Wreck of USS Gambier Bay (CVE-73)

 Second World War 1939-1945, military, shipwreck, aircraft carrier, United States Navy

USS Gambier Bay was laid down in July 1943 at the Kaiser Vancouver, WA Shipyard as the 19th Casablanca Class Escort Carrier built for the US Navy, and following her December 1943 commissioning, she departed for service with the US Pacific Fleet.

Standing out for the Marianas Islands for her first combat duty, the Gambier Bay and her crew spent much of June, July and early August lending her aircraft to the US Assaults on Saipan, Tinian and Guam before withdrawing to Manaus Harbor in the Admiralty Islands for repairs and replenishment in preparation for the upcoming assault on the Philippine Islands. Joining the powerful US Amphibious Fleet under Rear Admiral Clifton Sprague, the Gambier Bay formed into a task force consisting of eighteen other Escort Carriers and their escorting Destroyers and Destroyer Escorts which departed for Leyte on October 12th. Arriving off Leyte on the 20th and sending her aircraft up to assist with the largely unopposed landings, Gambier Bay, five other Escort Carriers and their screen of three Destroyers and four Destroyer Escorts were detached to a position Northeast of the landing beaches during the night of October 24th, 1944 where under the callsign of “Taffy 3” they prepared to resume a full day of close air support operations for ground forces meeting progressively stiffer opposition the next morning.

Shortly before dawn on October 25th, 1944 the crew aboard Gambier Bay were preparing their first airstrike flights of the day when reports were received at 0637hrs that a recon flight from the USS St. Lo (CVE-63) had sighted a massive Japanese Naval force steaming directly for the ships of Taffy 3. Validated shortly thereafter by the appearance of several large and onrushing enemy ships on the horizon, the Gambier Bay and her crew had little option but to prepare for immediate battle, with the ship joining her sisters in a formation turn to the South in order to open the distance between themselves and their enemy. Concealed by a thick smokescreen emitted by her own boilers and those of her escorts, the Gambier Bay launched all of her operational aircraft with whatever armament could be strapped to them as she and her sisters dodged in and out of rain squalls to hinder gunners on rapidly closing Japanese ships that were already bracketing her with increasingly accurate fire. After nearly an hour of dogged pursuit, Japanese Battleships and Heavy Cruisers were beginning to score hits on the lightly armored hull of the Gambier Bay, with the first armor-piercing shells passing cleanly through her flight deck and hull at 0810hrs, causing casualties and starting small fires aboard ship but not causing catastrophic damage. With her Stern-mounted 5-inch gun now able to engage her assailants, the Carrier began one of history’s few recorded Aircraft Carrier vs. Heavy Cruiser gunnery duels with the onrushing HIJMS Chikuma, which had closed to within five miles and was lobbing 8-inch shells towards Gambier Bay from point-blank range. Still spared by the Japanese use of AP shells, the Gambier Bay continued her fight until one or more salvoes of 8-inch fire and several 18.1-inch shells fired by the SuperBattleship HIJMS Yamato, the largest naval rifles ever fitted to a warship, tore through the ships engine and boiler rooms and left her rapidly losing power. At roughly the same time, the Japanese ships switched to high-explosive shells and within minutes the hapless ship was riddled with massive holes from accurate and close-quarters Japanese fire as no fewer than three Cruisers moved in to finish her off.

With damage aboard the ship all but total and Japanese shells still slamming into her mortally wounded hull, Gambier Bay’s crew required no abandon ship order as she began to list with increasing speed and the multitude of fires burning throughout the vessel raged out of control. Under fire until her last moments on the surface, USS Gambier Bay rolled over and sank around this location at 0907hrs on October 25th, 1944. Despite the terrific pounding she endured in her last action, 800 of her 930 crew survived her loss and the subsequent two days at sea awaiting rescue.

For her actions in the Battle off Samar, USS Gambier Bay was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation as part of "Taffy 3", and also received four Battle Stars for her service in World War II. Her wreck remains unlocated to this day.

www.navsource.org/archives/03/073.htm