The Destroyer Escort That Fought Like a Battleship

USS Samuel B. Roberts. Hull number 413. John C. Butler-class destroyer escort. Assigned to the Pacific, United States Navy 7th fleet in World War 2. During the Allied push into the Philippines, the Samuel B. Roberts was assigned to an escort task unit that primarily provided air support to troops on the ground, and anti-submarine patrols.

Due to a successful Japanese diversion, the main US navy fleet was drawn out of position, leaving the way open for a force of Japanese battleships, cruisers, and destroyers to attack the vulnerable beachhead. The Japanese force however encountered the Samuel B. Roberts and the other twelve ships of the same task unit, numbering six small escort aircraft carriers, three destroyers, and four destroyer escorts, the Sammy B and her sister ships. The American task force massed approximately 70,000 tons, and with the air wing equipped primarily with depth charges and anti-personnel bombs, their most powerful weapons were the five-inch guns and mk15 torpedoes. The Japanese task unit displaced in excess of 300,000 tons, and their most powerful weapons were the 18.1 inch guns aboard the Yamato, the largest-bore naval guns ever on the heaviest battleship ever constructed.

Despite being impossibly outgunned, the sailors and aviators of the task unit - radio callsign Taffy 3 - fought valiantly. Assisted by aircraft squadrons from other carrier units, they succeeded in keeping the Japanese scattered and disorganized. Using torpedoes and radar-assisted gunnery, the American fleet crippled multiple Japanese vessels, and forced the eventual withdrawal of the remainder.

The smallest of the ships to break escort formation and carry out attacks against the Japanese fleet, the Samuel B. Roberts spent over an hour trading shots with ships anywhere from ten to thirty times her tonnage. Though the Samuel B. Roberts did not survive the battle, it inflicted considerable damage with its torpedoes and intrepid gunnery. It is known within the United States Navy as "The destroyer escort that fought like a battleship," and was succeeded by two other ships sharing its name, including a guided missile frigate that had a frighteningly close call with an Iranian naval mine in the Persian Gulf in 1988.

This is a model kit I recently finished. It began life intended as a Rudderrow-class destroyer escort, DE-684, USS DeLong. I was unable to find a model of the Samuel B. Roberts or even a Butler-class escort, and so went with the nearest thing I could find. Fortunately, the only technical difference between the two classes of escort are that Butlers used steam turbines for propulsion, while Rudderrows used engines.