Task Group 77.4 consisted of 16 CVEs organized into three task units: Taffy 1, Taffy 2 and Taffy 3, so named because of their voice radio call signs. These Jeeps were tasked with protecting the transports unloading in Leyte Gulf and supporting troops ashore by striking enemy fortifications and airfields.
The little escort carriers were preparing for another day when, early in the morning of Oct. 25, lookouts on board ships of Taffy 3 spotted Admiral Takeo Kurita's heavy surface force attempting to enter Leyte Gulf and attack the transports and beachhead. What Taffy 3 faced were four battleships and six heavy cruisers. Outgunned and outmanned, the Jeeps and their accompanying destroyers and destroyer escorts did the only thing they could in the face of such overwhelming odds and firepower — they attacked.
Taffy 3, which would bear the brunt of the fighting, began launching aircraft and making smoke. Taffy 2 and Taffy 1, further away, began launching their aircraft to come to the aid of Taffy 3. No heavy American surface units or carriers were in the area; the Jeeps were on their own.
Aircraft from the Jeeps attacked and harassed the enemy, bombing and strafing. Pilots then made "dry" runs on the cruisers and battleships when they ran out of ammunition, in the hope of distracting the enemy gunners from shooting at the little carriers. The gutsy little destroyers, completely overmatched, bore in and carried out torpedo attacks, and fired at the massive battlewagons and cruisers with their relatively puny 5-inch battery guns. The escort carriers themselves were saved from utter destruction because of excellent maneuvering by their captains, and because, when hit, their thin armor permitted the Japanese shells to pass completely through without exploding.
Bold tactics on the part of the carriers, their planes and destroyers convinced Kurita that he had encountered a much larger force of heavy American surface ships and carriers. He had no idea that relatively little stood between his ships and the transports now unloading in Leyte Gulf.
With little knowledge of the situation, and with his ships widely dispersed after fending off the destroyer attacks, Kurita ordered his ships to break off the action and retire from the area. The fight, however, was still not over.
Following Kurita's withdrawal, ships of Taffy 2 and Taffy 3 came under attack from kamikazes, or Japanese suicide pilots. The kamikazes inflicted far greater damage on the little carriers than did Kurita's gunfire, which only managed to account for one carrier, USS Gambier Bay (CVE 73). Hits were scored on Santee, Suwanee, USS Kitkun Bay (CVE 71) and USS St. Lo (CVE 63). Of these four, St. Lo (left) was hit hardest, and she sank as a result.
This Battle off Samar, which lasted a little over two hours, wrote a glorious chapter in the history of the Jeep carriers. By the time Kurita broke off his attack and the kamikazes had been repulsed, more than 1,100 U.S. sailors were dead or missing. Two escort carriers were lost along with four of the gallant little destroyers. With no support from heavy American surface units or carriers, the Jeeps of Taffy 1, 2 and 3, their air crews and destroyers bravely and successfully defended the landing beaches and transports at Leyte Gulf
Additional Sources: www.chinfo.navy.mil
www.history.navy.mil
stlomidway6365.org
www.ussgambierbay-vc10.com
The battle off Samar will go down as one of the most valient and couragous general battles in the history of naval warfare.
What those destroyers, destroyer escorts and those escort carriers did in facing the main striking force of the Japanese was phenominal.
The Japanese had lured Halsey's Task Force 38 off with all the fast carriers and the heavy battleships to chase and engage the remaining Japanese carriers (which had very few aircraft). This left Admiral Kurita's very strong center force a relatively unopposed passage to get at the anchorage for all of the transports, supply ships, oiler, ammo ships and landing craft supporting the invasion of the Phillipines in Leyte Gulf. The Japanese actually pulled off an unbelievable ruse and were in a position with their battleships, heavy cruisers and destroyers to reak havoc on those American support ships.
All that stood in their way...and they were directly in their way at close quarters, as you have described SamWolf, were the three destroyers, four destroyer escorts and six "baby flat tops" of Taffy 3.
Those destroyers and destroyer escorts attacked strait into the teeth of those larger vessels so vigorously and so valiently that the Japanese misttok the destroyers for cruisers and the DE's for destroyers. The few aircraft from the Jeep carriers attacked so heroically and effectively that the Japanese thought they had run into Halseys TF 38 with the large carriers. It was not without cost to America ... ultimately three of the smaller ships and two of the carriers were sunk with over 1100 killed and over 900 injured.
But the Japanese turned tail after losing three heavy cruisers. Had they pressed their attack, it is likely they would have turned the corner and entered Leyte Gulf and caused untold damage...but they were scared off by American fighting spirit.
Here's one of my favorite quotes. It is a quote by one of the CO's, Lt. Commander R. W. Copeland, who survivied the sinking of his destroyer escort, the USS Samuel Roberts, where he talked about his men:
To wintess the conduct of the average enlisted man on board this vessel...with an average of less than one year's service, would make any man proud to be an average American. The crew was informed over the loud speaker system at the beginning of the action of the C.O.'s estimate of the situation...a fight against overwhelming odds from which survival could not be expected, during which time we would do what damage we could.
In the face of this knowledge the men zealously manned their stations and fought and worked with such clamness, courage and efficiency that no higher honor could be concieved that to command such a group." - The Two-Ocean War, Samuel Eliot Morison
Such was the action that day. God bless them everyone, particularly the over 1130 Americans who died that day and were received back to His bosom.
Jeff
