In the early hours of October 25, 1944, during the Allied effort to retake the Philippines,
the Americans made a crucial mistake; deceived by a masterful Japanese feint,
they were utterly unprepared to fight a major battle in the Pacific Theater, a first for them.
Unwittingly, the US Third Fleet was drawn away from the Philippines into a wild-goose chase,
rendering the forces on Leyte Island completely unguarded.
The Japanese ships to the east of Samar Island had a free run to wipe out the landing craft
and troop transports, not merely crippling the operation but possibly turning the tide of the
war against the Allies. Now, only a modest anti-submarine Task Group stood between
the Japanese fleet and the two hundred thousand American soldiers and Marines fighting on Leyte.
The men of Taffy-3 grasped the gravity of the situation and were prepared to fight
against overwhelming odds. Outgunned and outmatched, they knew that their mission
was to hold the line and buy precious time for the reinforcements to arrive…
Paper Targets
US Navy Task Group Taffy-3 was primarily assigned to provide ground attack aircraft
to support the infantry inland. It consisted of a handful of ships: six carrier escorts,
three destroyers, and four destroyer escorts. Notably,
the group was not at all designed for engaging enemy warships in direct combat.
When Rear Admiral Clifton "Ziggy" Sprague, Taffy-3's commander, received a radio call
from one of his reconnaissance pilots reporting that a large Japanese fleet was approaching,
he couldn't help but be concerned. Bearing down on them was the Japanese super battleship Yamato,
the largest and most heavily armed battleship in the history of naval warfare.
Yamato was equipped with massive cannons to fire gigantic bullets
with a range of over 15 miles. A single round would wreck any
one of Sprague's vessels. The colossal warship alone dwarfed his entire fleet.
Making matters worse, the behemoth battleship was accompanied by three massive battleships,
eight cruisers, and eleven destroyers, all closing in fast.
In stark contrast, the biggest guns in Taffy-3 were midsize crew-operated cannons,
which were used against aircraft and other lightly armored targets like
surfaced submarines. The sailors of Taffy-3 were significantly outgunned and outmatched,
but they would never outrun the Japanese.
As the Japanese cruisers closed in, the American
destroyers quickly pumped black smoke to conceal the carriers from enemy gunners,
who could effortlessly shred the unarmored carriers like paper.
Lucky Streak
In a daring maneuver, USS Johnston suddenly emerged from the smoke.
The 15,000-ton destroyer was commanded by Captain Ernest E. Evans, a Cherokee
Indian who had vowed never to retreat from the Japanese. On the contrary, Johnston embarked on
a one-ship sacrifice run straight into the teeth of the heavily armed Japanese fleet.
Zigzagging through a barrage of concentrated fire from 23 enemy ships, Evans knew one hit would end
his crew. Fortunately, he wasn't alone. Six squadrons of American fighter-bombers
flew over the destroyer heading towards the Japanese fleet among a hail of tracer fire
and airburst shrapnel, strafing the enemy ships with everything they had.
Defying all odds, the courageous ship managed to close within range of the lead Japanese
heavy cruiser, Kumano. Blasting all five of her guns at a hulking warship that outweighed her
by a factor of seven, Johnston let rip 200 rounds of ammunition in just five minutes.
Astonishingly, she destroyed gun mounts and
launched a ten-torpedo salvo that ripped Kumano apart.
Having expended all her torpedoes, Johnston turned about and headed back towards Taffy-3,
still blasting hundreds of rounds at anything with a rising sun emblazoned
on their hull. That is, until her luck ran out.
Into The Fray
At last, USS Johnston took a direct hit from Kongo. The shot punched through her hull,
destroying a boiler and cutting her speed in half. Additionally, a round from a heavy cruiser ignited
a magazine of anti-aircraft ammunition, spewing shrapnel across several decks.
Another round from another enemy ship then slammed directly into the ship's bridge,
snapping the mast and destroying communications and radar capabilities. Captain Evans lost two
fingers and suffered severe injuries from the shrapnel, but kept commanding theship.
Above the chaos, the Avengers and Hellcats continued their mission,
diving at high speeds on the enemy and releasing their bomb loads. Remarkably,
even the pilots whose bomb bays only carried propaganda leaflets found a
way to contribute to the battle by making fake torpedo runs on the enemy cruisers.
The gimmick threw the Japanese off their game and bought the American fleet more time to escape.
Inspired by Johnston, the remaining destroyers, Heerman,
Hoel, and Samuel B. Roberts threw themselves through the smoke screen into the arena.
Among Taffy-3's ships, Roberts was especially tiny, slow, lightly armed, and nearly unarmored.
Then, as the second puny attack wave reached torpedo range, they passed by the crippled
Johnston, limping back towards the carriers. Captain Evans stood at attention on the deck,
saluting the passing destroyers as they hurtled towards almost-certain defeat.
Gritting his teeth, Evans ordered his ship to turn around and rejoin the fray.
Trading Fire
As the rest of the American destroyers charged straight into the midst of the Japanese formation
with blazing anti-aircraft and anti-submarine guns, the severely damaged Johnston provided
cover fire from the rear with whatever ammunition was left in her five-inch guns.
Meanwhile, USS Hoel launched her torpedoes at the battleship Kongo with no luck,
and then turned her attention to trading salvos with the imperial cruiser Haguro.
Heerman then struck four Japanese battleships with a barrage of 54-pound shells from her
five-inch guns and then turned to the crown jewel of the Imperial Navy.
Firing torpedoes at Yamato, Heerman forced the battleship to peel off, while the petite Roberts
joined in, hammering the heavy cruiser Chokai with torpedoes and gunfire at point-blank range.
However, Captain Evans soon noticed something distressing:
a group of five Japanese destroyers was preparing to attack the American carriers,
and his ship was the only one with any hope of stopping them.
Without hesitation, Evans directed Johnston forward, diving straight
into the formation. Outnumbered five-to-one by better-equipped enemies, the Captain pressed on,
firing frantically. Against all odds, he managed to throw the entire Japanese column off course,
distracting their aim and sending the enemy torpedoes wide of their target.
In the midst of the intense gun battle, the destroyer escorts Dennis, Raymond,
and John C. Butler joined their sister ship Roberts and fired with everything
they had to keep the Japanese vessels away from the carriers.
While Heerman traded fire with two heavy cruisers at point-blank range, Hoel fought for her life
against three warships, and Roberts fired at a rate that would see her expend 600 rounds
in just an hour, although she succeeded in knocking out the heavy cruiser Chokai.
Remarkably, the tiny American fleet was not merely surviving the battle, but actually winning.
Deep Trouble
For the next hour, the fighting was fast and unrelenting,
but the situation quickly spiraled downwards.
Remarkably, Heerman and the destroyer escorts damaged the cruiser Chikuma,
which fled but was promptly torpedoed into a coral reef by Avenger aircraft.
Things slowly started to turn against the American fleet.
For one, Heerman took a round to the bridge;
ablaze, she continued to fight despite being boxed in by a trio of enemy destroyers.
Hoel was also swarmed by battleships and cruisers and finally hit by Kongo. Three
heavy 14-inch shells smashed her aft engine and guns, rendering her navigation system inoperable.
Virtually inoperable, Hoel still went on. She aimed manually because her electronics were broken
and shot her last torpedoes at the cruiser Haguro. The salvo struck true and detonated
the cruiser's lower decks, forcing her out of action. However, Hoel was now in deep trouble.
With most of her weapons either depleted of ammunition or broken beyond repair and unable
to evade her attackers, Hoel was struck 40 times during the one-hour battle and smashed
to bits. The Captain ordered his crew to abandon ship, but his gun crews refused,
staying back to continue firing even as the ship sank beneath them. They were
only silenced after an enemy round detonated their ammunition stores.
Subsequently, Roberts was also hit. A three-round salvo of massive armor-piercing shells forced
her to call for the crew to abandon ship, bringing an abrupt end to a heroic struggle.
Back on the carrier, Gambier Bay became the only US carrier
ever sunk by surface fire after taking a stray round from a Japanese battleship.
Despite being struck 15 times by enemy shells, Kalinin Bay kept floating. But aside from those
two setbacks, the rest of the escort carriers continued their desperate dash to safety,
thanks to the brave destroyer escorts who sacrificed themselves to save the day.
The Last Stand
The escort carriers deftly avoided a second enemy torpedo run, helped by some heroic
sharpshooting pilots shooting machine-gun fire while hauling at 200 miles per hour.
Elsewhere, USS Johnston was valiantly fighting her last
stand, firing in every direction while surrounded by four destroyers hammering
her superstructure without mercy. With her guns knocked out, and her engines flooded,
Evans gave the order to abandon order, and the ship was never seen again.
As the Japanese destroyers sailed off to rejoin the rest of the battle,
their crew members came on deck and saluted the American sailors floating in the water.
In a two-and-a-half hour melee, 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, Chokai and Chikuma, two more severely damaged,
Kumano and Suzuya, and the battleship Haruma sustained severe damage.
Realizing that the losses he was taking were not worth the cost and seeing that
fresh reinforcements were rapidly approaching, Admiral Takeo Kurita called off the attack.
Taffy-3 had somehow held off the largest gunship fleet ever assembled,
and the group had done it with just six escort carriers and seven destroyers.
Ultimately, Taffy-3 lost 792 men, and another 768 were wounded. But despite the odds,
they accomplished their mission - the carriers and the Leyte landing craft were safe. Moreover,
the Japanese Center Force had been repulsed in one of the most heroic naval battles ever fought.
The entire unit received the Presidential Unit Citation,
and Captain Evans was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
Throughout the Battle of Samar, Admiral Kurita had believed he was fighting fleet carriers
escorted by American heavy cruisers. He had no idea he was fighting units half that size.
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