Osprey - Air Campaign 029 - The Kamikaze Campaign 1944-45.pdf

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Author’s Dedication
To my mother, Betty Lardas, who went to join my late father on March 28,
2021.
Ave atque vale.
AIR
CAMPAIGN
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
CHRONOLOGY
ATTACKER’S CAPABILITIES
DEFENDER’S CAPABILITIES
CAMPAIGN OBJECTIVES
THE CAMPAIGN
AFTERMATH AND ANALYSIS
FURTHER READING
INTRODUCTION
It had already been one hell of a morning for crews manning the ships of the
Seventh Fleet’s Task Unit 77.4.1 on October 25, 1944. Best known by its call
sign, Taffy 1, it was one of three escort carrier groups providing air cover for
US invasion troops on the Leyte beachhead. It consisted of Sangamon-class
escort carriers
Sangamon, Santee,
and
Suwannee,
Casablanca-class carrier
Petrof Bay,
destroyers
McCord, Trathen,
and
Hazelwood,
and destroyer
escorts
Edmonds, Richard C. Bull, Richard M. Rowell, Eversole,
and
Coolbaugh.
A kamikaze crashed on the flight deck of the fleet carrier
Essex
(CV-9) just forward of the
Number 2 elevator during attacks on November 25, 1944. (AC)
A Japanese warship force, including two battleships, had just attempted a
failed attack on the Allied invasion fleet off the Leyte Gulf beaches. Most
were sunk the previous night in the Surigao Strait by a US battle line
guarding the strait, primarily made up of battleships present at Pearl Harbor.
As dawn broke, Taffy 1 launched a mixed strike of Hellcat fighters and
Avenger torpedo bombers to hunt down the retreating survivors.
An hour after that strike left, Admiral Thomas Sprague, commanding all
three escort carrier groups, present aboard Taffy 1 escort carrier USS
Sangamon,
learned that Taffy 3, 130 miles north, was under attack. Admiral
Kurita’s Center Force, including
Yamato
and three other battleships, had
come through the San Bernardino Strait and were shelling the light-skinned

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