The World War II destroyer escort that fought like a battleship

The Battle of Leyte Gulf was the most important naval engagement in historical past, a sprawling affair that lasted from Oct. 23 to 26, 1944, involving 4 main engagements. Despite hopeless odds, Japanese Adm. Soemu Toyoda’s advanced plan for the much-depleted Imperial Japanese Navy to strike a blow towards the U.S. forces touchdown on the Philippine island of Leyte got here tantalizingly near attaining at the least a few of its sacrificial aim.

Within the Sibuyan Sea on Oct. 23, the Japanese First Strike Drive misplaced heavy cruisers Atago and Maya to U.S. submarines Darter and Dace. The next day, Japanese forces misplaced one of many world’s two greatest battleships, Musashi, to provider planes of the U.S. Third Fleet, which in flip misplaced its gentle provider Princeton. That evening, Japanese forces bumped into the U.S. seventh Fleet in Surigao Strait, dropping two battleships, a heavy cruiser and a number of other destroyers.

Adm. William Halsey, studying of 4 Japanese carriers approaching from the northeast, then set out along with his complete third Fleet to intercept them off Cape Engano — unaware that that they had few plane and had been serving solely to decoy his fleet away from the beachhead — a hit that value Japan all 4 flattops.

With each fleets diverted, the First Placing Drive underneath Vice Adm. Takeo Kurita was in a position to steam previous San Bernardino Strait and make for the American beachhead at Leyte. As he approached the isle of Samar on the morning of Oct. 25, Kurita discovered his manner barred by “Taffy 3,” an antisubmarine pressure from the seventh Fleet, consisting of escort carriers Fanshaw Bay, St. Lo, White Plains, Kalinin Bay, Kitkun Bay and Gambier Bay; destroyers Hoel, Heermann and Johnston; and destroyer escorts Dennis, John C. Butler, Raymond and Samuel B. Roberts.

Kurita’s pressure, which included Musashi’s colossal sister, Yamato, and three battleships, had the potential to pulverize Taffy 3, however the escort carriers’ presence misled him into considering he was encountering a component of Halsey’s third Fleet.

To shut with them as rapidly as potential, Kurita ordered a “normal assault,” which dedicated his ships piecemeal slightly than in a line of battle. This made the People’ scenario rather less dire, however, as Capt. Dennis Sullivan of escort provider White Plains put it, “We might solely go within the route the [Japanese] needed to go themselves, to Leyte Gulf.”

Ordering his escort carriers to speed up to flank velocity, Taffy 3 commander, Rear Adm. Clifton “Ziggy” Sprague, made a preventing retreat of it, sending all out there plane to bomb and strafe Japanese forces, plus all three of his destroyers to decelerate enemy forces with torpedoes and 5-inch weapons.

Many acts of heroism adopted, together with a outstanding struggle by the destroyer escort Roberts.

Roberts was meant to escort convoys and struggle submarines, not interact enemy warships. In comparison with the Fletcher class destroyer with its 5 5-inch dual-purpose weapons and 10 Mark 15 19-inch torpedoes in two rows of torpedo tubes, Roberts had solely two 5-inch gun turrets and a single rack for 3 torpedoes.

Sprague had given no orders for the gradual, under-armed destroyer escorts to tackle the Japanese warships, however Roberts’ skipper, Lt. Cmdr. Robert Witcher Copeland, rose to the event. Becoming a member of destroyers Hoel and Heermann in an assault on the main 4 Japanese heavy cruisers, Copeland knowledgeable his crew: “We’re making a torpedo run. The end result is uncertain, however we are going to do our responsibility.”

Utilizing smoke to hide its actions, Roberts closed the vary on heavy cruiser Chokai to 4,000 yards — too shut for it to depress its 8-inch essential weapons — then launched all three torpedoes.

All missed, however at the least one 5-inch shell hit Chokai’s torpedo battery, the resultant secondary explosion disabling its propulsion system and rudder. Chokai, in flip, scored at the least one hit on Roberts, however subsequent strikes from escort provider Kitkun Bay led to the crippled cruiser being deserted and sunk.

Roberts fought on with what it had, firing 608 5-inch shells in an hour whereas its 40mm and 20mm antiaircraft weapons pelted targets of alternative, together with heavy cruiser Chikuma’s bridge.

The escort might have taken a success or two from a Japanese battleship, however its essential occasion was a one-on-one duel with the battleship Kongo till 9 a.m., when the latter struck it with two or three 14-inch shells that opened up a 40-foot-long, 10-foot-wide gap and devastated the left aft engine room.

By 09:07 a.m., Roberts had taken roughly 20 shell hits of varied caliber and was lifeless within the water. Thirty minutes later, Copeland reluctantly acceded to the inevitable and ordered his crew to desert ship.

Nonetheless, the crew of No. 2 aft gun turret fired off six extra shells on the enemy earlier than leaving their publish. As famous by one of many surviving officers, Lt. William S. Burton, “That gun in lower than an hour expended one thing in extra of 300 rounds of 5-inch ammunition, together with star shells when all Widespread and AA projectiles had been gone. … The speedy and steady hearth from Gun 2 was an inspiration to each man on the ship. … Carr was in a position to acquire an important many hits on a Japanese cruiser.”

The person Burton talked about, Paul Henry Carr, born in Webbers Falls, Oklahoma, on Feb. 1924, had joined the Navy on Could 27, 1942, and was assigned to Roberts in April 1944. A Gunner’s Mate Third Class, Carr was accountable for Mount 52 all through the battle and, because it turned out, considerably past it, as Burton’s report continued:

“Whereas making an attempt to fireplace the seventh spherical, the powder cost cooked off earlier than the breech closed, wrecking the gun and killing or wounding all however three crew members who had been critically injured and two of whom had been blown away from the mount and the ship because of the explosion.

“The primary man to enter the mount after the explosion discovered the captain, Carr, on the deck of the mount holding in his hand the final projectile out there to his gun. He was fully torn open and his intestines had been splattered all through the within of the mount. Nonetheless, he held in his hand the 54-pound projectile, held it up above his head and begged the petty officer who had entered the mount to assist him get that final spherical out.

“The petty officer, who entered the mount, took the projectile from Carr and eliminated one of many different males, who had been wounded or unconscious, to the principle deck to be able to render him first assist. When he returned to the mount, there was Gunner’s Mate Carr once more with the projectile in his hand, nonetheless making an attempt, though horribly wounded, to position the projectile on the loading tray.”

At 10:05 a.m., Roberts sank, taking with it 89 males, together with Carr, who died after being dragged from his turret. Copeland and Burton had been among the many 120 survivors rescued after spending two days on three life rafts.

In the end, Kurita regrouped his battered First Strike Drive and withdrew from Samar, abandoning the sunken hulks of destroyers Hoel and Johnston, escort provider Gambier Bay and Roberts, identified ever after because the destroyer escort that fought like a battleship. Its memorable seaborne stand was acknowledged with a battle star and a Presidential Unit Quotation.

Carr’s widow obtained his posthumous Silver Star. Copeland and Sprague had been every awarded a Navy Cross for his or her actions in the course of the Battle of Leyte Gulf.

In addition to lending its title to succeeding warships, Roberts’ exploits had been commemorated on two frigates, Copeland and Carr. The unique namesake acquired a brand new declare to fame on June 22, 2022, when deep divers found its stays 22,621 ft beneath Philippine waters, making it the deepest shipwreck but discovered.