Word: kurita
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Although the Leyte Gulf Battle was 15 years ago, it seems as yesterday. My submarine, Darter, along with Dace, commanded by my classmate Captain B. D. Claggett, with two of the best crews ever to go aboard submarines, held swimming call 15 years ago this morning for Admiral Kurita and his heavy cruisers. Darter still rests on the rocks off Palawan, where we abandoned her after grounding while trying to finish off the cruiser Takao. Thanks to the brilliant work of Claggett, Dace rescued my whole crew...
Alerted by the submarines' contact reports, Bull Halsey ordered his carriers to launch air strikes against Kurita'and opened the Battle of Sibuyan Sea on Oct. 24. In all, Halsey's planes made 259 sorties, sinking battleship Musashi, putting heavy cruiser Myoko out of action and damaging several others. (Halsey's carrier Princeton was fatally wounded by a land-based Japanese Judy, the only one of scores of Philippine-based planes to score.) As the battle went against him, Kurita reversed course, as if retiring, then turned back toward San Bernardino Strait...
...there was a real Japanese plus in the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea: Halsey mistook Kurita's original reversal of course for genuine retirement, believed the overenthusiastic damage reports of his carrier pilots, and decided Kurita was out of the fighting. Meanwhile, Halsey had discovered the approach from the north of Admiral Ozawa-thanks to Decoy Ozawa's zealous efforts to get himself found. Jap carriers? They were Halsey's meat. With a blurry and misunderstood message to Seventh Fleet, he ordered his entire Third Fleet to head north after Ozawa-leaving San Bernardino Strait wide open...
...Seventh Fleet's 16 escort carriers-"baby flattops"-of Rear Admiral Thomas L. Sprague's Task Group 77.4 were operating off Samar without knowing that 1) Halsey had taken off after Ozawa or 2) Kurita had come through unguarded San Bernardino Strait and was only minutes over the horizon. A half-hour later, Kurita's shells began splashing around "Taffy 3," one of Task Group 77-4's three task units, under Rear Admiral Clifton Sprague...
Taffy 3's situation was desperate: its six little carriers (each with a single 5-in. gun), three destroyers and four destroyer escorts made no match for Kurita. All "Ziggy" Sprague could do was to make smoke, launch his aircraft and run for his life. In the running fight, Kurita lost three heavy cruisers, one light cruiser, and three destroyers. But Sprague lost two destroyers, a destroyer escort, one baby flattop (another, the St. Lo, was sunk later by a Japanese kamikaze). He took hits on two carriers, a destroyer and destroyer escort and seemed doomed to far worse...