USS Samuel Roberts Located off Samar at 22,000 feet

Diggin It · Jun 26, 2022

U.S. News // 4 hours ago
Explorers find USS Samuel B. Roberts, world's deepest shipwreck
June 26 (UPI) -- The wreckage of the World War II U.S. Navy destroyer, the USS Samuel B. Roberts, was found off the coast of the Philippines.

Shortly after dawn on 25 October, Samuel B. Roberts was protecting Taffy 3's escort carriers whose aircraft were supporting the Army assault. The warships were steaming off the eastern coast of Samar when the Japanese Center Force, a 23-ship task force under the command of Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita, appeared on the horizon and opened fire. At 07:35, Roberts turned and headed toward the heavy cruiser Chōkai.

The commanding officer, Copeland, announced "We're making a torpedo run. The outcome is doubtful, but we will do our duty." With smoke as cover, Roberts steamed to within 2.5 nmi (4.6 km; 2.9 mi) of Chōkai, coming under fire from the cruiser's forward 8 in (203 mm) guns.

Roberts had moved so close that the enemy guns could not depress enough to hit her and when in torpedo range, Roberts launched three Mark 15 torpedoes, with one blowing off Chōkai's stern. Roberts fought with the Japanese ships for a further hour, firing more than six hundred 5 in (127 mm) shells, and while maneuvering at very close range, hitting Chōkai's superstructure with her 40 mm and 20 mm anti-aircraft guns.[6][7]

At 08:51, the Japanese landed two hits, the second of which damaged the aft 5 in (127 mm) gun. This damaged gun suffered a breech explosion shortly thereafter which killed and wounded several crew members. With her remaining 5 in (127 mm) gun, Roberts set the bridge of the heavy cruiser Chikuma on fire and destroyed the Number Three gun turret. Roberts was then hit by three 14 in (356 mm) shells from the battleship Kongō, which tore a hole 40 ft (12 m) long and 10 ft (3 m) wide in the port side of her aft engine room.

At 09:35, the order was given to abandon ship. She sank 30 minutes later, with 90 of the crew dying. The 120 survivors of the crew clung to three life rafts for 50 hours before being rescued.

During the battle, Samuel B. Roberts, which was designed for 23–24 kn (43–44 km/h; 26–28 mph), managed 28.7 kn (53.2 km/h; 33.0 mph) by raising pressure to 660 pounds per square inch (4,600 kPa) and diverting all available steam to the ship's turbines.[8]

Samuel B. Roberts was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 27 November 1944.

USS Samuel B. Roberts (DE-413) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

MossRoad · Jun 26, 2022

WOW! Thanks for the link.

May those that went down with the ship rest in peace.

dodge man · Jun 27, 2022

There were several other ships that had similar stories but the Samuel B. Roberts story was the best.

ArlyA · Jun 27, 2022

Locating the Roberts is a plus.

Rich B1 · Jun 27, 2022

Read “Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors”. Good account of the battle. What a badly outgunned task force achieved is remarkable. Was also only time in history a carrier sank another ship with only gunfire.

RIP to some very brave men

Moxie 15 · Jun 27, 2022

Sounds like Captain and Crew got every bit of everything she could give, and she performed exceptionally. I have always wondered were such bravery and devotion comes from in men. And the ship itself seemed to be devoted a small ship taking on a bigger ship, holding together with a hole big enough to drive the biggest truck through for long enough to get most of the crew off. It always makes me wonder

dodge man · Jun 28, 2022

Rich B1. Did you mean the only time a carrier was sunk by gunfire? I know a baby flat top got sunk that day by gunfire. I know planes from the small flat top harassed the Japanese ships that day but they weren’t armed with ordnance to do any major damage.

LS Tractor Owner · Jun 28, 2022

Cool stuff! May those heroes rest peacefully.

bcp · Jun 28, 2022

Fron:

Battle off Samar - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The Battle off Samar has been cited by historians as one of the greatest last stands in naval history; ultimately the Americans prevailed over a massive armada—the Imperial Japanese Navy's Center Force under command of Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita—despite their very heavy casualties and overwhelming odds.
...
Although the battleship Yamato and the remaining force returned to Japan, the battles marked the final defeat of the Imperial Japanese Navy, as the ships remained in port for most of the rest of the war and ceased to be an effective naval force.

Bruce

ArlyA · Jun 28, 2022

dodge man said:
Rich B1. Did you mean the only time a carrier was sunk by gunfire? I know a baby flat top got sunk that day by gunfire. I know planes from the small flat top harassed the Japanese ships that day but they weren’t armed with ordnance to do any major damage.

I don't understand this statement as well. I'd also guess he meant "carrier was sunk by naval gunfire"

coldsteelva · Jun 29, 2022

Fox Nation has a show called Lost Ships of WWII Watch Lost Ships of WW2 Online | Stream Fox Nation that goes through the search/discovery and histories of many of the last remaining undiscovered shipwrecks from WWII.

It was a great documentary series: Indianapolis, Ward, Lexington, Hornet, Juneau, Japanese Musashi, and the Johnston

tallyho8 · Jun 29, 2022

After reading or watching the news reports for the last umpteen years, it is hard to believe that in the last half century, there have probably been fewer deaths caused by wartime than in any other 50 year span in history.

Rich B1 · Jun 30, 2022

The Japanese cruiser Chokai was hit in the torpedo tubes by a 5” shell from the carrier White Planes.

dmccarty · Jun 30, 2022

It was also one of those battles that really should have turned out differently. All the Japanese had to do was to keep pressing their attack and they would have wiped out the light warships protecting the amphibious ships. Then Japanese would have slaughtered the amphibious ships... Thankfully, the Japanese turned back because of the ferocious attack of the aircraft from the baby carriers and suicidal attack of the DDs and DEs.

The irony, and part of the controversy of the battles, was that this was the anniversary of the The Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava. At least this time, the charge into the valley of death accomplished something and was worth the cost.

Later,
Dan

ArlyA · Jun 30, 2022

dmccarty said:
It was also one of those battles that really should have turned out differently. All the Japanese had to do was to keep pressing their attack and they would have wiped out the light warships protecting the amphibious ships. Then Japanese would have slaughtered the amphibious ships... Thankfully, the Japanese turned back because of the ferocious attack of the aircraft from the baby carriers and suicidal attack of the DDs and DEs.

The irony, and part of the controversy of the battles, was that this was the anniversary of the The Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava. At least this time, the charge into the valley of death accomplished something and was worth the cost.

Seems that the Japanese commander thought with all these planes and small ships attaching them, they thought there must be more US carries or capital ships in their vicinity. They had no radar to check so they turned back to protect their remaining capital ships. Fog or war is tough to deal with when you are in the mist of battle.

bcp · Jun 30, 2022

From:

USS Gambier Bay (CVE 73) - BOSAMAR.COM

History of USS Gambier Bay (CVE 73) of Task Unit 77.4.3, Taffy 3 | Powered by liveSite @ https://www.camelback.net

www.bosamar.com

GAMBIER BAY was the only U.S. carrier sunk by naval gunfire in World War II.

Bruce

dmccarty · Jun 30, 2022

ArlyA said:
Seems that the Japanese commander thought with all these planes and small ships attaching them, they thought there must be more US carries or capital ships in their vicinity. They had no radar to check so they turned back to protect their remaining capital ships. Fog or war is tough to deal with when you are in the mist of battle.

Yep. And the Japanese were taking damage. The attack of the aircraft, DDs and DEs, and even the baby carriers, did cause serious damage to the Japanese ships so the Japanese had good reason to think they were tangling with a larger force, especially carrier wise.

When making a decision to carry on an attack, after meeting serious resistance, there can be a very thin line between victory and defeat. Unit commanders have to be, or should be, taking into consideration the price they are paying for the battle and what they are buying, verses with drawing to fight again another day. This is especially true for naval forces where ship losses can take years to replace, if they can be replaced at all.

During WWI, Admiral Jellico was in charge of the British fleet that would meet the German Navy. Churchill said that Admiral Jellico as "the only man on either side who could lose the war in an afternoon."

Jellico was criticized for not being more aggressive during the Battle of Jutland. After the Germans had been forced to retreat, the criticism was that Jellico should have gone after them. The British had to turn away from the Germans when the Germans had fired a screen of torpedoes to allow them to put time and distance between the Royal Navy and the German Navy. The turn away from a torpedo attack was the doctrine and plan so Jellico did what was needed. The critics say that Jellico should have pursued the fleeing Germans even though they had a good head start and a battle would have been fought at night, which would have been a confused mess, and certainly caused friendly fire incidents. The US had this happen in WWII in at least one gun battle around Guadalcanal. Jellico knew all he had to do was turn back the Germans and preserve the British fleet. As long as the British Fleet was preserved, the UK could stay in the war. Without the fleet....

While Jellico would certainly have liked a Mahanian Great Battle of Annihilation to put him on the panthion of Great Admirals along side Nelson, Jellico accepted what he had accomplished. If Jellico had pursued he might have lost enough ships to have lost the war. Jellico made the right decision. If Admiral Beatty had been in charge, not sure the out come would have been as good for the Allies....

Later,
Dan

dodge man · Jul 2, 2022

One thing also the destroyers launched torpedoes. Ship turn sharp to dodge them which tends to scramble and disorganize their formations.

There is a website that shows the reports of the US Navy‘s evaluation of ships that were damaged or sunk in action. Technical in nature but have a lot of photos and honest evaluations of the weaknesses and strength of a ship. I assume Google would find it, there are dozens of reports.

ArlyA · Jul 2, 2022

One thing that mess with your attack, someone shooting torpedoes at you. They say the same thing about aircraft attacking tanks in WWII although the torpedoes they fired have more damage potential.