[ARC5] Other Comm Plans - Samar

[Kenneth G. Gordon]

On 7 Aug 2011 at 16:00, gordon white wrote:

> A little ironic that Gambier Bay, CVE-73's call sign was "catnip," as
> that jeep carrier was essentiall;y bait for Kurita's Central Force in
> the Battle off Samar, 25 October 1944.

See, "The Last Stand of the Tin-Can Sailors", by Hornfischer. Truly 
an amazing and hair-raising story, and all true. The courage of those 
sailors was almost too great to believe. In my opinion, every one of 
them should have received the MOH.

> She was one of two USN ships
> (the other was destroyer Hoel,) as 

...two of...

> the "little boys" which held off  a
> Japanese task force of battleships and heavy cruisers bearing down on
> the Leyte invasion force.

My understanding was that there were six jeep carriers (Gambier Bay, 
Kitkun Bay, St. Lo, others I don't remember), 3 destroyers, and 4 
destroyer-escorts in Taffy 3, all of them "little boys" ;-)

The destroyers Johnston and Hoel were sunk, Heerman was badly 
damaged, and the DE Samuel B. Roberts was sunk.

>      Adm Samuel Eliot Morison in fact described the preliminaries to
>      the 
> Leyte landings as "clipping the cat's whiskers."

Well, IMHO, Admiral Clifton Sprague, commander of Taffy 3, did 
EVERthing exactly correctly in the Battle off Samar. He was a genius.

Ken W7EKB