I'm in a bit of a heated debate at the moment with a gentleman who asserts, thus far without providing any proof whatsoever, that the anecdote of Taffy 3 Avengers and Wildcats at the Battle off Samar taking off primarily armed with what was at hand--anti-ground high explosive bombs and depth charges--is a "myth".
He alleges that:
Firstly, and frankly this is a tired old myth that need to start dying. The first waves were armed as such because it was what was at hand. Follow on waves were armed for anti-ship operations. Or am I mistakenly thinking 3 heavy cruisers were sunk primarily by air attack?
Secondly, why are we forced to assume a naval task force carrying out a very different type of operation wouldn't be armed for anti-ship operations from the get go?
And Taffy 3's inability to conduct recovery and rearmament operations somehow means they carried zero anti-ship weapons in their stores? If Taffy 2 had them, then so did Taffy 3.
The implication is that aircraft from Taffy 3 were certainly re-armed with anti-ship ordnance later in the day, and that they may possibly have flown from the decks of their CVE's with anti-ship armament in the first place that morning.
I've never read anything to this effect. I've always heard that the aircraft of Taffy 3 attacked the Combined Fleet predominantly with light bombs, machine guns, and even depth charges.
My question is twofold:
Were aircraft from Taffy 3 armed with anti-ship weapons when they were first sent into the air from their escort carriers' decks at the opening of the battle?
Were aircraft from Taffy 3 at any point re-armed with anti-ship weapons at either Tacloban or aboard Taffy 2? (It's my impression that aircraft from Taffy 3 were redirected to land and not re-armed aboard Taffy 2, but I am not certain).
I am aware that aircraft from Taffy 2 arriving later in the battle were indeed properly equipped to face capital ships, with torpedo-armed Avengers credited with sinking Chikuma. That's not my question--I'm wondering about the aircraft of Taffy 3.
A specific question, but hopefully that should make it a simple matter to resolve. Thanks!
So it is kinda true, but it is wrong to imply these later rearming played any large role
Especially because the timeline is critical.
Between about 630-645 both forces begin to be aware of each other.
Then from about 7-730 or so Taffy 3 was on an Easterly course both to hide in a nearby rain squall, but to place their bows into the wind to allow the slow CVE's to launch what aircraft they could.
As the ranges closed, and the squall was passed through the task force came well round running first to the South and then further to the Southwest. The goal being to extend the stern chase as long as possible.
But even fast fleet carriers often found it difficult to conduct flight operations that far out of the wind. The cross winds make it exceedingly difficult to both land and takeoff for the pilots. And while the risks of fueling and arming on a flight deck under fire had to be born to launch those aircraft that could in the first rush to clear the decks, to continue to do so was bordering on asking for disaster.
So for the next 1:45 or so the run to the South occurs. Then Kurita brings his force about shortly before 9:30 and it relieves the immediate pressure of the task force. While this was a break it doesnt mean the decks were immediately open for business. Many had damage that needed to be repaired to the flight deck before aircraft could be landed.
However those more lightly damaged carriers did take aboard several from those in no shape to. Other aircraft limped to Taffy 2, or to airfields ashore. Included in this were 4 Avengers that made it to the Saint Lo which were immediately taken below to the hanger deck to have torpedoes loaded on them while more aircraft were landed and parked forward on the flight deck. Then when the Avengers were ready those would either be relaunched or struck below. These second sorties though were not really in position to do much, by the time they were ready Kurita was widening the gap, and soon after around 1045 a massed Kamikaze force appeared over the force, damaging several ships and sinking the Saint Lo.
However they very much did not have any sort of time to arm anything that morning with torpedoes. And AP bombs is actually an interesting question on if many were aboard. While Avengers could and sometimes did serve as level or glide bombers, it was far from ideal, and seeing as non of the CVE's had SBD's aboard it is a worthwhile question on how many would have been carrier. You can only carry so many tons of ordnance after all. While some of the carriers were unable to even launch all the aircraft they had aboard in the initial scramble, which should speak to how frantic it was. And we should note none of the rearmed Taffy 3 aircraft are credited with further damage to the enemy with torpedoes for the Avengers in particular.
Or am I mistakenly thinking 3 heavy cruisers were sunk primarily by air attack?
While yeah he is being a cheeky ass here, the attribution of the base causes of losses for all three CA's has never really been challenged much.
Suzuya is damaged first by a near miss bomb ruining a propeller, then later in the day again by Avengers as level bombers (which as we see were not very accurate at best of times). This time a near miss damages and causes her amidship torpedoes to explode causing fatal damage. This was something that cost the IJN multiple ships during the war, their torpedoes were deadly to the enemy and themselves if exposed to attack.
Chokai of course has the dubious honor of having either her mounted torpedoes in the tubes, or reloads possibly, hit and detonated by a 5in shell from White Plains.
And Chikuma was of course as you say hunted down by torpedo armed Avengers from Taffy 2.
There's a very very good book on this subject called The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors. It mainly follows the destroyers and destroyer escorts in Taffy 3, but touches on the aircraft and other ships in the battle. I don't remember exactly, but I think they were armed with conventional weaponry (HE bombs, etc.) Because they didn't expect the entire Japanese navy to come from the North where they were stationed. They may have rearmed sometime during the battle once they figured out what was going on, but I don't remember exactly. I would suggest reading the book, it gives alot of insight on the battle