Burial at sea of crewmen killed in action, USS Intrepid, November 1944, during the Phillipines campaign.  An "Essex" class aircraft carrier, Interpid was heavily involved in this campaign, following its involvemenmt in the Marshalls campaign earlier in that year.  The ship's motto - "In Mare in Caelo" translates as "In the Sea, in Heaven".  Best regards, JR.

In Mare in Caelo ...

October 25, 1944

The Battle Off Samar (also known as “The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors) has been cited by historians as one of the greatest military mismatches in naval history. It took place in the Philippine Sea off Samar Island, in the Philippines. It all started when Admiral William Halsey, Jr. was lured into taking his powerful U.S. Third Fleet after a Japanese decoy fleet. He thought this fleet was the main Japanese battle group and if he could catch them, he could destroy what was left of the Japanese navy.

To defend his rear, he left behind only “Taffy 3,” a light screen of destroyers, destroyer escorts, and three escort “baby” carriers. A powerful Japanese surface force of battleships and cruisers thought to have been defeated and in retreat earlier had instead turned around unobserved and came upon the tiny force of tiny ships. With nothing else he could do, Admiral Spruance in command of Taffy 3 gave the order, “Small Boys (meaning destroyers and escorts) attack.” 

With that order Taffy 3′s destroyers and destroyer escort desperately charged forward and attacked with 5 inch guns which could not penetrate even the thinnest armor of the Japanese armada and torpedoes, while carrier aircraft dropped bombs and depth charges, then out of bombs, strafed the bridges of the Japanese heavy ships. While the Americans suffered more losses in ships and men than were lost at the Battle of Midway, they caused so much damage and confusion to convince the Japanese commander, Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita thought he had stumbled upon the lead element of Halsey’s main fleet. Fearing for his forces, he ordered his ships to regroup and ultimately withdraw rather than advancing to sink troop and supply ships at Leyte Gulf. Taffy 3’s bold defense in the face of overwhelmingly superior firepower saved the invasion of the Phillippines.



The Battle Off Samar

F4U-1A Corsair of VF-24 on the ground at Roi-Namur Kwajelein piloted by Charles Lindbergh.
 Charles Lindbergh, was a “Tech Rep” for United Aircraft’s Chance Vought Division, Lindbergh wanted to go to the Pacific. The Navy was more than willing and agreed with him that his status should be exactly like that of any other Technical Representative.
 His mission was to “study the performance of fighter planes under combat conditions” and to improve their design and the designs of newer types. To his logical mind, there was only one way to study a fighter plane “under combat conditions” and that was to fly on combat missions.
 Lindbergh went on many missions in F4U Corsairs, took part in strafing raids, flew cover for bombers and did some special bombing to show just what a F4U Corsair could do. He then sent reports back to Vought for the engineers to study.(rudeerude)