If you're interested in reading more about this unbelievable engagement, I suggest picking up a copy of "Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors". It's a excellent read.
Hadn't read about it in a while. Thanks for the reminder.
It is impossible for this ‘ol ex-tin can squid to thank you enough for posting this.
Leyete Gulf is where the Imperial Japanese Navy was basically destroyed.
It was the WW2 “small boy’s” amazing performance that inspired me as a child to want to be a tin can sailor someday.
I just watched the original “Victory at Sea” episode, “The battle for Leyete Gulf”.
It’s VERY moving stuff.
God Bless all those who go down to the Sea.
God Bless the Fleet.
God Bless America.
Super post.
Fascinating, I’m halfway through the book right now, it’s incredible.
These brave men had cajones of steel.
This is one ex-tin can sailor of the cold war era, that appreciates you posting this. Churchill said of the RAF, “never was so much owed by so few.” I say it applies here to the US Navy in general, and Taffy 3 in particular, especially her destroyers.
My Dad, US Army, was part of the invasion force at Tacloban, Philippines. He was who the battleship Yamato and the rest of the Japanese Navy were after. I often reminded my Dad, he is deceased now, of how the Navy, and the tin cans his son served aboard, saved his bacon. Those huge 18 inch rounds from the Yamato with the rest of the Japanese force, would have blasted the Army badly on the beach. Thanks to the Navy, they didn’t get the opportunity.
Of course, it wasn’t just the battle off Samar that saved the day for the Army, the US Navy stopped the Japs in every engagement of the far flung battle of Leyte Gulf.
If you can’t format it to fit on my screen, then I am not reading it.
What a waste of time and broadband.
Thanks for this post. My late father-in-law served an anti-aircraft gun aboard Gambier Bay, and was wounded going over the side when the ship went down.
He spent two days in the water before being rescued. He was one of the most remarkable men I ever knew.
I’m ex navy submariner, never saw combat but respect those that did. btw, there’s a Japanese restaurant down the block.
Excellent post. The pictures were amazing. I’ll look for the book too.
Thanks, you made my night.
Have read and agree, must agree
We destroyed the Japanese air at Midway and the Marianas and destroyed a good part of her Navy in Leyte Gulf. People don’t realize that the Japanese had a larger Army at the end of the war than when they attacked us at Pearl Harbor. The difference is they had no Navy to get them around the Pacific, no air force to protect them and were cut off from their oil.
We have men like the ones in Taffy 3 to thank for that.