The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors: The Extraordinary World War II Story of the U.S. Navy's Finest Hour

by James D. Hornfischer

With the Johnston out of the way, Kurita faced a clear path to his mission objective in Leyte Gulf. Having weathered the gallant assault by Admiral Sprague’s screen—having absorbed and mostly shrugged off the thirty-nine torpedoes they had put into the water ahead of him—he was ready to make his long-planned assault on San Pedro Bay. The Heermann was still around somewhere but wouldn’t make much trouble with its ten torpedoes gone. The destroyer escort John C. Butler, unable to form up with its fellow DEs when Sprague ordered them to attack at 7:50, remained on station making smoke astern the carriers. Its three fish would not have done much to stop Kurita in any event. Admiral Stump’s Taffy 2, having already been the target of ranging salvos from the Haruna, would be next on the Center Force’s list of targets: six jeep carriers with their own seven-ship screen of destroyers and destroyer escorts. With Taffy 3’s carriers sunk and unable to help Taffy 2, Stump’s task unit would be all the easier to brush aside.