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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 "jeep carriers" and their "tin can" escorts rose to the impossible challenge of beating back an overwhelming force of Japanese battleships and cruisers under Vice Adm. Takeo Kurita. Survivors of the four U.S. ships lost in the battle—USS Hoel (DD-533), USS Johnston (DD-557), USS Samuel B. Roberts (DE-413), and USS Gambier Bay (CVE-73)—then struggled to survive a two-day-ordeal adrift at sea awaiting rescue. [3] [4] A fifth ship from Taffy 3, the escort carrier USS St. Lo (CVE-63), was sunk in a kamikaze attack immediately following the Japanese withdrawal.
Two TV documentaries based on Hornfischer's book have been produced. The first of them, produced by Lou Reda Productions and premiering on The History Channel on November 11, 2005, featured interviews with Hornfischer and veterans of the battle. It was followed by an episode of Dogfights on the History Channel, titled "The Death of the Japanese Navy", premiering on December 29, 2006, which featured a sophisticated CGI rendition of the sea battle.
Episode 9 of Battle 360 dealt with the Battle of Leyte Gulf. However, given that Battle 360 was focused on the carrier USS Enterprise, the only survivors who recounted the battle were Enterprise sailors and airmen. In this episode, there were no survivors of Taffy 3 interviewed. In fact there is no mention of any of the Taffy 3 ships or their captains except Commander Ernest E. Evans of the destroyer Johnston. The episode skirts the fundamental issue of how close the Japanese came to annihilating Taffy 3.
The escort carrier or escort aircraft carrier, also called a "jeep carrier" or "baby flattop" in the United States Navy (USN) or "Woolworth Carrier" by the Royal Navy, was a small and slow type of aircraft carrier used by the Royal Navy, the United States Navy, the Imperial Japanese Navy and Imperial Japanese Army Air Force in World War II. They were typically half the length and a third the displacement of larger fleet carriers, slower, carried fewer planes, and more-lightly armed and armored. Escort carriers were most often built upon a commercial ship hull, so they were cheaper and could be built quickly. This was their principal advantage as they could be completed in greater numbers as a stop-gap when fleet carriers were scarce. However, the lack of protection made escort carriers particularly vulnerable, and several were sunk with great loss of life. The light carrier was a similar concept to the escort carrier in most respects, but was fast enough to operate alongside fleet carriers.
The Battle of Leyte Gulf is considered to have been the largest naval battle of World War II and, by some criteria, possibly the largest naval battle in history, with over 200,000 naval personnel involved. It was fought in waters near the Philippine islands of Leyte, Samar, and Luzon, from 23 to 26 October 1944, between combined American and Australian forces and the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN), as part of the invasion of Leyte, which aimed to isolate Japan from the countries it had occupied in Southeast Asia which were a vital source of industrial and oil supplies.
The Casablanca-class escort carrier were a series of escort carriers constructed for the United States Navy during World War II. They are the most numerous class of aircraft carriers ever built. Fifty were laid down, launched and commissioned within the space of less than two years – 3 November 1942 through to 8 July 1944. These were nearly one third of the 143 aircraft carriers built in the United States during the war. Despite their numbers, and the preservation of more famous and larger carriers as museums, none of these modest ships survive today. Five were lost to enemy action during World War II and the remainder were scrapped.
Clifton Albert Frederick "Ziggy" Sprague was a World War II-era officer in the United States Navy.
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 Battle off Samar has been cited by historians as one of the greatest last stands in naval history; ultimately the Americans prevailed over a massive armada—the Japanese Imperial Navy's Center Force under command of Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita—despite their very heavy casualties and overwhelming odds.
USS Gambier Bay (CVE-73) was a Casablanca-class escort carrier of the United States Navy. She was sunk in the Battle off Samar during the Battle of Leyte Gulf after helping to turn back a much larger attacking Japanese surface force. She was the only American aircraft carrier sunk by enemy surface gunfire during World War II.
USS St. Lo (AVG/ACV/CVE–63) was a Casablanca-class escort carrier of the United States Navy during World War II. On 25 October 1944, St. Lo became the first major warship to sink as the result of a kamikaze attack. The attack occurred during the Battle off Samar, part of the larger Battle of Leyte Gulf.
USS White Plains (CVE-66) was a Casablanca-class escort carrier of the United States Navy. She was named after the 1776 Battle of White Plains.
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1944:
USS Heermann (DD-532) was a World War II-era Fletcher-class destroyer in the service of the United States Navy. The ship entered service in 1943 and took part in several battles during World War II in the Pacific theatre of operations, including the Philippines campaign, Battle off Samar and the Battle of Iwo Jima among others. Heermann gained fame during the "last stand of the Tin Can Sailors" in which she and several other destroyers of Task Unit 77.4.3 engaged a far superior Japanese task force during the Battle off Samar in October 1944. Heermann was the only American destroyer of "Taffy 3" to survive the engagement. Following the end of the war in 1945, the ship was placed in reserve from 1946 to 1951, when the destroyer was reactivated. Heermann remained in active service until 1957, when the ship was returned to the reserve. In 1961, Heerman was loaned to Argentina and was renamed ARA Almirante Brown (D-20) while in service with the Argentinian Navy. Almirante Brown remained in Argentinian service until 1982, when the ship was decommissioned.
USS Hoel (DD-533) was a World War II-era Fletcher-class destroyer in the service of the United States Navy, named after Lieutenant Commander William R. Hoel.
USS Johnston (DD-557) was a Fletcher-class destroyer, one of 175 of the class built for the United States Navy during World War II. She was named after Lieutenant John V. Johnston, an officer of the US Navy during the American Civil War.
USS Samuel B. Roberts (DE-413) was a John C. Butler-class destroyer escort of the United States Navy that served during 1944.
USS John C. Butler (DE-339) was the lead ship of her class of destroyer escorts in the service with the United States Navy from 1944 to 1946. She was recommissioned between 1950 and 1957 and finally sunk as a target in 1971.
Takeo Kurita was a vice admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II.
Ernest Edwin Evans was an officer of the United States Navy who posthumously received the Medal of Honor for his actions during the Battle off Samar in World War II.
USS Wasatch (AGC-9) was a Mount McKinley-class amphibious force command ship, named after a mountain chain in northern Utah. She was designed as a cargo ship and converted into an amphibious force flagship, a floating command post with advanced communications equipment and extensive combat information spaces to be used by the amphibious forces commander and landing force commander during large-scale operations.
USS Richard S. Bull (DE-402) was a John C. Butler-class destroyer escort in service with the United States Navy from 1944 to 1946. She was finally sunk as a target in 1969.
Ralph Andrew Ofstie was a Vice Admiral in the United States Navy, an escort carrier commander in World War II, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (Air), and Commander of the U.S. Sixth Fleet. He was born in Eau Claire, Wisconsin and his hometown was Everett, Washington.
The second I-56 was an Imperial Japanese Navy Type B3 submarine. Completed and commissioned in June 1944, she served in the late stages of World War II and took part in the Philippines campaign at the time of the Battle of Leyte Gulf. She then operated as a kaiten suicide attack torpedo carrier, including during the Battle of Okinawa, before she was lost in April 1945.
