The Tin Can Sailors Of Taffy 3 - The Battle Of Samar - The Epic Naval Battle Of WWII
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
This is a repost of an article from 4 years ago.
Naval experts call it the greatest mismatch in U.S. Naval history. The small fleet of Taffy 3 made up of destroyers, destroyer escorts and baby flat tops, did the impossible, they stopped one of the greatest Japanese Armada's in history. Four Battleships, including the super battleship Yamato, eight heavy cruisers and eleven destroyers bore down on this small American fleet. The battle, described in detail follows in the article.
The bravery of the sailors and airmen of Taffy 3 is something out of a ''Rambo'' movie. Unbelievable, stunning, courageous, without fear hardly begins to describe the epic moment in history.
Commander Ernest E. Evans, commander of the USS Johnston (destroyer) was awarded the Medal of Honor in this battle and the entire Taffy 3 was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation.
This will be a fight against overwhelming odds from which survival cannot be expected. We will do what damage we can. —Lieutenant Commander Robert W. Copeland, commanding officer, USS Samuel B. Roberts.
The words of Commander Copeland will give you an idea of the odds Taffy 3 faced.
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United States Navy Task Group Taffy-3 was not designed to engage enemy warships in combat. Comprised of just six carrier escorts (basically just ordinary merchant ships, each equipped with a flight deck and a complement of thirty aircraft), three destroyers, and four destroyer escorts, Taffy-3’s primary mission during the American operation to retake the Philippines was to hang around off the coast of Leyte Island and launch ground attack aircraft to support the infantry assault. If a submarine or two came knocking on the door looking for a nice meaty carrier to deep-six, or some stray squadron of Japanese fighter-bombers stuck its nose where it didn’t belong, the destroyers were equipped to handle it.
So, naturally, when Rear Admiral Clifton “Ziggy” Sprague, Taffy-3’s commander, received a frantic radio call from one of his reconnaissance pilots reporting that the largest and most heavily armed assortment of surface-sailing battle cruisers ever assembled was bearing down on a collision course with Taffy-3, he was a little concerned. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it—the Japanese superbattleship Yamato was out there, accompanied by three massive battleships, eight cruisers, and eleven destroyers, bearing three-four-zero, range twenty miles, closing fast on his position at thirty knots.
Huh?
Five minutes later, a trio of armor-piercing shells eighteen inches in diameter threw up a towering wall of water just off the bow of Sprague’s flagship. It had been launched by the Yamato , the largest battleship ever built in the history of naval warfare—seventy-two thousand tons of steel-plated intimidation equipped with massive cannons that could launch a bullet the size of a Volkswagen over fifteen miles. This heavily armored, virtually indestructible behemoth of imperial justice outweighed the entire Taffy-3 task force by itself , and those planet-killing guns it was popping off like bottle rockets were more than baller enough to completely vaporize any ship in the American task force with a single round. Meanwhile, the biggest guns in Taffy-3 were the Mark 12 5-inch/38-caliber guns mounted on the decks of the destroyers and destroyer escorts—midsized crew-operated cannons designed for use against aircraft and lightly armored targets like surfaced submarines. A direct hit from one of those things couldn’t have even dented the cooking utensils on the Yamato .
Of course, it’s not as if that was going to stop the Americans from giving this massive Japanese battleship fleet a hell of a fight.
It should be mentioned here that there was a hell of a lot more at stake here than just those six carrier escorts (although these were to be defended at all costs). Earlier in the day a masterful Japanese feint had succeeded in drawing the entire U.S. Third Fleet away from the Philippines on some wild-goose chase snipe hunt into the middle of nowhere, and with Third Fleet’s unexpected departure the only thing keeping this gigantic Japanese armada from donkey-punching the two hundred thousand American soldiers and marines fighting on Leyte Island in the kidneys with artillery shells the size of refrigerators were the tiny antisubmarine warships of Taffy-3. Defeat here would give Japanese admiral Takeo Kurita’s battleships a free run to annihilate the landing craft and troop transports currently ferrying reinforcements and supplies to the island, massacring an entire division of U.S. Marines in their ships, crippling the operation to retake the Philippines and quite possibly turning the tide of the war in the Pacific back against the Allies.
The men of Taffy-3 weren’t about to let that happen.
Sprague’s carriers turned east into the wind so they could launch their fighters, then the entire Taffy-3 group turned south and ran toward Leyte as fast as they could go, zigzagging between enemy shells while roughly half of the Japanese navy took potshots at their asses. The destroyers all started pumping black smoke out of their smokestacks in a desperate effort to conceal the carriers from enemy gunners, hanging tight around the ships they’d been ordered to protect as salvos from the unstoppable enemy armada churned up the water around them so hard it looked like they were sailing through a glass of Alka-Seltzer, but it quickly became obvious that running wasn’t going to be enough—the Japanese cruisers could easily haul ass at twice the speed of the carrier escorts, and their guns were more than enough to shred the unarmored carriers as if they were paper targets in a shooting range. And they were closing in fast.
Then, suddenly, out of the black smoke spewed forth by the destroyer screen, burst the bow of the DD-557—the U.S.S. Johnston . A fifteen-thousand-ton Fletcher-class destroyer on a one-ship suicide run straight into the teeth of the most heavily armed surface fleet ever assembled. It was commanded by Captain Ernest E. Evans, a Creek/Cherokee Indian who had vowed never to take one step back from the Japanese no matter how miserable a situation he found himself in, and now that he was presented with the opportunity to stick it to the enemy this infinitely hardcore warrior brave was launching a freakishly dangerous lone-wolf suicide attack head-on against a twenty-three-ship armada, hoping that his desperate effort to ruin their asses would delay the enemy long enough for his task force to escape.
Still way out of range for her little five-inch guns or torpedoes, Johnston determinedly zigzagged at flank speed through a barrage of concentrated fire from twenty-three enemy ships, knowing full damned well that she needed to cross twenty miles of open water to get within range and that a single hit from any enemy ship would rip her hull a new one and send her careening to the ocean floor in minutes. Still, seemingly completely oblivious to any form of danger, Captain Evans raced on.
Six squadrons of American fighter-bomber aircraft screamed through the air over Johnston , making their way toward the Japanese fleet despite a hail of tracer fire and airburst shrapnel exploding all around them. Undaunted by a sky full of explosions, bullets, and other horrible crap capable of disintegrating the fuselage of even the toughest aircraft like a wet paper towel in a bowl of sulfuric acid, the Avenger attack craft and Hellcat fighters streaked in at two hundred miles an hour, strafing the enemy ships with everything they could bring to bear—which wasn’t all that much, considering that these planes had been kitted out for antipersonnel and antisubmarine warfare and the ground crews hadn’t had time to rearm them with something more useful. But the American pilots didn’t give a crap—with literally five hundred heavy machine guns and antiaircraft cannons ripping up the skies around them, Avenger pilots were dropping depth charges on heavy cruisers and Hellcat fighters were diving out of the clouds to strafe armored battleships with .50-caliber machine guns, just hoping that maybe they could maybe just shoot someone important or knock out some critical piece of exposed equipment.
Back on the ocean surface, Johnston had somehow miraculously made its way through the carnage and closed within range to begin its attack. Desperate for delicious vengeance and single-mindedly intent on doing as much damage as its armament would allow, Johnston opened up on the lead Japanese heavy cruiser, blasting all five of her five-inch guns at the Kumano , a hulking warship that outweighed the little Johnston by a factor of seven. Undeterred, Johnston ripped off two hundred rounds of five-inch ammunition in just five minutes, hammering the enemy superstructure, destroying a couple of her heavy gun mounts, and then following that flurry of blows up with a ten-torpedo salvo that smashed into Kumano 's balls, ripped her hull up, and blasted off her bow, splitting the cruiser force’s flagship nearly in half. First blood had been drawn, and it was Little Mac getting the Star Power uppercut on Mike Tyson himself.
Having now expended all of her torpedoes—the only weapons capable of legitimately damaging the enemy heavies— Johnston cranked the emergency brake, turned about, and started screaming ass back toward Taffy-3, still blasting hundreds of rounds from her five-inch cannons at anything with a rising sun emblazoned on the hull.
Unfortunately, Johnston ’s luck finally ran out, and, at extreme close range with the enemy she took a direct hit from the ridiculously massive Japanese battleship Kongo . Heavy sixteen-inch shells punched through Johnston ’s hull, destroyed a boiler, and cut the American ship’s speed in half. Another round from a heavy cruiser then smashed into the crippled American ship, igniting a magazine of forty-millimeter antiaircraft ammunition that exploded and spewed shrapnel across several decks, and then yet another round from some other enemy ship slammed directly into the ship’s bridge, snapping the mast and destroying her communications and radar capabilities. Captain Evans lost two fingers and took a ridiculous spray of white-hot burning metal shrapnel to his face, chest, and hands, but this tack-eating hardcase just got up, dusted himself off, walked out to the deck like he didn't even notice half his body was burning, and kept shouting orders, commanding his ship even though his shirt had been blown off like when James T. Kirk fought the Gorn lizard man Captain on the surface of that asteroid.
Overhead, the Avengers and Hellcats continued their strafing attacks, diving down at high speeds on the enemy, releasing their ship-humping bomb loads, then pulling out of their dives and trying not to black out from the ferocious amount of Gs that were trying to crush their skulls. The cruiser Suzuya was hit with two air-to-ground bombs and badly damaged, pulling out of formation alongside the similarly crippled Kumano . Even the pilots whose bomb bay holds had been loaded with propaganda leaflets and other useless objects found a way to contribute to the battle—these guys opened their (empty) torpedo bays and made fake torpedo runs on the enemy cruisers—the Japanese, of course, didn’t know that these pilots weren’t carrying weapons, and were forced to take evasive maneuvers just in case, throwing them off their game and buying the American fleet just a little more time to make their escape.
Inspired by the example of the Johnston , the rest of Taffy-3’s destroyer screen soon decided, Screw it, these guys aren't going to have all the fun, we’re also going to join the fight and get in on some of this sweet sweet asskicking goodness. The American destroyers Heerman and Hoel threw themselves through the smoke screen into battle, joined by the destroyer escort Samuel B. Roberts —a supertiny, superslow, lightly armed, virtually unarmored antisubmarine ship that under any other circumstances would stand up about as well in toe-to-toe surface combat with an imperial battleship as a paddle-operated swan boat crewed by two guys with steel helmets and nine-millimeter handguns. To give you some indication of scale here, the splashes of water thrown up by off-target Japanese battleship rounds were taller than the mast of the Roberts .
As the second American attack wave closed to torpedo range, they passed the crippled Johnston , still trying to limp back to the carriers. The bleeding, half-dead Captain Evans was standing at attention on the deck saluting them as they hurtled toward almost-certain death. After the destroyers had passed him, Evans gritted his teeth, got pumped up out of his mind, and ordered the Johnston to turn around and go back into the fray , bringing up the rear of the formation and providing covering fire with whatever ammo was left in her five-inch guns despite the ship basically just being held together by duct tape and bumper stickers at this point.
The American destroyers steamed flank speed through the deadly spray of enemy artillery shells straight into the midst of the Japanese formation, their assortment of antiaircraft and antisubmarine guns blazing for everything they were worth. The Hoel launched her torpedoes at the battleship Kongo but missed, then started trading point-blank salvos with the gimongous imperial cruiser Haguro —a losing proposition on the best of days, let alone when you’re outnumbered twenty-three to three. The Heerman charged straight into four Japanese battleships, hitting them with a barrage of fifty-four-pound shells from its five-inch guns, and then fired seven torpedoes at the behemoth Yamato . The imperial flagship, seeing more than a half-dozen torpedoes streaking through the sea toward her, peeled off to evade, a maneuver that sent the ship—and Admiral Kurita—sailing out of the battle in the wrong direction. Kurita, observing the battlefield in his rearview mirror and realizing he wasn’t going to be around to command and control the action, simply ordered a “general attack,” meaning basically every Japanese captain was on his own to figure out what the hell he was supposed to be shooting at. Heerman then hit the battleship Haruma with another torpedo barrage, damaging her hull with a high-explosive underwater kick to the junk. The little Samuel B. Roberts got involved as well, closing with the heavy cruiser Chokai , hammering it with torpedoes, and trading gunfire with it at point-blank range. The Roberts was so small that at such a close range, the Chokai couldn’t depress its guns low enough to hit it, allowing Roberts to get in some sweet shots at Chokai ’s soft peanut-buttery underbelly.
As the swirling ship-to-ship free-for-all melee ensued, with three tiny American destroyers engaging a dozen enemy heavy cruisers and battleships at extreme close range, Captain Evans noticed that a group of five Japanese destroyers—ships comparable in size and weaponry to the Johnston —had peeled off from the enemy formation and were preparing to make a torpedo attack on the American carriers. Johnston was crippled and without electrical power (the engine had to be hand-cranked by two strong men while ocean water seeped into the engine room around them), but Evans knew she was the only ship with any prayer of making it there in time. He ordered his ship to turn and attack, diving straight into the formation, guns blazing, firing madly despite being outnumbered five to one by ships in much better fighting shape than his. In his desperate charge, Evans successfully threw the entire Japanese destroyer column off course as they reacted to the heavy shells pounding into their hulls, distracting their aim and sending their entire torpedo complement sailing well wide of the American carriers.
Back in the gun battle now engulfing the seas off Samar Island, the destroyer escorts Dennis , Raymond , and John C. Butler also steamed ahead and joined their sister ship Samuel B. Roberts , powering straight into the teeth of the epic naval duel that now raged across the ocean. The tiny American ships did everything they could to get in the way of the Japanese heavies and keep them away from the carriers, firing with everything they had as planes were diving in and out all over the place blasting away with their guns and bombs. The Heerman was trading fire with two heavy cruisers at point-blank range, Hoel was fighting for her life against impossible odds as three warships hammered her from different sides, and the little Samuel B. Roberts was firing at a rate that would see her expend six hundred rounds from her two guns in the span of just an hour, most of them hammering the heavy cruiser Chokai so hard it actually somehow knocked her out of the battle.
For the next hour the fighting was fast and furious, but the situation was getting darker and darker by the minute. The Heerman and the destroyer escorts damaged the cruiser Chikuma , which turned to escape and was promptly torpedoed into a coral reef by Avenger aircraft, but aside from that, things were slowly starting to turn against the American fleet. Heerman then took a round to the bridge, but continued to fight despite being totally on fire and boxed in by a trio of Japanese destroyers.
Swarmed by battleships and cruisers, the Hoel was hit by the battleship Kongo , a trio of heavy fourteen-inch shells smashing her aft engine and guns and rendering her navigation system inoperable. Hoel , virtually dead in the water, still continued on and opened fire with her final torpedoes—aimed manually because the electronics were all toast—the torps striking the cruiser Haguro , detonating some of her lower decks, and forcing her to peel out of formation. But Hoel was in deep trouble. Unable to evade her attackers and with most of her weapons either depleted of ammunition or broken beyond repair, Hoel was struck forty times during the one-hour battle and smashed to bits. The captain finally ordered the crew to abandon ship, but the Hoel ’s gun crews refused, still firing as the ship sank beneath them, reloading the guns manually because the ammo lifting machines were offline. They were finally silenced only when an enemy round went into the magazine and blew up the ammunition stores. The little Roberts was hit as well, a three-round salvo of massive armor-piercing shells forcing her to call to abandon ship, putting an abrupt end to her heroic struggle.
Back in the carrier fleet the American carrier Gambier Bay became the only U.S. carrier ever sunk by surface fire after taking a stray round from a Japanese battleship. Though the Kalinin Bay was struck fifteen times by enemy shells, she kept floating, which is impressive considering that it only takes five hits to kill a carrier in a game of Battleship, but aside from those two setbacks the rest of the escort carriers continued their desperate sprint to safety, taking full advantage of the brave destroyer escorts now sacrificing themselves to save the day. A second torpedo run by Japanese destroyers was thwarted by quick maneuvering on the part of the escort carriers and by some heroic sharpshooting pilots shooting the torpedoes out of the water with machine gun fire while hauling ass at two hundred miles an hour.
Elsewhere on the battlefield, Johnston was valiantly fighting her last stand, firing wildly in every direction, surrounded by four destroyers hammering the superstructure without mercy. Finally, with all of her guns knocked out and her engines flooded, Evans gave the abandon ship order, then subsequently vanished from history, never to be seen again. As the Japanese destroyers sailed off to rejoin the rest of the battle, their men came on deck and saluted the American sailors as they floated in the water.
In a two-and-a-half hour melee off the coast of Samar Island, the Americans lost four ships—the destroyers Johnston and Hoel , the destroyer escort Samuel B. Roberts , and the escort carrier Gambier Bay . The Japanese, who had gone into the battle with an unimaginably more powerful force, suffered similar losses—two heavy cruisers were dead ( Chokai and Chikuma ) two more were badly damaged ( Kumano and Suzuya ), and the battleship Haruma sustained severe damage to her superstructure and hull. Deciding that his attack wasn’t worth the losses he was taking—and realizing that reinforcements were rapidly approaching in the form of fresh American fighter aircraft and warships—Admiral Kurita called off the attack. Taffy-3 had somehow held off the largest gunship fleet ever assembled, and they’d done it with just six escort carriers and seven destroyers.
Taffy-3 suffered 792 men dead and 768 wounded, and those men who had abandoned ship were stuck spending seventy hours in shark-infested waters before being rescued. But, against all odds, they had accomplished their mission—the carriers and the Leyte landing craft were safe, and the Japanese Center Force had been turned back in one of the most heroic naval battles ever fought. The entire unit received the Presidential Unit Citation, and Captain Ernest E. Evans of the USS Johnston was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
Throughout the Battle off Samar, Admiral Kurita had thought he’d been fighting fleet carriers escorted by American heavy cruisers. He had no idea he was actually fighting units half that size.
Commander ERNEST EDWIN EVANS U.S. Navy
Commanding Officer USS JOHNSTON (DD 557)
MEDAL OF HONOR
posthumously
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Commander Ernest Edwin Evans, U.S. Navy, The Medal of Honor.... "I intend to go in harm's way.... Quote, CDR E.E. Evans, USN, October 27, 1943 at |
Born: 13 August 1908, Pawnee, Oklahoma.
Other Navy awards: Navy Cross, Bronze Star Medal.
The President of the United States in the name of the Congress
takes pleasure in presenting the
MEDAL OF HONOR to
Commander
ERNEST EDWIN EVANS
United States Navy
for service as set forth in the following
CITATION
"For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as commanding officer of the U.S.S. JOHNSTON in action against major units of the enemy Japanese fleet during the Battle off Samar on 25 October 1944. The first to lay a smokescreen and to open fire as an enemy task force, vastly superior in number, firepower and armor, rapidly approached. Commander Evans gallantly diverted the powerful blasts of hostile guns from the lightly armed and armored carriers under his protection, launching the first torpedo attack when the JOHNSTON came under straddling Japanese shellfire. Undaunted by damage sustained under the terrific volume of fire, he unhesitatingly joined others of his group to provide fire support during subsequent torpedo attacks against the Japanese and, outshooting and outmaneuvering the enemy as he consistently interposed his vessel between the hostile fleet units and our carriers despite the crippling loss of engine power and communications with steering aft, shifted command to the fantail, shouted steering orders through an open hatch to men turning the rudder by hand and battled furiously until the JOHNSTON, burning and shuddering from a mortal blow, lay dead in the water after 3 hours of fierce combat. Seriously wounded early in the engagement, Commander Evans, by his indomitable courage and brilliant professional skill, aided materially in turning back the enemy during a critical phase of the action. His valiant fighting spirit throughout this historic battle will venture as an inspiration to all who served with him."
/signed/
HARRY S. TRUMAN, President
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The epic naval battle of WWII....Considered by many experts the U.S. Navy finest hour.
The Johnstons senior surviving officer said, 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 and communications officer Lt. Ed Digardi said, He was the best Captain you could possibly have; the kind of man you would follow into hell and we did.
Perhaps not the absolute finest hour but certainly within the top four (the other three being Coral Sea, Midway and the Marianas). They all had one thing in common. Lots of serious mistakes made by the high command, but victory pulled off by the incredible courage of the men who actually fought them.
Ok, so after a thoroughly enjoyable read I raced off to look through old pictures and the internet to look for a Navy ships company salute.
The first one turned out to be Chinese, the second, South Korean and the best photos unfortunately,
while of USN personal on an American carrier, it was the USS Jackson. Wayyyyyyyy inappropriate.
So I settled for this historic document.
The scale between the two isn't the same - the Yamoto (and sister, Musashi ), were the largest most powerful battleships ever built.
OK, here is one of an actual burial at sea.
Fair winds and following seas, Commander Evans.
Commander Evans would be pleased with you decision, SP.
Happy that you enjoyed the article. The sheer size of the Japanese warships, especially the battleship Yamoto was staggering. Alone, it weighted more than they entire Taffy 3 fleet.
Having been a Navy Hospital Corpsman and a airdale, I have always had the greatest respect for tin can sailors, especially after having read of the exploits and sacrifices of Taffy 3 in my youth. Excellent article Kavika. Thanks for posting it.
Happy that you enjoyed it Doc....
Kavika, I was trying to find something that we could compare the two ships to each other, the best I could do, was to find the two ships with crew standing on deck, I think it will give some aspect of the size of each.
Yamoto
Notice the decks, you will see men standing on them and, on Yamoto there is even a shack built on deck.
Good find. The difference in size and firepower is stunning
I think it also proves the old saying, "It's not the size of the man in the fight but, the size of the fight in the man."
I think that ''It's not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog''...
LOL
Knowledge of Gimp helps.....
Yamato class Battleship vs Fletcher class Destroyer; scale comparison.....
A great deal of difference there and there were four battleships and six heavy cruisers, the other three battleships were about 100 feet shorter and the heavy cruisers about 150 feet shorter.
A destroyer escort would be even smaller/shorter than the Johnston was.
Thanks, this does help a lot. Just think, that small ship and, others like it and, smaller ran that big guy off of the battle field.
No problem, but to really get the picture of the fight I should probably post the complete surface line of battle in scale....
It really shows why they said the things they said at the start for those that really don't know the sheer enormity of what they faced...
That would be good as well. I know that for Taffy 3 it was like a row boat facing a fishing troller.
I think you may have hit on it in this case Galen, looking at it from both sides of the fight. Although they put up a terrific fight and caused some significant casualties to the Japanese, Taffy 3 would have still been totally wiped out by an overwhelming weight of metal on the Japanese side, but for being helped by the man who didn't have quite enough fight in him. That man was Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita, who had been ordered to fight to the death, and didn't. He's the man who ordered the Japanese forces to break off contact and withdraw. I've often wondered how he managed to escape Hara Kiri or the headsman when he got back to Japan. The Imperial Naval Staff did remove him from active command and made him head of their naval academy, but that was minor compared to what could have happened.
You do have a point TTGA, the Japanese from the start of the war always made fun of or, disrespected any soldier from our side or, from any side that was fighting against them for surrendering or, retreating. By everything they believed at the time, he should have been made to commit ritual suicide, in front of the Emperor.
Indeed, as they were designed to be fast and maneuverable as protectors of the larger ships, so what they lacked in size they made up in the other two factors. Having been on board one even for a days family cruise, I can attest to their speed and quick maneuverability. And that was not even what it would achieve in combat.
In combat they would be like mongoose taking on an anaconda and winning.
Impressive little ships they definitely were, but they really weren't that fast.
The Butler class of Destroyer Escorts were designed to be faster than the convoy ships they were designed to protect and the submarines they were designed to destroy.... that was their mission/role in the fleet, they were not designed to be slugging it out in the battle line....
24kts (knots/Nautical miles per hour) approximately 28 miles per hour. That's a pretty good clip for a 1700 ton ship.... But in context, the Fletcher Class Destroyers they were teamed with could do (37 kts, 42 mph, for a 2500 ton ship, and could do 40 kts at emergency flank speed) The USS Missouri's designed top speed was 32.7 kts or 38 mph for a 58,000 ton ship.
But during the battle off Samar, the Samuel B. Roberts achieved a speed of 28.7 kts (33.0 mph; 53.2 km/h) for over an hour by running her engines at 660 psi. (about 50% over design pressure, I don't think they cared much about what it was designed to do)
She is known in naval lore as, "the destroyer escort that fought like a battleship." It was one hell of an impersonation.....
The only ships involved in the battle they were faster than were the Casablanca class Escort Carriers they were protecting.
It was a real mismatch.....
I told GMR that I would post the line of battle in scale comparison...... It really shows the absolute ant verses goliath aspect of what those four ships did.......
I will do that right below this post.....
Starting off with the Japanese side, it shows just how much weight and naval power they were bringing, I put Taffy 3 at the bottom so when you finally see it you can understand the idea they were giving the crews about a battle they were not likely to survive....
The fact that they pulled it off, is the most astounding naval act in history.....
No one should underestimate the will of American military in any battle, they can make the impossible happen.
That being said, the largest Japanese ships always made me think they had Pagoda's on top of them. Make's for great targets.
Dear Brother Kavika: I always liked my taffy in tin cans.
Now I know why.
Great article.
Please keep them coming.
E.
LOL, good one niijii.
Incredible.
No other word...
Agreed, it's difficult to comprehend the bravery of the entire Taffy 3 fleet.
Don't try to pull the Navy's taffy.
My Brother, upon completing Boot Camp, was assigned to the USS Richard B. Anderson, which was a Destroyer Escort. Not long after he was assigned, the "Dicky B", as it was known, was transferred to the shipyards in Bremerton WA to be fitted with Vertical Launch Anti-Submarine Rockets, also known as ASROCS. From there the ship was sent back to San Diego to join the Pacific Fleet.
I remember him telling us about many of the Destroyers and Destroyer Escorts that played a significant part in the pacific during WWII. Some of the Officers on the Dicky B were aboard some of the older Destroyers and Destroyer Escorts during the war, and lost family members and Friends who were on some of the ones that were lost during the war.
They had a family cruise where crew members could bring their Family members aboard for a cruise out to the 3 mile limit and back. My Mother and I were aboard with my Brother and he gave us a tour of the ship. The speed and maneuverability was amazing. My Brother was an Engineman on board, and he was pleased to show us how fast it could go, which was nowhere the speed it would reach under battle conditions.
Great article. Thank you for sharing it.
Great story RW, thanks for sharing.
Once again Kavika, Thank you.
Happy that you enjoyed it, dave.
Having never been in the service and zero combat, it makes me wonder how I would act or react.
I tend to think that I would do what needs to be done.
Thankfully I will never have to find out. So I give my greatest respect for those that gave.
I think what made a major difference was going in knowing they would probably not make it back.
Sort of, if this is my last stand, I am going to give it all I fucking have.
Exactly Ender.
Thanks for this. Great seed.
Happy that you enjoyed it Sean.
Very enjoyable read, thank you.
Captured the essence of the battle for sure....
Seven ships not designed to be in a line of battle took on the most powerful armada to sail the ocean since the Battle of Jutland.
We knew they were there, knew they were coming. We had been attacking them since they were first discovered three days earlier. The Battleship Musashi, sister to the Yamato, eventually succumbed in the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea to an estimated 19 torpedo and 17 bomb hits from American carrier-based aircraft on 24 October 1944 during the Battle of Leyte Gulf . (Paul Allen announced in March 2015 that his team searchers had indeed found Musashi under the Sibuyan Sea in the Philippines, some 3,000 feet (910 m) beneath the surface) Several IJN Heavy Cruisers were sunk also and damaged by US submarines in the run up to the fight and the Southern force was obliterated by Admiral Kincade's old Pearl Harbor battleships in the Battle of Surigao Strait.
Admiral Kuritas fleet was making for the San Bernadino Strait, the entryway to the Pacific from the waters of the central Phillipines. Guarding this strategic straight was Admiral Halsey commanding the most powerful fleet to ever sail, the US Third Fleet. Except, Halsey wasn't there. He was off chasing after what he considerd the main striking force. Admiral Ozawa's carrier group to the north which had just been discovered. Radio messages gave Admirals Kincade (7th fleet commander) and Nimitz (Cincpac) in Hawaii the impression that Admiral Lee (Task Force 34) would be detached from the third fleet and left to guard San Bernedino Strait. but they weren't..... After the sinking of the Musashi and the concentrated air attacks his fleet was enduring Kurita turned around and started retreating. Halsey, feeling that he had damaged that force sufficiently that they were leaving the fight decided upon discovering the carrier force to the north he would finally have the opportunity to eliminate Japanese naval airpower by destroying their remaining carriers. (the Japanese fleet of four carriers only had 108 planes between them they were a striking force in name only)
Halsey took off after them he never gave the orders for Admiral Lee to detach with TF 34 and remain to cover the strait. This was despite intelligence and scouting reports that Kurita has turned his fleet around and was advancing again and that the navigation lights on the strait had been turned on after five years of being off.
Senior officers in 7th Fleet (including Kinkaid and his staff) generally assumed Halsey was taking his three available carrier groups northwards (McCain's group, the strongest in 3rd Fleet, was still returning from the direction of Ulithi ), but leaving the battleships of TF 34 covering the San Bernardino Strait against the Japanese Center Force. In fact, Halsey had not yet formed TF 34, and all six of Willis Lee's battleships ( Washington , South Dakota, Massachusetts, Alabama, Iowa & New Jersey) Except he wasn't, they were on their way northwards with the carriers, as well as every available cruiser and destroyer of the Third Fleet.
Kurita arrived at San Bernadino Strait and was stunned that is was completely undefended. So he ordered his remaining ships into battle formation and turned south. It consisted of the battleships Yamato , Nagato, Kongo , Haruna, and six heavy cruisers , two light cruisers and eleven destroyers. . Despite the losses in the Palawan Passage and Sibuyan Sea, Kurita's fleet was still very powerful. In its path stood only the 7th Fleet's three escort carrier units (call signs 'Taffy' 1, 2, and 3), with a total of sixteen small, very slow, and unarmored escort carriers , protected by a screen of lightly armed and unarmored destroyers and smaller destroyer escorts (DEs).
That set the stage for the greatest demonstration of gallant bravery ever witnessed by the US Navy.....
Kurita's force caught Rear Admiral Clifton Sprague's Task Unit 77.4.3 ('Taffy 3') by surprise. Sprague directed his carriers to launch their planes, then ran for the cover of a rain squall to the east. He ordered the destroyers and DEs to make a smoke screen to conceal the retreating carriers.
Kurita, unaware that Ozawa's decoy plan had succeeded, assumed he had found a carrier group from Halsey's 3rd Fleet. Having just redeployed his ships into anti-aircraft formation, he further complicated matters by immediately ordering a "General Attack", which called for his fleet to split into divisions and attack independently.
The USS Johnston was the closest to the enemy. On his own initiative, Lieutenant Commander Ernest E. Evans, captain of the Johnston, steered his hopelessly outclassed ship directly into the Japanese fleet at flank speed. Johnston fired its torpedoes at the heavy cruiser Kumano , damaging her and forcing her out of line. Seeing this, Admiral Sprague gave the order "small boys attack", sending the rest of Taffy 3's screening ships into the fray. Taffy 3's two other destroyers, Hoel and Heermann , and the destroyer escort Samuel B. Roberts , attacked with suicidal determination, drawing fire and disrupting the Japanese formation as ships turned to avoid their torpedoes. As the ships approached the enemy columns, Lt. Cdr. Copeland of Samuel B. Roberts told all hands via bull horn that this would be "a fight against overwhelming odds from which survival could not be expected." As the Japanese fleet continued to approach, Hoel and Roberts were hit multiple times, and quickly sank. After expending all of its torpedoes, Johnston continued to fight with its 5-inch guns, until it was sunk by a group of Japanese destroyers.
As they were preparing their aircraft for attack, the escort carriers returned the Japanese fire with all the firepower they had – one 5 in. gun per carrier. The officer in tactical command had instructed the carriers to "open with pea shooters," and each ship took an enemy vessel under fire as soon as it came within range. Fanshaw Bay fired on a cruiser, and is believed to have registered five hits, one amidst the superstructure that caused smoke. Kalinin Bay targeted a Myoko -class heavy cruiser, claiming a hit on the cruiser's No. 2 turret, with a second just below the first. Gambier Bay sighted a cruiser, and claimed at least three hits. White Plains reported hits on multiple targets, two between the superstructure and forward stack and another on the No. 1 turret of a heavy cruiser.
Meanwhile, Admiral Sprague ordered the sixteen escort carriers in his three task units to immediately launch all their aircraft - totaling 450 planes - equipped with whatever weapons they had available, even if these were only machine guns or depth charges. The escort carriers had planes more suited for patrol and anti-submarine duties, However, the fact that the Japanese force had no air cover meant that Sprague's planes could attack unopposed. Consequently, the air counterattacks were almost unceasing, and some, especially several of the strikes launched from Admiral Felix Stump's Task Unit 77.4.2 (Taffy 2), were heavy.
The carriers of Taffy 3 turned south and retreated through the shellfire. Gambier Bay , at the rear of the American formation, became the focus of the battleship Yamato and sustained multiple hits before capsizing. Several other carriers were damaged but were able to escape.
The Official Navy Story.......
On his own initiative, At 07:00, Commander Ernest E. Evans of the destroyer Johnston , in response to incoming shell fire bracketing carriers of the group he was escorting, began laying down a protective smokescreen and zigzagging. At about 07:10, Gunnery Officer Robert Hagen began firing at the closest attackers, then at a range of 8.9 nautical miles (10 mi; 16 km) and registered several hits on the leading heavy cruisers. The Japanese targeted Johnston and soon shell splashes were bracketing the ship. In response and without consulting with his commanders, Evans ordered Johnston to "flank speed, full left rudder", beginning an action that would earn him the Medal of Honor. Johnston , still making smoke and zigzagging, accelerated to flank speed towards the Japanese.
At 07:15, Hagen concentrated his fire on the leading cruiser squadron's flagship, the heavy cruiser Kumano . Firing at the 5 in (127 mm) gun's maximum range of 10 nmi (12 mi; 19 km) Johnston scored several hits on Kumano ' s superstructure, which erupted into flame and smoke.
At 07:16, Sprague ordered Commander William Dow Thomas aboard Hoel , in charge of the small destroyer screen, to attack. Struggling to form an attack formation, the three small ships ( Hoel , Heermann , Samuel B. Roberts ) began their long sprint to get into firing position for their torpedoes.
Johnston pressed its attack, firing more than two hundred shells as it followed an evasive course through moderate swells, making it a difficult target. Johnston closed to within maximum torpedo range, and at 4.4 nautical miles (5.1 mi; 8.2 km) she fired a full salvo of ten torpedoes. At 07:24, two or three struck, blowing the bow off Kumano . Minutes later, at 07:33, Kongo was narrowly missed by four torpedoes. (Morrison asserts Kongo was forced to turn away north to avoid these torpedoes but this is not reflected in Kongo's own action report. It is not clear if these torpedoes were fired by Johnston or Hoel .) The heavy cruiser Suzuya , suffering damage from air attacks, was also taken out of the fight, as she stopped to assist Kumano . The effect of Johnston ' s attack was to generate confusion in the minds of the Japanese commanders, who thought they were being engaged by American cruisers. Evans then reversed course and, under cover of his smoke screen, opened the range between his ship and the enemy.
At 07:30, three battleship main battery shells passed through the deck of Johnston and into her portside engine room, cutting the destroyer's speed in half to 17 kn and disrupting electric power to her aft gun mounts. Hagen reports these as 14 in (360 mm) shells from the battleship Kongō , at a range of 7 nmi, but this is unlikely as Kongo was on the far side of the Japanese formation and Kongo's action report states she was not engaging any targets at this time as she was blinded by a rain squall. Based on the bearing and angle of fall it's far more likely these were 18.1 in (460 mm) shells fired by Yamato from a range of 10.029 nautical miles, as moments later, three 6.1 in (150 mm) shells from Yamato struck Johnston ' s bridge, causing numerous casualties and severing the fingers of Commander Evans's left hand. The ship was mangled badly, with dead and dying sailors strewn across her bloody decks. Yamato reported sinking a "cruiser" (the Japanese consistently overestimated the size of the US ships engaged) with a main battery salvo at 07:27. The destroyer Kishinami , which was also firing at Johnston at the time, reported "The Yamato sank one enemy cruiser" at 07:28
But Johnston was not sunk. Her stores of fuel had been seriously depleted before the battle, saving her from a catastrophic explosion. The ship found sanctuary in rain squalls, where the crew had time to repair damage, restoring power to two of the three aft gun mounts. Johnston ' s search radar was destroyed, toppled to the deck in a tangled mess. The fire control radar was damaged, but was quickly returned to service. Only a few minutes were required to bring Johnston ' s main battery and radar online, and from its hidden position in the rain, Johnston fired several dozen rounds at the lead Japanese destroyer at 4.9 nautical miles beginning at approximately 07:35. Fire was then shifted to the cruisers approaching from the east. Several dozen more rounds were fired at the closest target at 5.4 nautical miles. Since neither of these targets could be observed visually they could not be positively identified but Johnston's presumed "cruiser" was most likely the battleship Haruna .
At 07:37, Commodore Thomas ordered a torpedo attack via voice radio. Johnston and Heermann acknowledged. As Johnston continued its course away from the Japanese, it came upon the charging screening force, led by the damaged Hoel . Evans then had Johnston rejoin the attack to provide gun support to Commander Thomas' small squadron on their torpedo run. Attacking Tone , the leading heavy cruiser to the east of the formation, Johnston closed to 6,000 yards, now firing with reduced efficiency due to her lost SC radar, yet still registering many hits.
All available fighters and bombers from the Taffys converged on the Japanese fleet. At 08:40, moving erratically through the smoke and rain, Johnston avoided Heermann by the narrowest of margins. Heermann was "within potato range" at one point (between 08:08 and 08:25) of a Japanese destroyer for several minutes, before being separated by the smoke.
During the battle, Evans engaged in several duels with much larger Japanese opponents. At 08:20, emerging through smoke and rain squalls, Johnston was confronted by a 36,600-ton Kongō -class battleship. (probably the Haruna , which reported engaging a US destroyer with her secondary battery around this time) Johnston fired at least 40 rounds, and more than 15 hits on the battleship's superstructure were observed. Johnston reversed course and disappeared in the smoke, avoiding Kongō ' s 14 in (36 cm) return fire. At 08:26 and again at 08:34, Commander Thomas requested an attack on the heavy cruisers to the east of the carriers. Responding at 08:30, Johnston bore down on a huge cruiser firing at the helpless Gambier Bay , then closed to 6,000 yards and fired for ten minutes at a heavier and better-armed opponent, possibly Haguro , scoring numerous hits.
At 08:40, a much more pressing target appeared astern. A formation of seven Japanese destroyers in two columns was closing in to attack the carriers. Reversing course to intercept, Evans attempted to pass in front of the formation, crossing the "T", a classical naval maneuver which would have put the force being "crossed" at a great disadvantage. Evans ordered Johnston ' s guns to fire on this new threat. The Japanese destroyers returned fire, striking Johnston several times. Perhaps seeing his disadvantage, the commander of the lead destroyer turned away to the west. From as close as 7,000 yards, Hagen fired and scored a dozen hits on the destroyer leader before it veered off. He shifted fire to the next destroyer in line, scoring five hits before it too turned away. Amazingly, the entire squadron turned west to avoid Johnston ' s fire. At 09:20, these destroyers finally managed to fire their torpedoes from extreme range, 5.2 nautical miles (6.0 mi; 9.6 km). Several torpedoes were detonated by strafing aircraft or defensive fire from the carriers, and the rest failed to strike a target.
Now the Japanese and American ships were intertwined in a confused jumble. The heavy smoke had made the visibility so poor by 08:40 Johnston nearly collided with Heerman while crossing the formation to engage the Japanese Destroyers, forcing Samuel B Roberts to evade them both. Gambier Bay and Hoel were sinking. Finding targets was not difficult. After 09:00, with Hoel and Samuel B. Roberts out of the fight, the crippled Johnston was an easy target. Fighting with all she had, she exchanged fire with four cruisers and numerous destroyers.
Johnston continued to take hits from the Japanese, which knocked out the number one gun mount, killing many men. By 09:20, forced from the bridge by exploding ammunition, Evans was commanding the ship from the stern by shouting orders down to men manually operating the rudder. Shell fire knocked out the remaining engine, leaving Johnston dead in the water at 09:40. As her attackers gathered around the vulnerable ship, they concentrated fire on her rather than the fleeing carriers. Johnston was hit so many times that one survivor recalled "they couldn't patch holes fast enough to keep her afloat."
At 09:45, Evans finally gave the order to abandon ship. Johnston sank 25 minutes later with 186 of her crew. Evans abandoned ship with his crew, but was never seen again. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. However, it was the Japanese themselves who first recognized Johnston ' s incredible actions that day: As the Japanese destroyer Yukikaze cruised slowly by, Robert Billie and several other crewmen watched as her captain saluted the sinking Johnston .
"In Harm's Way" Another great recounting of the story...
No greater honor than being recognized on the field of battle for your courage, honor, ability & bravery by your enemy. (Admiral Nagumo did the same for the torpedo bombers sacrifice at Midway)
For all their power, Kurita's striking force was blunted and turned away by a force he should have been able to sweep aside..... When he turned around to head home, Kurita felt that he presided over the last organized fight of the Imperial Navy....
He was right, the Imperial Navy disappeared as a fighting force after this. Yes there were small forays, insignificant actions, but presented no serious threat after Leyte Gulf. Except for the last sortie, the IJN effectively ceased to exist.
As for Admiral Halsey's failures? that's a story for another time.....