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By tk *Daufuskie Islanders will have to register golf carts *State officials said Wednesday that the South Island Dredging Association violated its state permit based on preliminary examinations of the water in Calibogue Sound *South Beach sanding project starts *Study shows oceans losing giant fish at alarming rates *Area's toxaphene levels in fish remain murky *Tall ships arrive for festival *A Street beach entrance ramp reopens
Leyte P 16.
Battle off Samar. By the morning of the 25th. of October, 114,000 US troops had swarmed ashore on the Leyte beaches, and about 200,000 tons of supplies had been put ashore. Many of the empty transport ships had left the area, but many more with their full loads were milling around in the vicinity of the landing area. Taffy Three patrolled off the east coast of Samar in support of the troops that had landed at Leyte. At 0630 ( 6.30 AM ) Kurita and his Centre Force had burst through the San Bernandino Strait and were on a course of 170 degrees, heading for the landing beaches, but expecting to run into Halsey's Third Fleet. Lookouts in the Battleship Yamato's crows nest sighted mastheads, and thought they belonged to Carriers from the Third Fleet, never before had they seen mastheads of escort carriers, Kurita was unaware he had run into Rear Admiral Clifton Sprague's Taffy Three Group, 6 escort carriers, 3 destroyers, and 4 destroyer escorts. Indeed a rather puny match for his force. The Yamato's 18 inch main armament fired at the American ships, to splash dangerously close to the flagship Fanshaw Bay, his lookouts reported pagoda type masts, and Sprague knew he was in diabolical trouble, Japanese Battleships had his force under fire. Kinkaid sent off frantic messages to Halsey:-
Halsey responded including where his forces were at the time, to tell Kinkaid his assistance was not possible as his Fleet were too far north, as he had cleared off after Ozawa. In sheer desperation Kinkaid had sent off an uncoded message, ie in plain language.
By now Halsey was seriously alarmed, but now his boss Admiral Chester Nimitz chimed in with:-
Now when sending a coded message it was standard practice to preface and end a message with a nonsense phrase. Hence the beginning " Turkey Trots To War" and " The World Wonders" ending. Normally the person decoding messages would delete both start and ending nonsense sentences, but apparently the signalman doing this job inadvertently left the last phrase "THE WORLD WONDERS." still in the signal given to Halsey. He reportedly became very angry, tearing off his cap, and throwing it on the deck of his bridge, but having taken the decision to chase after Ozawa, he and his Third Fleet were stranded, miles to the north, unable to offer any help to Kinkaid and his forces at Leyte. His 6 fast Battleships were despatched at speed to the south, but arrived a day after the Japanese had departed, too late to be of any use. By sending off his battleships, they could not chase, catch, and destroy Ozawa's battleships, they thus missed out at both ends. If Halsey had but stayed on guard off San Bernandino Straits, there seems little doubt he could have clobbered Kurita's battleships. Now! Follow this link http://www.odyssey.dircon.uk/Halsey_decision.htm to read all about HALSEY"S DECISION, from the US Navy Official History by Samuel Elliott Morison. With the help of smoke from his destroyers and a fortutious rain squall, Taffy Three hid briefly. Between the Jeep aircraft and torpedo attacks by the destroyers the Japanese were mauled, but at a high price. Hoel, Johnston, and Roberts, plus the Escort Carrier Gambier Bay were all sunk, and the remaining 4 destroyers were all badlky damaged. In turn Kurita's force lost, heavy cruisers Suzyo, Chikuma, and Chokai, and Kumano severely severely damaged. At 0923 ( 9.23 AM ) when Taffy Two showed up, Kurita unexpectedly turned to the north and disengaged. At last The Battle of Leyte Gulf was all over, the landing beaches safe, and General MacArthur had " INDEED RETURNED."
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