio Shobō, The Maru Special, Japanese Naval Vessels #50, Japanese minesweepers and landing ships, 1981.

Steven J. Zaloga, New Vanguard #57, M10 and M36 Tank Destroyers, Osprey Publishing, 2002

Clayton K. S. Chun, Campaign #282, Leyte 1944: Return to the Philippines, Osprey Publishing, 2015

Nicholas Moran, Can Openers: The Development of American Anti-Tank Gun Motor Carriages, Echo Point Books & Media, 2022

The Chieftain’s Hatch – ‘Amtanks’

The Fat Electrician, Old Age & Treachery – The Unstoppable 77th Infantry Division, 12th April 2024

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An article by Mark Nash
Narrated by Wood
Edited by Battlehammer

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