the battle of samar by richard k rohde

the battle of samar took place on october 25 1944 near the philippine island of samar, where a small group of undersized american ships fought off one of the most powerful fleets the japanese navy ever assembled. it was the most improbable victory of the u s navy during the pacific war.

the task force of small american warships consisted of 3 destroyers and 4 destroyer escorts- "tin cans"- as their sailors called them. these 7 ships were a lighly armed force nothing more than slow cargo ships with a flight deck mounted upon them. the code name of the task unit of 13 small ships was "taffy 3". i was a radioman aboard the samual b roberts, one of the destroyer escorts of taffy 3. none of the ships in taffy 3 possessed the firepower or the armor plating needed for the big battle ships of the high seas.

but when the sun came up that october morning my shipmates and i could see the pagoda masts of japanese warships on the horizon. as we gathered on deck to watch the japanese fleet, we first thought that the enemy was fleeing. then we realized the ships appeared to be getting larger. they were headed straight for us! this mighty japanese armada consisted of 4 battleships, 6 heavy cruisers, 2 light cruisers, and 11 destroyers. this mightly japanese flotilla was capable of battling out entire 7th fleet.

clearly, the ships of taffy 3 didn't stand a chance against them. included among the japanese battleships coming at us was the 70,000-ton yamato, the mightiest ship to ever sail. the yamato had armored sides 2 feet thick and 18 in guns that could shoot a 3,200 lb shell more than 26 miles! by comparison, the roberts and the other destroyers escorts of taffy 3 weighed about 1200 tons with 5 inch guns that shot shells weighing about 50 pounds. our guns could scarcely make dentsin the hulls of the huge japanese warships.

that morning i sat in front of my radio, copying routine coded messages. and then a rare plain-language message from another ship of taffy 3 came across the radio. the message said their ship was being attacked by the japanese fleet. about that time our captain came on the loudspeaker to tell the crew thatwe were in a "fight against overwhelming odds from which survival was not expected"

the ensuing battle should have been lopsided victory for the much larger japanese fleet. even the admiral who commanded the taffy 3 was a realist and thought that the battle would be "about a 15 minute job" and then "at best, he'd be swimming." the closest reinforcements were half day away and could never get to samar in time. but that day, god was indeed on our side. we americans fought relentlessly and were helped by deception anda miscalculation by the japanese commander.

the japanese ships quickly found their range and their shells began hitting our ships. but many of the high powered japanese shells that hit their targets passed completely through our ships, is if the vessels truly were tin cans, and didn't explode. this enabled our ships to keep fighting and laying thick smoke screens to hide from view as best they could. we relentlessly fired our 5 inch guns at the uppermost, and more vulnerable, structures of the bigger japanese ships. all of the aircraft from the "baby flatops" were in the air dropping torpedos and bombs and fearlessly strafing the decks of the enemy ships with machine gun fire. the pilots soon ran out of ammunition and they made valiant dry runs in order to draw japanese fire away from our ships.

my ship, the samuel b roberts, made a close range torpedo run against the enemy, taking a terrible pounding from the japanes warships but we got our torpedoes off toward the enemy targets. enemy shells finally hit our engine room, stopping us dead in the water. at this point our captain gave the order to abandon ship. eventually, torpedos from our destroyers found their marks and 3 japanese heavy cruisers were sunk or set ablaze. and 3 torpedoes that missed their target were then found to be heading straight for the yamato! the prospect of being hit by torpedoes forced the yamato to turn and this maneuver took the japanese behemoth 10 miles away from the battle.

the scarce from the torpedoes also forced the japanese fleed commander aboard the yamato to assess the damage done to his ships by these pesky, lightweight american battlers. here's what he saw. 3 of his prized cruisers had been destroyed by an unrelenting american naval and air attack. american fighter planes continued to swarm his surviving ships like honets. and most importantly, the japanese admiral mistakenly believedd he was fighting a much more powerful american flotilla, and also that the americans were expecting reinforcements very soon. he fully expected the 7th fleet to appear on the horizon at any minute and was afraid the arrival of the fleet would begin a battle he knew he couldn't win.

so finally, at a few minutes after 9 0'clock in the morning just a little more than 2 hours after the surprisingly fierce sea battle began the japanese commander issued the order for his fleet to withdraw. the battle was over and taffy 3 had this vastly superiorfleet of tremendous japanese warships on the run!

at this point the other roberts survivors and i were aboard a life raft, and we were all soaked with diesel oil from our ship. we would wait 3 long days in shark infested waters before being rescued. about 2 hours after the battle ended, a japaese zero fighter plane, with bombs attached to its wings, came out of nowhere and then dived into one of our baby flatops. we didn't know it then but what we had just witnesses was the first kamikaze attack of the war! in all, the u.s. navy lost 845 brave sailors and 5 ships in that short battle off teh island of samar.

vice-admiral t.c. kinkaid would later write in his official report to fleet admiral chester nimitz:

"by the skillful use of smoke, the launching of daring torpedo attacks and the refusal to break off action in the face of overwhelming odds and sure losses, this intrepid little group of fighting ships accomplished one of the most heroic andn gallant epics of war. what the japanese had planned as an american naval disaster was turned into japanese rout!"

more importantly, the american victory stopped the japanese navy from advancing to the philippine island of leyte gulf where they could have impeded general macarthur's famous landing. but sadly, few of our young people today can find samar, midway, wake, guam, or even pearl harbor on a map. and fewer yet can tell you of the brave sacrifices that were made by our fighting forces in places like guadalcanal, okinawa, iwo jima, and bataan. nor do many of today's students know about the flying tigers, jimmy dolittle's raid on tokyo, the bataan death march or the battle of miday. although admirals chester nimitz, "bull" halsey, general douglas macarthur and "chesty" puller were larger than life leaders in the pacific war, students may go through their entire education without even hearing or reading thier names.

if you are interested in keeping the memories of our great heroes alive, join the:
admiral nimitz foundation
p.o. box 1188
fredricksburg, tx. 78624-1118

this is a great story i picked up. i hope you like this one.

cool story

in a recent issue of the san francisco chronicle reported the predicament of a female humpback whale who had become entangled in a spider web of crab traps. she was weighted down by hundreds of pounds of traps that caused her to struggle to stay afloat and catch air at the surface. a fisherman spotted her outside the golden gate bridge and radioed for help. a rescue team determined that she was so badly off, the only way to save her was to dive and untangle her. this was a dangerous maneuver. one slap of the tail could kill a rescuer. the divers worked for several hours with curved knives and eventually freed her. when she was free, the divers said she swam in what seemed like joyous circles. she then came back to each diver, one at a time, nudged them and pushed them gently around to thank them. they said it was the most incredibly beautiful experience of their lives. the diver who cut the rope out of her mouth said her eyes were following him the whole time, and he will never be the same again.

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