USS White Plains – Survivor of Taffy 3

preview_player
Показать описание
In today's video, we'll be looking at the third of the famous escort carriers of Samar. USS White Plains, perhaps best known for something that has since been disproved.

Landing a hit on Chokai that detonated the cruiser's torpedoes. Something that has been proven wrong, due to the discovery of Chokai's wreck. With intact torpedo tubes.

Regardless, White Plains remains an interesting ship. She took a pounding off Samar, including a near-miss from Yamato herself. And beyond that, White Plains had a busy 1944 in general. Mostly on secondary roles, to be sure, but she still put in work.

We'll look at that, in this video.

Further Reading:
Рекомендации по теме
Комментарии
Автор

My old buddy, Red, from Grand Forks, ND, would be very pleased that you did a video on his ship. He joined the Navy in February 1942 and served aboard the USS White Plains for her entire tour of duty, and his. He was shocked in the 1980s when I was able to identify from memory what his ship had accomplished during the war but I was a history student at the local UND so I had an unfair advantage over the average college punk. He took the time to tell me all of his stories at least once - I was his bartender, it's how I paid for college back then.

joethegeographer
Автор

I worked for the chamber of commerce in White Plains 80's thru 90's and have the opportunity of visiting city hall which has many of the photos that you have shown. a tough little ship that gave as much as she got.

edwardmurray
Автор

IIRC, that near-miss from the Yamato so jolted White Plains' engines a=that she bean to make thick smoke on top of that ordered by her captain. The amount of smoke she was emitting convinced the Japanese she was done for, which is why they left her alone for the rest of the battle.

seanbigay
Автор

Great video Skynea, those CVEs and their crews are unsung heroes. Ferry duty and training isn't glamorous but was vital to the war effort.
I love learning more about the escort carriers.

Straswa
Автор

Fantastic episode about one of the most heroic battles of WWII by the US Navy. Taffy 3 shows you don’t have to be big to be mighty.
All aspects of this battle, from the US Naval Aviators dropping what ever ordnance that had aboard on the Japanese to the US destroyer escorts taking on some of largest remaining Japanese ships, will make you wonder, “Where did we get such brave men?”
I would highly recommend reading James D. Hornfischer’s book, “Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors”. It is riveting in its narrative of the battle.

robertbenson
Автор

i grew up, and still live around Vancouver. the old slipways are still around

bradbechlyb
Автор

Man those little escort carriers did everything from combat to performing the heavy lifting jobs. A real swiss army knife...or swiss navy knife i reckon 😂

robwernet
Автор

On the one hand, I so desperately wish for a movie of this one, single naval action.
On the other, I know that Hollywood wouldn't do it justice.

CaptainSeato
Автор

It would be cool if you did USS Killen. My grandfather served on her and she helped sink the Yamashiro. He told me all kinda tales about her Borneo adventures with Australian species ops.

robmcelwee
Автор

Another great vid!! Never knew the full story of USS White Plains. Keep it up!!

BrockRuby
Автор

Very professionally and well done, Sirs!!

;-]

Thank you and RIP USS White Plains - The Little Known Hero of WW2

rickmo
Автор

For self-defence the ship also carried a single dog.

MyRuno
Автор

It’s kind of sad that the 6 Carriers get ignored so much. While Johnston and the Destroyers bravely charged the massive Japanese fleet giving the Carriers breathing room. It really was the carrier aircraft that drove off Kurita and his fleet. The planes kept the Japanese fleet constantly maneuvering defensively. Even without proper anti ship weapons. At first. Yeah everyone knows they were dropping land attack bombs, napalm and even depth charges on Kurita’s battleships. What everyone misses is the planes of Taffy 2 and Taffy 1 were showing up better armed. And Taffy 3’s planes were ducking up to Taffy 2 to reload. Some of them landed and launched 6 times. Getting more of whatever they could carry to throw at the Japanese ships. And Taffy 1’s planes even had enough time to grab a handful of torpedos. That was Kurita’s nightmare. He had already had his flagship torpedo’d out from under him, and lost the Musashi to American aircraft. He had just learned that Toyota’s promise of air cover was a lie. Shinohara was dead in Surigao Strait along with Fuso and Yamashiro. If he turned into the confined waters of Leyte without air cover he was defenseless against torpedos. He may have only been facing Escort carriers. But he was facing the full air groups of 18 of them. Over 400 planes.

andrewtaylor
Автор

Diving shells were a feature of japanese artillery they had been researching since the firing trials on Tosa in the 1920s. Basically short shots could be induced by a special shape of the ballistic cone to move towards the target underwater and impact below the armor belt. The one event where this definitely happened was at Cape Esperance when such a diving hit by a shell from Kinugasa took out Boise's forward turrets and nearly blew up the magazines. But I guess the underwater explosion beneath White Plains was a diving 46 cm shell as well even if it was sort of an accidental hit

JGCR
Автор

The term Hero is overused, but Taffy 3 was heroic in extreme.

malcolmgibson
Автор

Self defense was buy a single 15 lb dog.

Absaalookemensch
Автор

I think it's kind of funny that the battle still gets a "David vs Goliath" tilt to it, when the 16 escort carriers involved from the three Taffys had about the same number of aircraft (around 448 aircraft) that the Japanese fleet fielded in The Battle of the Philippine Sea (around 431 aircraft), which is also the most planes they fielded during a carrier battle. Don't get me wrong, the crews of all of the Taffy 3 ships were very brave and did their duty to the utmost, but it's certainly not as one-sided as so many history books make out.

torgover-ln
Автор

This is a story that’s begging for a cinematic adaptation, it has everything Hollywood loves, big Naval battle, heroic last stands, Brave suicidal attacks, David versus Goliath, Gallantry and sacrifice and a miraculous, victorious ending…the making of a epic motion picture!

blewis
Автор

My Father Kenneth McLaughlin served on USS Gambier Bay

markmclaughlin
Автор

FYI explosions underneath a surface ship can crack or break the hull due to displacement of water which normally supports the ships mass leaving a pocket the ship starts to fall into before the water returns hitting it hard in the opposite direction. This is the preferred method for sinking ships with torpedoes today.

donaldhill