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The Battle off 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. It was the only major action in the larger battle in which the Americans were largely unprepared.
The ship was part of Task Unit 77.4.3 ("Taffy 3"), escort carriers only protected by relatively few destroyers and destroyer escorts. Task Unit 77.4.3 was inadvertently left to fend off a fleet of heavily armed Japanese battleships, cruisers, and destroyers off the island of Samar.
Johnston, 34,000 yards (31,000 m) south-east from the Japanese, was informed of its presence at 0650; [12] eight minutes later, the Japanese opened fire, beginning the Battle off Samar. [31] The force was led by Kurita's flagship, the battleship Yamato , the largest and most powerfully armed and armored battleship ever built, displacing 72,808 ...
As a result of Taffy 1 being so far south of Samar, not many Taffy 1 airplanes participated in the Battle off Samar. While in the air southwest of Leyte Gulf, the aircraft and ships of Taffy 1 were immediately ordered to assist Taffy 3 off of Samar but they had to return to the escort carriers to refuel and rearm.
A Main Selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club and the Military Book Club, the book tells the story of the remarkable two-and-a-half-hour sea battle fought on October 25, 1944, in which Rear Admiral Clifton A. F. Sprague's task unit, known as "Taffy 3" (7th Fleet's Task Unit 77.4.3), of escort carriers and their "tin can" escorts rose to the impossible challenge of beating back an overwhelming ...
In the Battle off Samar, a part of the Battle of Leyte Gulf, Evans led Johnston until it was sunk on October 25, 1944, by a Japanese force that was vastly superior in number, firepower, and armor. Johnston , together with the destroyers Samuel B. Roberts , Hoel , and Heermann , four destroyer escorts and six escort carriers (CVEs) formed the ...
"Taffy 3" Rear Admiral Clifton A.F. Sprague 6 escort carriers Fanshaw Bay (Capt. D.P. Johnson) Composite Squadron 68 (Lt. Cmdr. R.S. Rogers) 16 FM-2 Wildcat fighters 12 TBM Avenger torpedo bombers St. Lo (sunk at the Battle off Samar, 25 Oct) (Capt. Francis J. McKenna) Composite Squadron 65 (Lt. Cmdr. R.M. Jones, USMR) 17 FM-2 Wildcat fighters
Comprising four battleships, eight cruisers, and eleven destroyers, Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita's Center Force steadily closed and at 0658 opened fire on Taffy 3. So began the Battle off Samar—one of the most memorable engagements in U.S. naval history. Outnumbered and outgunned, the slower Taffy 3 seemed fated for disaster; but the American ...