Editing Escort carrier (section)

===Battle off Samar===

{{Main|Battle off Samar}}
[[File:LeyteGambierBayStraddle.jpg|right|thumb|{{USS|Gambier Bay|CVE-73|6}}, burning from earlier gunfire damage, is bracketed by a salvo from a Japanese [[heavy cruiser]] (faintly visible in the background, center-right) shortly before sinking during the Battle off Samar.]]
A battle in which escort carriers played a major role was the Battle off Samar in the Philippines on 25 October 1944. The Japanese lured Admiral [[William Halsey, Jr.]] into chasing a decoy fleet with his powerful [[United States Third Fleet|3rd Fleet]]. This left about 450 aircraft from 16 small and slow escort carriers in three task units ("Taffies"), armed primarily to bomb ground forces, and their protective screen of destroyers and slower [[destroyer escort]]s to protect undefended troop and supply ships in Leyte Gulf. No Japanese threat was believed to be in the area, but a force of four [[battleship]]s, including the formidable {{Ship|Japanese battleship|Yamato||2}},<ref>{{cite journal |last=Schultz |first=L. R. |date=Spring 1977 |title=COMINT and the Torpedoing of the Battleship Yamato |journal=Cryptologic Spectrum |pages=20–23 |url= https://www.nsa.gov/Portals/70/documents/news-features/declassified-documents/cryptologic-spectrum/comint_and_the_torpedoing.pdf |publisher=[[National Security Agency]] |location=Fort Meade, Maryland |access-date=5 April 2021}}</ref> eight [[cruiser]]s, and 11 destroyers, appeared, sailing towards Leyte Gulf. Only the Taffies were in the way of the Japanese attack.

The slow carriers could not outrun {{convert|30|knot|mph km/h|adj=on}} cruisers. They launched their aircraft and maneuvered to avoid shellfire, helped by smoke screens, for over an hour. "Taffy 3" bore the brunt of the fight. The Taffy ships took dozens of hits, mostly from armor-piercing rounds that passed right through their thin, unarmored hulls without exploding. {{USS|Gambier Bay|CVE-73|6}}, sunk in this action, was the only U.S. carrier lost to enemy surface gunfire in the war; the Japanese concentration of fire on this one carrier assisted the escape of the others. The carriers' only substantial armament—aside from their aircraft—was a single {{convert|5|inch|mm|adj=on|0}} [[dual-purpose gun]] mounted on the stern, but the pursuing Japanese cruisers closed to within range of these guns. One of the guns damaged the burning Japanese heavy cruiser {{Ship|Japanese cruiser|Chōkai||2}}, and a subsequent bomb dropped by an aircraft hit the cruiser's forward machinery room, leaving her dead in the water. A ''[[kamikaze]]'' attack sank {{USS|St Lo|CVE-63|6}}; ''kamikaze'' aircraft attacking other ships were shot down. Ultimately the superior Japanese surface force withdrew, believing they were confronted by a stronger force than was the case. Most of the damage to the Japanese fleet was inflicted by torpedoes fired by destroyers, and bombs from the carriers' aircraft.

The U.S. Navy lost a similar number of ships and more men than in the [[Battle of the Coral Sea|battles of the Coral Sea]] and [[Battle of Midway|Midway]] combined (though major fleet carriers were lost in the other battles).

[[File:Gambierbaymodel.jpg|thumb|Model of the [[Casablanca-class escort carrier|''Casablanca''-class]] ''[[USS Gambier Bay|Gambier Bay]]'' at [[USS Midway (CV-41)|USS ''Midway'' museum]]]]