Why Kurita Turned Back

Описание: October 25, 1944. Six escort carriers and seven destroyers faced the most powerful battleship fleet Japan ever assembled. Admiral Kurita commanded 4 battleships including the legendary Yamato, 6 heavy cruisers, and overwhelming firepower superiority of 50:1. Victory should have been mathematically certain within 30 minutes.

Instead, at 09:11, with the American force nearly destroyed and Leyte Gulf's undefended invasion fleet just 40 miles away, Kurita ordered withdrawal. Why did he turn back at the moment of victory? This decision remains one of World War II's most debated mysteries.

This is the story of the Battle off Samar—where destroyer USS Johnston charged alone at four battleships, where destroyer escort Samuel B. Roberts "fought like a battleship" despite being outgunned 50:1, where Commander Ernest Evans earned the Medal of Honor leading a suicidal torpedo run, and where pilots attacked battleships with depth charges and empty machine guns.

Samuel Eliot Morison called it "more gallantry, guts and gumption" than the U.S. Navy had ever shown. Admiral Nimitz credited "special dispensation from the Lord Almighty." But what really happened in those two and a half hours of desperate combat? Why did the most powerful surface fleet Japan ever assembled withdraw from destroying escort carriers built on merchant hulls?

We examine the catastrophic command failure that left San Bernardino Strait unguarded, the impossible mismatch between 18.1-inch guns and 5-inch popguns, Commander Ernest Evans's lone charge in USS Johnston, the destroyer escorts that fought like battleships, the aircraft that attacked with whatever they had, and Admiral Kurita's controversial decision that historians still debate 80 years later.

Featuring detailed analysis of:
• The firepower mismatch: 80,000 pounds vs 1,566 pounds per broadside
• USS Johnston's solo attack and Commander Evans's Medal of Honor action
• USS Hoel's torpedo runs that forced Yamato to withdraw
• USS Samuel B. Roberts's 35-minute gun duel with heavy cruiser Chikuma
• Gunner's Mate Paul Carr's final stand in Gun Mount 52
• The smoke screens and rain squalls that blinded Japanese fire control
• Why Kurita believed he faced fleet carriers, not escort carriers
• The five factors behind Kurita's withdrawal decision
• What would have happened if Kurita had continued

Drawing from Naval History and Heritage Command records, official action reports, Medal of Honor citations, survivor testimonies, and Kurita's own post-war interviews, this is the complete story of the most lopsided victory in American naval history.

American losses: 2 escort carriers, 3 escorts, 1,161 killed
Japanese losses: 3 heavy cruisers sunk, 2,700+ casualties
Legacy: Medal of Honor for Commander Ernest Evans, Presidential Unit Citation for Taffy 3, deepest shipwreck ever surveyed (USS Samuel B. Roberts at 22,621 feet)

The tin can sailors who charged battleships with destroyers knew they were going to die. They charged anyway. They bought time with their lives. They saved an invasion fleet. They changed history.

This is why we remember Samar.

Sources: Naval History and Heritage Command, Congressional Medal of Honor Society, Samuel Eliot Morison's History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, James D. Hornfischer's The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors, official Japanese and American action reports, post-war interrogations of Admiral Kurita