Battle off Samar (A Leyte-öböl körzetében folyó csaták legfontosabb része)
Three destroyers and four smaller destroyer escorts had been tasked to protect the escort carriers from aircraft and submarines. The three Fletcher-class destroyers—affectionately nicknamed "tin cans" because they lacked armor—were fast enough to keep up with a fast carrier task force. They had five single 5 in (130 mm) guns and light antiaircraft guns which were not designed to take on armored warships. Only their ten 21 in (530 mm) Mark-15 torpedoes—housed in two swiveling five-tube launchers amidships—posed a serious threat to battleships and cruisers. Destroyer escorts like the Samuel B. Roberts were even smaller and slower, since they had been designed to protect slow freighter convoys against submarines. These destroyer escorts had two 5 in (130 mm) guns without automatic fire control, they carried only three torpedoes, and their crews were rarely trained for torpedo attacks. Since the torpedoes only had a range of about 5.5 nmi (6.3 mi; 10.2 km), they were best used at night. During daylight, an attacker would have to pass through a gauntlet of shellfire that could reach out to 25 nmi (29 mi; 46 km). In this battle, they would be launched against a fleet led by the largest battleship in history.
After laying down smoke to hide the carriers from Japanese gunners, they were soon making desperate torpedo runs. The ship profiles and aggressiveness caused the Japanese to think they were cruisers and full-sized destroyers. Their lack of armor tended to aid clean penetration of armor piercing rounds before Japanese gunners switched to high-explosive shells, which caused much more extensive damage. Their speed and agility enabled some ships to dodge shellfire completely before launching torpedoes. Effective damage control and redundancy in propulsion and power systems kept them running and fighting even after absorbing dozens of hits before sinking, although the decks would be littered with the dead and seriously wounded. Destroyers from Taffy 2 to the south also found themselves under shellfire, but as they were spotted by Gambier Bay, which had signaled for their assistance, they were ordered back to protect their own carriers.