At daybreak on October 25, 1944, the U.S. Navy escort-carrier group “Taffy 3” sighted the Imperial Japanese Navy’s remaining battleship fleet approaching from the northern horizon off Samar—4 battleships, six heavy cruisers, two mild cruisers, and 11 destroyers led by Vice Adm. Takeo Kurita.
Taffy 3—consisting of six escort carriers, three destroyers, and 4 destroyer escorts—was there to cowl troops storming the Philippine seashores, to not duel a floor fleet that included the Yamato, the biggest battleship ever constructed. However there was nobody else between Kurita and the invasion fleet in Leyte Gulf.
An American Destroyer on the Battle of Leyte Gulf
USS Johnston, a Fletcher-class destroyer below Cmdr. Ernest E. Evans reacted first. Solely a 12 months earlier, Evans had informed his crew, “That is going to be a combating ship. I intend to go in hurt’s means, and anybody who doesn’t wish to go alongside had higher get off proper now.”
He made good on that pledge at Samar. The Johnston maneuvered to put down a smoke display screen to cowl the carriers, then turned towards the Japanese fleet. Evans ordered the ship at flank pace, closing to torpedo vary whereas below heavy hearth. She launched all ten torpedoes on the lead Japanese heavy cruiser Kumano. At the least one struck dwelling, blowing off Kumano’s bow and forcing her out of motion whereas its sister ship Suzuya, broke off to escort the crippled cruiser.
The return hearth was devastating. Shells smashed into the Johnston, disabling her radio and an engine whereas killing or wounding a number of sailors, however the destroyer re-entered the struggle. Her 5-inch weapons raked the heavy cruiser Chikuma and helped arrange later air assaults that completed that ship; she additionally fired on battleship Kongō, forcing the bigger ship to maneuver away.
Taffy 3’s Counterattack at Samar
Impressed by Evans’ cost, the remainder of Taffy 3’s screens joined the counterattack. USS Hoel and USS Heermann, together with destroyer escort Samuel B. Roberts, made their very own torpedo runs by way of overwhelming hearth and shell splashes. In the meantime, Avengers and Wildcats from the carriers got here off the decks with no matter they may carry, together with depth prices when the bombs and torpedoes had been gone.
The beautiful protection—smoke screens, aggressive destroyer assaults at shut vary, and fixed air strikes—threw Kurita’s fleet into confusion. Ships had been badly broken, others fell out of formation or had been ordered to cowl crippled ships, whereas the tiny American destroyers wreaked havoc. Three Japanese heavy cruisers (Chikuma, Chōkai, Suzuya) had been misplaced earlier than the day was over.
The Johnston turned once more and adopted the opposite screens into the battle regardless of her intensive harm. The ship fought for hours, darting out and in of rain squalls, buying and selling hearth with ships many instances her dimension. One torpedomen later recalled, “We obtained off all ten torpedoes, they usually ran scorching, straight, and regular!”
The mighty and feared Yamato bore its huge weapons onto the tiny American ship, which it mistakenly recognized as a cruiser. The Yamato fired a whole broadside of armor-piercing shells, designed to sink different heavy ships, which blasted proper by way of the Johnston. One shell tore by way of the bridge, severely injuring Evans and killing most of his command workers.
By about 9:30 a.m., she had taken greater than twenty hits; steering and energy failed, and she or he was useless within the water below concentrated cruiser and destroyer hearth. Survivors remembered the ship so riddled “they couldn’t patch holes quick sufficient to maintain her afloat.”
Cmdr. Evans lastly ordered abandon ship round 9:45 a.m. Johnston rolled and sank simply after 10:00; solely 141 of her 327 crewmembers survived, and Evans was among the many lacking. He was later posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic cost and sacrifice at Samar.
The Wreck of the USS Johnston
The results of Johnston’s cost are admirable. Her torpedo strikes crippled Kumano; sustained shut gunnery harassed and broken quite a few heavy cruisers; aggressive runs by all three destroyers repeatedly pressured Japanese capital ships to keep away from torpedo wakes and quit gunfire options.
The chaos purchased priceless minutes for the carriers to flee east, launch steady air strikes, and steadily annihilate the attackers. The consequence—three heavy cruisers misplaced and a Japanese naval withdrawal—which preserved the beachhead and ensured victory within the Philippines.
The Japanese fleet was all however destroyed in the course of the overarching Battle of Leyte Gulf, the biggest naval battle in historical past. The Yamato was later sunk by American plane in the course of the Okinawa Marketing campaign, ending any final hope for a Japanese victory within the Pacific.
From 2019 to 2021, a number of submersible groups positioned and surveyed the principle wreck of the Johnston at 6,456 meters beneath the floor. Her hull quantity, 557, was nonetheless seen after a long time underwater. It was the deepest positioned shipwreck in historical past, till the Samuel B. Roberts was discovered close by the next 12 months at 6,895 meters.
Johnston’s struggle off Samar stays one of the brave actions ever tried at sea. A 2,700-ton destroyer and her crew charged in opposition to sure dying in opposition to overwhelming energy, managing to inflict extreme harm on the enemy, and helped set off a retreat that protected a whole invasion. Although she was misplaced in the course of the battle, the tiny destroyer helped flip again the biggest battleship ever constructed.
The ship and the lads who sailed on her earned a Presidential Unit Quotation and are remembered because the tiny American destroyer that took on Japan’s huge battleship fleet.
