Battle of Leyte Gulf - Taffy 3 - Pt 5
The Battle off Samar (25 October): alsey's decision to take all the available strength of Third Fleet northwards to attack the carriers of the Japanese Northern Force had left San Bernardino Strait completely unguarded. Kurita's Center Force therefore emerged unopposed from San Bernardino Strait at 0300 on 25 October and steamed southward along the coast of the island of Samar. In its path stood only the Seventh Fleet's three escort carrier units (call signs 'Taffy' 1, 2, and 3), with a total of sixteen small, very slow, and lightly armored escort carriers and their screens of lightly armed (and entirely unarmoured) destroyers and smaller destroyer escorts. The Japanese Center Force was still very powerful, consisting of four battleships (including the giant Yamato), six heavy cruisers, two light cruisers and a dozen destroyers. Kurita's force caught Rear Admiral Clifton Sprague's Task Unit 77.4.3 ('Taffy 3') entirely by surprise. Sprague directed his carriers to launch their planes, then run 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 that he had found a carrier group from Halsey's Third Fleet. Having just redeployed his ships into antiaircraft formation, he further complicated matters by ordering a "General Attack", which called for his fleet to split into different divisions and attack independently. The destroyer USS Johnston was the closest to the enemy. On his own initiative, Lieutenant Commander Ernest E. Evans steered his hopelessly outclassed ship into the foe at flank speed. Seeing this, 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 destroyer escort USS Samuel B. Roberts, attacked with suicidal determination, drawing fire and disrupting the Japanese formation as ships turned to avoid their torpedoes. Meanwhile, Thomas Sprague ordered the sixteen carriers in his three task units to launch their aircraft equipped with whatever weapons they had available, even if these were only machine guns or depth charges. He had a total of some 450 aircraft at his disposal, mostly FM-2 Wildcat and TBM Avenger torpedo-bombers. The air counterattacks were almost unceasing, and some, especially several of the strikes launched from Stump's task unit 77.4.2, were relatively heavy. The carriers of Taffy 3 turned south and retreated through the shellfire. USS Gambier Bay, at the rear of the American formation, was sunk, while most of the other carriers were damaged. Admiral Kurita withdraws: The ferocity of the defense confirmed the Japanese assumption that they were engaging major fleet units rather than escort carriers and destroyers. The confusion of the "General Attack" order was further compounded by the air and torpedo attacks, and Kurita's flagship Yamato was forced to turn north to evade torpedoes and lost contact with the battle. Kurita abruptly broke off the fight and gave the order 'all ships, my course north, speed 20', apparently in order to regroup his disorganized fleet. Turning again towards Leyte Gulf, Kurita's battle report stated that he received a message indicating that a group of American carriers was steaming north of him. Almost all of his surviving force succeeded in escaping. Halsey and the Third Fleet battleships arrived too late to cut him off. Nagato, Haruna and KongÅ had been severely damaged by the torpedoes of Taffy 3's escorts. Kurita had begun the battle with five battleships. On their return to their bases, only Yamato remained battleworthy. Losses: Two escort carriers, the destroyers Hoel and Johnston, and the destroyer escort Samuel B. Roberts were sunk and four other American ships damaged. The destroyer Heermann, despite her unequal fight with the enemy, finished the battle with only six of her crew dead. More than one thousand sailors and aircrewmen of the escort carrier units were killed. As a result of communication errors and other failures, a very large number of survivors from Taffy 3 were not rescued for several days, many dying unnecessarily as a consequence.
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Author: sammarlow77593
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Uploaded: March 8th, 2010 @ 10:06 pm
Duration: 05:18