Eighty years ago today this brave ship and crew provided one of the, if not the, greatest example of U.S. Navy will, competence, and sacrifice. Patrolling the northern reaches of the entrance to Leyte Gulf the Johnston, and the escort carriers she was assigned to protect, faced the largest and most powerful surface fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). Taffy 3, as their little portion of the fleet was called, consisted of six escort carriers tasked mostly with ground support for the troops invading Leyte, three destroyers, and four destroyer escorts. Armed with torpedoes but nothing larger than a 5-inch naval rifle among them.
The IJN forces under Admiral Kurita were four battleships, including one of the two largest that ever sailed, six heavy cruisers, two light cruisers, and 11 destroyers. An individual 3-gun turret on the Yamato outweighed a Fletcher Class destroyer.
Without waiting for orders the captain of the USS Johnston, Commander Ernest Evans, broke from the retreating Taffy 3 and laying smoke charged straight into the IJN formation. The Johnston disabled a heavy cruiser almost immediately and caused utter chaos in the IJN formation. Other escorts of Taffy 3 eventually followed and wrote themselves into naval lore as well but Evans and his crew set the standard and the pace. The tenacity of the US Naval attack repelled the overwhelmingly more powerful IJN forces saving the landing craft and landing beaches on Leyte from bombardment.
Commander Evans was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions and the actions of his crew this day 80 years ago. For a detailed account of this event, which I personally consider the US Navy's finest hour, please read "Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors" by James D. Hornfischer. Wonderfully written and researched. The full account of the bravery of these men will chill your spine and leave you wondering how such things can happen.
The USS Johnson was found in more than 20,000 feet of water a couple of years ago upright and mostly intact save for evidence of hundreds of projectile hits from IJN battleships, cruisers, and destroyers. She is the war grave for 186 brave sailors and at the time was the deepest shipwreck ever identified. Never forget.
Bryan
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