A Japanese surface force of battleships and cruisers, battered earlier in the larger battle and thought to have been in retreat, instead turned around unobserved and stumbled upon the northernmost of the three groups, Task Unit 77.4.3 ("Taffy 3"), commanded by Rear Admiral Clifton Sprague. After 0900, with Hoel and Roberts out of the fight, the crippled Johnston was an easy target. Hathaway responded but first had to pass through the formation of carriers and escorts. The Johnston pressed its attack, firing more than two hundred shells as it followed an evasive course through moderate swells, making it a difficult target. Together the three TafRes made up Estoit Carrier Task Group 77.4 of the United States Seventh Fleet. Rear Admiral Thomas L. Sprague's Task Unit 77.4.1 ("Taffy 1") consisted of the Carrier Division 22 escort carriers Sangamon, Suwannee, Santee, and Petrof Bay. This story of an overmatched group of American destroyers and destroyer escorts beating off a vastly superior Japanese force including battleships and cruisers is the stuff of naval legend, and was perhaps the linchpin to American victory at Leyte Gulf. The fire control radar was damaged but quickly returned to service. The surviving crew would be disappointed later on when the torpedo hits could not be confirmed. Although the battleship Yamato and the remaining force returned to Japan, the battles marked the final defeat of the Japanese Navy, as the ships remained in port for most of the rest of the war and ceased to be an effective naval force.[5]. The freedom to manoeuvre was exploited by the USN units as they could predict the fall of Japanese shells. Early in the battle Suzuya was attacked by ten Avengers from Taffy 3. Samuel B. Roberts (DE 413)", http://www.bosamar.com/pages/de413_action_report, "Action Report - Surface Engagement off Samar, P.I., 25 October 1944, p. Admiral Sprague’s battered flotilla headed into Leyte Gulf for a much-needed rest. Without orders, and indeed against orders, he proceeded at full speed and set course to follow the Heermann in to attack the cruisers. She was the first major victim of the Divine Wind. But despite the complete absence of 3rd Fleet against the main Japanese force, the desperate efforts of Taffy 3 and assisting task forces had driven back the Japanese. Later that day, she was scuttled by torpedoes from the destroyer Fujinami. Old hands claimed the CVE stood for “Combustible, Vulnerable, Expendable.” Three destroyer« and four destroyer escorts ringed the flotilla of CVE’s like watchful guard dogs. That the heroic escort managed to go on fighting for three-quarters of an hour is an amazing tribute to her captain and crew. The brains of the system was the Ford Mark I Fire Control Computer, which provided coordinated automatic firing solutions of her 5-inch guns merely by pointing the gun director at the target. Now the cruisers Haguro and Tone swept by on the opposite side of the Johnston . [11] At 0724 two or three struck which blew the bow off Kumano. In his dispatch after the battle, Halsey attempted to justify his decision as follows: Halsey also tried to argue that he had feared that leaving TF 34 to defend the strait without carrier support would have left it vulnerable to attack from land-based aircraft, while leaving one of the fast carrier groups behind to cover the battleships would have significantly reduced the concentration of air power going north to strike Ozawa. Not finding the silhouettes of the tiny escort carriers in his identification manuals, Kurita mistook them for larger fleet carriers and assumed that he had a task group of the 3rd Fleet under his guns. A gaping hole was torn in the Gambier Bay ’s forward port engine room, flooding it with cascading water. Sailing from Lingga Roads during the early morning hours of October 18, it would stop at North Borneo for refueling and final preparations. While watching the Japanese retreat, Admiral Sprague heard a nearby sailor exclaim: "Damn it, boys, they're getting away! [51] Fatigued, his nerves strained, Kurita decided to disregard the order that called for his charging into Leyte Gulf. And, at a greater distance, the, For almost two and a half hours—between 6:58 and approximately 9:20—the little American carriers were under constant fire from Kurita’s Center Force. During the fifteen-minute respite afforded by the rain, Sprague made a decision. A Northern Force under Vice Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa would steam southward from Japan and attempt to decoy away the protecting American Third Fleet. The ferocity of the air attacks further contributed to his confusion, for he assumed that such devastating strikes could only come from major fleet units rather than escort carriers. Flames erupted from the Hoel’s aft section, explosions shredded her superstructure, and an inferno raged inside her hull. 1 cost her three battleships, four carriers, ten cruisers, and almost a dozen other fighting ships. Another near-miss by a bomb, this time starboard amidships, set off the Long Lance torpedoes loaded in one of her starboard tube mounts. The same probably was true for the heavy cruisers. The tail chase was also advantageous for the sole anti-ship armament of small carriers that was a single manually controlled stern-mounted 5 in (130 mm) as a stinger, though they were loaded with anti-aircraft shells. Fanshaw Bay , Rear Admiral Clifton A. F. Sprague watched the Grumman aircraft rise into the northeasterly wind toward the broken ceiling of clouds. The Battle off Samar (Filipino: Labanan sa may Samar) was the centermost action of the Battle of Leyte Gulf, one of the largest naval battles in history, which took place in the Philippine Sea off Samar Island, in the Philippines on October 25, 1944. Convinced he was facing a much larger force due to the ferocity of the American resistance, Admiral Kurita gave a "cease action" order at 09:00 with instructions to rendezvous north. Evans then reversed course and, under cover of his smoke screen, opened the range between his ship and his attackers. Launching her planes as rapidly as possible, the White Plains trembled violently as the mere concussion of the big enemy shells caused minor damage. He was begging for help to get the fifty-four-pound projectile into the cannon. Though damaged extensively, Heermann was the only destroyer from the screen to survive. American forces had returned to the Philippines, and the Japanese Navy was about to make its last, desperate attempt to stave off defeat. Three 8 in (200 mm) AP projectiles struck her within minutes. Now the Chikuma was in a crossfire between the Heermann and the Roberts and was taking a tremendous drubbing. [47] Lieutenant Richard W. Roby in his fighter attacked destroyers before raking the decks and then bridge of Yamato with his .50 in (12.7 mm) machine guns, further discouraging her. It was the first time the superbattleship had fired its 18.1-inch batteries at another ship. At 0716 Sprague ordered Commander William Dow Thomas aboard the Hoel, in charge of the small destroyer screen, to attack. Therefore, to guard San Bernardino Strait with a powerful battleship force would not have been incompatible with Halsey's personally going north aboard the New Jersey. In an attempt to box in the carriers, which could barely reach eighteen knots, the swift Nipponese heavy cruisers raced across the wakes of the Americans to close in from the east at almost thirty knots. St. Its crew looked on in disbelief - equally shocked at the appearance of the Japanese fleet and at the fact that they were attacking it. At 9:11 A.M. Kurita had ordered all his units to take a northerly course. At 8:55 A.M. , an hour and a half after she was first hit, the Hoel rolled over and sank to the bottom of the Philippine Sea. The destroyers had five 5-inch guns, the destroyer escorts had two, and the carriers only a single 5-inch gun "stinger" at its tail. Her stores of fuel were seriously depleted before the battle, saving her from a catastrophic explosion. Kintberger now had to quickly choose a target. There was more to come. At 8:51, a heavy shell thumped into the water alongside the veering ship and plowed into her side, opening a hole below the waterline. Bomb bursts erupted on the ships as the Japanese paid for their lack of air power. They had five single 5 in (130 mm) and light antiaircraft guns which were not designed to take on armored warships. PC 623 War Diary, 25-28 October 1944 via bosamar.com", http://www.bosamar.com/pages/ctg7812_war_diary, "U.S.S. Ernest Evans' Courage Helped Sink Japan's Hopes In World War II", http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=573562&p=3, USS Samuel B Roberts became known as the The Destroyer Escort That Fought Like a Battleship, http://www.bosamar.com/pages/dd557_loss_report, "We Asked For the Jap Fleet – and Got It", "Action Report - Surface Engagement off Samar, P.I., 25 October 1944", http://www.bosamar.com/pages/dd557_action_report, "Action Report - Surface Engagement off Samar, P.I., 25 October 1944, p.8", "HIJMS NOSHIRO: Tabular Record of Movement, Rev. Still the enemy shells came, killing some men in the water. Hoel was now crippled and surrounded by the enemy, speed reduced to 17 knots. Commander Ernest E. Evans, who had a very short time to live, emerged from the salvo with half of his clothes blown off and minus two fingers of his left hand. Yamato had confirmed hits that contributed to the sinking of a lightly armed escort carrier, a destroyer, and a destroyer escort. Halsey took three groups of Task Force 38 (TF 38), overwhelmingly stronger than the Ozawa's Northern Force, with five aircraft carriers and five light fleet carriers with more than 600 aircraft between them, six fast battleships, eight cruisers, and over 40 destroyers. Since torpedoes only had a range of about 5.5 nmi (6.3 mi; 10.2 km), they were best used at night. [3][4], Sprague's task unit lost two escort carriers, two destroyers, a destroyer escort and dozens of aircraft. The Japanese destroyers and light cruisers, kept to the rear until now, pushed down along the starboard side of the baby flattops. Battle off Samar Island: 1944. Subsequently, the carriers of the 3rd Fleet launched a series of air strikes against Kurita's forces in the Sibuyan Sea, damaging several vessels and sinking Musashi and initially forcing Kurita to retreat. The planes were landbased Japanese Zeros ordered to provide air cover for Kurita. A Japanese cruiser and several destroyers closed to within 2,000 yards, giving the two forward gun crews, under Gun Captain Chester Fay, a large, close target. At 10:30, a force of Helldivers, Avengers, and Hellcats was launched from Hornet, Hancock, and Wasp at the extreme range of 330 nmi (380 mi; 610 km). Several fine monuments have been constructed to pay tribute to the men of Taffy III. And between the clouds and the sea was the incessant lightning and thunder of gunfire. 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