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Clifton Sprague, unrelated to Thomas Sprague, directed his carriers of Taffy 3 to turn and flee towards a squall to the east, hoping that bad visibility would reduce the accuracy of Japanese gunfire, and sent his destroyers in to distract the Japanese battleships and buy time. The destroyers attacked the Japanese line with suicidal determination, drawing fire and scattering the Japanese formations as ships turned to avoid torpedoes. Yamato found herself between two torpedoes on parallel courses and for ten minutes she headed away from the action, unable to turn back for fear of being hit. The American destroyers Hoel and Johnston, and destroyer escort Samuel B. Roberts were sunk and four others were damaged, but they had bought enough time for Sprague to get his planes from all three Taffy groups into the air. There was no time to reload with armour-piercing bombs, so the planes attacked with whatever they happened to have on board, (in some cases with depth charges). Taffy 3 turned and fled south, with shells falling around its carriers. Gambier Bay, bringing up the rear, was sunk, and most of the others were hit and damaged. The small carriers returned fire with the only guns they had, their single stern-mounted five-inch (127mm) anti-aircraft guns. These weapons, loaded solely with anti-aircraft shells, had little chance of inflicting significant damage on even unarmored surface ships. St. Lo scored a hit, to date the only known hit inflicted directly by an aircraft carrier (as opposed to by its aircraft) on an opposing surface vessel.

It seemed impossible for Taffy 3 to escape total destruction, and the Japanese force also began firing on the other two Taffy groups as they were able to close the range with their superior speed, but at 09:20 Kurita suddenly turned and retreated north. The destroyer attacks had broken up his formations, he had lost tactical control, and the heavy cruisers (Chôkai, Suzuya, Chikuma) had been sunk by concentrated sea and air attack. Signals from Ozawa had disabused him of the notion that he was attacking the whole of the 3rd Fleet, which meant that the longer he continued to engage, the more likely it was that he would suffer devastating air strikes from Halsey's carriers. He retreated north and then west through the San Bernardino Strait under continuous air attack. Nagato, Haruna and Kongô were severely damaged. He had begun the battle with five battleships; when he returned to Japan, only Yamato was combat-worthy.

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As soon as range closed JOHNSTON opened her 5-inch battery on the nearest cruiser, scoring damaging hits. About this time an 8" shell landed right off her bow, its red dye splashing the face of JOHNSTON gunnery officer, Lt. Robert C. Hagen. He mopped the dye from his eyes while remarking; "Looks like somebody's mad at us". In 5 furious minutes JOHNSTON pumped 200 rounds at the enemy, then Comdr. Evans ordered, "Fire Torpedoes!" The destroyer got off 10 torpedoes than whipped around to retire behind a heavy smoke screen. When she came out of the smoke a minute later, Japanese cruiser KUMANO could be seen burning furiously from torpedo hits. KUMANO later sank. But JOHNSTON took three 14-inch shell hits from a battleship followed closely by three 6-inch shells from a light cruiser. "It was like a puppy being smacked by a truck". The hits resulted in the loss of all power to the steering engine, all power to the three 5-inch guns ,in the after part of the ship, and rendered our gyro compass useless." Through sheer "providence" a rainstorm came up, and JOHNSTON "ducked into it" for a few minutes of rapid repairs and salvage work.

JOHNSTON soon observed GAMBIER BAY (CVE-73) under fire from a cruiser. "Comdr. Evans than gave me the most courageous order I've ever heard: Commence firing on that cruiser, draw her fire on us and away from GAMBIER BAY". "JOHNSTON scored four hits in a deliberate slug match with a heavy cruiser , then broke off the futile battle as the Japanese destroyer squadron was seen closing rapidly on the American escort carriers. JOHNSTON outfought the entire Japanese destroyer squadron, concentrating on the lead ship until the enemy quit cold, then concentrated on the second destroyer until the remaining enemy units broke off to get out of effective gun range before launching torpedoes, all of which went wild.
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JOHNSTON's supreme courage and daring in the Battle off Samar won her the Presidential Unit Citation as a unit of "Taffy 3" (Task Unit 77.4.3) Comdr. Ernest E. Evans was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. "The skipper was a fighting man from the soles of his broad feet to the ends of his straight black hair. He was a Oklahoman and proud of the Indian blood he had in him. We called him, though not to his face the "Chief". The JOHNSTON was a fighting ship, but he was the heart and soul of her."

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ORIGINAL: ecwgcx

To me this is the greatest battle in the history of the USN. The USS Johnston and Ernest Evens are my heros (as are the Hoel and Sammy B). Man, nothing shows courage and determination like their David vs Goliath counter attack. I get teary every time I read about it (which has been done hundreds of times). I also get pretty p1ssed that so many brave men (including E.E. Evans) were left to die in the shark filled waters after the battle.