Taffey 3

[Snapping Twig]

Didn't want to clutter the destroyer thread with this.

I believe many actions in WWII were beyond heroic, not only the Allies. Things people went through were beyond imagination.

Desperation, exhaustion, horrors, shared by all.

Glad the Axis got it in the shorts, don't get me wrong.

Here's a new take on one of my absolute favorite moments in American history. To my mind, this embodies America completely. No challenge too great, no burden too difficult, never say die.

I give you Taffey 3.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCWZzqHc8ow[/ame]

 

[Snapping Twig]

Here's an abridged version of the overall fight.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9_fvCKFyQY[/ame]

 

[M E Morrison]

It's hard to imagine those small ships inflicting so much damage on the Japanese forces.

 

[Snapping Twig]

Its been said, and I agree - It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.

Said another way by an ancient warrior king - I'd rather fight an army of lions led by a sheep than an army of sheep led by a lion.

 

[Faulkner]

The Japanese actions are a direct result of weak tactical information and a failure to communicate. The overall strategy was complicated, but executable. They didn't execute because there were just too many moving parts for the weak communications process to support .

 

[Snapping Twig]

Certainly.

That and the fact that Bushido only carries you so far when you run out of gas, rubber, etc. and are fighting a well supplied adversary.

They knew they had six months free reign until we caught up and surpassed them.

They were right.

In point of fact, the atom bomb allowed the Emperor to save face and capitulate as the Bushido spirit required fighting to the last citizen in the face of overwhelming odds. Books are written about this. Our harshness was in fact a kindness that spared potentially upwards of a million people on both sides.

 

[Kernel Crittenden]

"We saw this ship come up, it was circling around us, and a guy was standing up on the bridge with a megaphone. And he called out, 'Who are you?', and we all yelled out, 'Samuel B. Roberts!'

He's still circling, so now we're cursing at him. He came back and yelled, 'Who won the World Series?', and we all yelled, 'SAINT LOUIS CARDINALS!!'

And then we could hear the engines stop, and cargo nets were thrown over the side. That's how we were rescued."

Jack Yusen, Seaman 1st Class and survivor of Task Unit “Taffy 3” after two days in the water near Samar Inland, Philippines, October 27, 1944.​

 

[cmort666]

For a while, they were threatening to make a movie of "Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors. I don't know where that is. It was probably shelved as "too one-sided against the Japanese"... like "The Great Raid".

 

[Gardner11]

Taffy 3 was severally out numbered , and fought with great courage and valor may God bless these great,great men .

 

[Jim R]

My father was on The Escort Carrier "USS Kitkun Bay" CVE71 with Taffey 3 during the battle of Layte Gulf, USS Kitkun Bay (CVE 71).

He never talked about the war until he was on his death bed, never did I hear him say one word when I was growing up. I was always curious why mom and dad took so many trips after he retired, those trips were to attend the funerals of his shipmates, he never told any of us kids that was where he was going. They attended over 75 services before dad had his stroke in 2000.

A month or so before dad passed I stopped to see him, as I did every night and he told me "I want to tell you something". For three hours he told me what he had seen. He worked as a tractor driver ferrying planes aboard the ship and also worked damage control. At the end of the war dad was assigned to transport POW's from some of the camps on the main Island of Japan to escort carriers that were used as hospital ships. I knew then why he never talked about the war.

When dad passed I got a call from a man that I had never met. He told me that he and my dad were buddies during the war. He told me that he and a few other men would like to meet mom, my sisters and me at the cemetery and this was about 2 weeks after his funeral. I told him we had a military honor guard at the services but he said this was different.

The day we met at the cemetery 16 men about my dad's age were waiting for us. They did their own service to honor my father. They were all shipmates with dad and even though only one of them knew my dad personally they all felt a responsibility to be there. Each man took time to talk to my mom, my sisters and me. These were not just men that lived near by they were from all over the country.

Of the ships company of 860 men in 1944 today they can only account for around 35 men. None of the men I met that day had ever thought that they had been part of anything special, they just thought that they were doing their duty to their country.

 

[rwsmith]

I remember another situation......

It's hard to imagine those small ships inflicting so much damage on the Japanese forces.

A great big Japanese force was blocked by a few small ships that fought so hard that the Japanese , sure that they had run into the main fleet, backed off rather than engage such an overwhelmingly superior force. More guts than anyone should be allowed to have. And we're glad. It seems that the allies didn't have a 'code' of Bushido like the Japanese, they just fought like hell and didn't quit.

 

[Jessie]

It would be interesting to hear a Japanese sailor's account of that battle.
I doubt that one exists, or if so, it tells the whole story considering how they were flummoxed by such a small force.

 

[M E Morrison]

My father was on The Escort Carrier "USS Kitkun Bay" CVE71 with Taffey 3 during the battle of Layte Gulf, USS Kitkun Bay (CVE 71).

He never talked about the war until he was on his death bed, never did I hear him say one word when I was growing up. I was always curious why mom and dad took so many trips after he retired, those trips were to attend the funerals of his shipmates, he never told any of us kids that was where he was going. They attended over 75 services before dad had his stroke in 2000.

A month or so before dad passed I stopped to see him, as I did every night and he told me "I want to tell you something". For three hours he told me what he had seen. He worked as a tractor driver ferrying planes aboard the ship and also worked damage control. At the end of the war dad was assigned to transport POW's from some of the camps on the main Island of Japan to escort carriers that were used as hospital ships. I knew then why he never talked about the war.

When dad passed I got a call from a man that I had never met. He told me that he and my dad were buddies during the war. He told me that he and a few other men would like to meet mom, my sisters and me at the cemetery and this was about 2 weeks after his funeral. I told him we had a military honor guard at the services but he said this was different.

The day we met at the cemetery 16 men about my dad's age were waiting for us. They did their own service to honor my father. They were all shipmates with dad and even though only one of them knew my dad personally they all felt a responsibility to be there. Each man took time to talk to my mom, my sisters and me. These were not just men that lived near by they were from all over the country.

Of the ships company of 860 men in 1944 today they can only account for around 35 men. None of the men I met that day had ever thought that they had been part of anything special, they just thought that they were doing their duty to their country.

That's a wonderful story. Thank you for sharing.

 

[rwsmith]

These things exist.....

It would be interesting to hear a Japanese sailor's account of that battle.
I doubt that one exists, or if so, it tells the whole story considering how they were flummoxed by such a small force.

With the internet and cable channels and so many people reaching old age and telling the stories they have bottled up inside themselves for 70 years, more is becoming available. There are some accounts in print also. I read a book by one of the few surviving U-boat captains called 'Iron Coffins' and also a book by a Japanese ace aviator that was shot in his head but managed to fly his plane back to base. I'm fascinated to hear these accounts from ANYBODY. There was a documentary about Richard Ballard (I think) on a trip to find sunken ships at Midway with both Americans and Japanese veterans aboard. It was very moving for them and for me.

Anyway, there is a good chance that what you are looking for exists.

 

[16thVACav]

We stand in the shadows of giants.

 

[cmort666]

It would be interesting to hear a Japanese sailor's account of that battle.
I doubt that one exists, or if so, it tells the whole story considering how they were flummoxed by such a small force.

I've never read a Japanese account of that battle, but I've read
enough others to know that by that time, the rank and file Japanese were just resigned to death, knowing it was usually to no rational end. Social pressure (and fanatical superior officers) compelled them to carry on.

If you read the story of the sinking of the Yamato ("A Glorious Way to Die") it's obvious that people all up and down the chain of command saw that the mission was not just futile, or even impossible, but STUPID. Regardless, senior command ordered it executed in the face of a 0.00% chance of success rather than have the Imperial Japanese Navy be seen to be doing less than the Army, NEITHER of whom had one IOTA of a chance for victory.

By the summer of 1945, the Japanese war effort had taken on the character of a failed liquor store holdup in which an accomplice is afraid to back out, in sheer terror of the whackjob who "planned" the caper.

 

[M E Morrison]

We stand in the shadows of giants.

And some are an insult to their memory.

 

[Cpo1944]

In the early 1960`s I served on a WW2 destroyer .
USS Stormes DD-780.
She was not at Leyte Gulf , but served at Okinawa where she was hit by a kamikaze and had very serious damages and suffered many dead and wounded crewmen.
We also had 3 Plank owners still onboard while I was there. I pestered them to tell about it because I was so interested in WW2 history, but They rarely would speak of the battle.
I felt most fortunate and honored to be able to serve with them.
It was a very different Navy then.
PS. A Plank Owner is a member of the original crew when a ship is commissioned.

 

[swsig]

This was the most remarkable naval battle of World War II. Surprised by the presence of Taffy 3, the Japanese admiral, Kurita, was badly served by his staff. They told him that the U.S. forces were fleet carriers, cruisers, and destroyers, instead of the escort carriers, destroyers, and destroyer escorts that they actually were. Kurita then compounded this error by ordering a "general attack", where each ship would act on its own and attack piecemeal, instead of acting as a part of a cohesive battle line. Had he ordered the formation of a battle line, the outcome might have been very different, as the Japanese ships (four battleships, six heavy cruisers, two light cruisers, and eleven destroyers) had twice the speed of the escort carriers and could have run them down and destroyed them systematically had they attacked in an organized manner.

Kurita was further distracted and befuddled by constant air attacks from the aircraft of Taffy 3 and from Taffys 1 and 2, also operating in the area. Since the Taffys were primarily tasked with providing close air support for the troops ashore, they did not have many anti-ship weapons available to them. Nevertheless, they attacked with whatever weapons they had, including 100 lb. anti-personnel bombs. Many planes ran out of ammo yet continued to make dry runs on the Japanese ships simply to distract them. Fortunately, the Taffys had enough torpedoes available that they were able to sink a couple of heavy cruisers. Four Avenger torpedo bombers from the Kitkun Bay sank the heavy cruiser Chokai. Despite the heavy Japanese losses, Kurita's ships were slowly overhauling Taffy 3 carriers. But vexed, perplexed, and completely out of control of his own fleet, Kurita at this point decided to withdraw his ships from the battle even though he still had a chance of a victory.

While nothing can ever detract from the incredible courage of the American sailors who participated in this battle, Admiral Kurita also deserves some "credit" for his contributions to a major U.S. victory.

 

[cmort666]

Nevertheless, they attacked with whatever weapons they had, including 100 lb. anti-personnel bombs.

I believe some of them also dropped aerial depth charges.