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formed on 20 October, the day of the Leyte in vas ion. Its purpose was to neutrali ze US nava l air power. The results of the first attacks on the Tas k Group 77.4 carriers five days later were a strong inducement to expand operations. However, whereas there were more than enough volunteers, there were very few planes left. In the three months that the Philippines campaign contin ued, those few planes wou ld, for the most part, be used for the purpose, with notable results. Over 60 US ships were crashed with appalling loss in human life . It was an omen of things to come. By the end of the war in August 1945, the Kamikaze were responsible for sinking 34 US ships
and damag ing 288 others. The trial of the surviving ships of Taffy 3 fin all y came to an end after the suicide attacks in the late morning of 25 October. However, the trial of crew members who had abandoned the sinking ships contin ued fo r some time longer. Vessels were sent to the area in which the battle was fought to search for survivors almost immediately after the battle, but without positive results. Strong currents in the area had taken the survivors fifty mi Jes from the battle site, and it was not until the nightof26 October that they were di scovered . By that time they had spent over forty hours in the water, harassed by hungry sharks and ever fearful
of be ing fou nd by a merciless enemy.
How Could It Have Happened? What terribl e mi stake was made that all owed Kurita to appearoffSamar? The question has been considered many times over by naval hi storians and in the literature on the battle. A simple answer is that the fa ult lay with the divided US command structure. Admiral Halsey was responsible to Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander Central Pacific. Vice Admiral Kinkaid was under General Douglas MacArthur, Commander Southeast Pacific. While there was cooperation between the Third and the Seventh Fleets in the Leyte operation, there was no ultimate
At 1030 the first Kamikaze suicide planes roared overhead . ...
Samar marked rhe first appearance of/he Kamika~e suicide plane. At righl, a Japanese Zeke makes a dive on escort carrierWhite Plains. This picture was taken momenls before impact. Al far rig/11, the esco rt carrier St. Lois engulfed in flames after a direcr hil from a Kamikaze.
SEA HISTORY 71 , AUTUMN 1994
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