*pssst* Basically every American destroyer and destroyer escort in the Battle Off Samar was sunk with massive casualties, and most of the Japanese ships managed to retreat, with the exception of a few heavy cruisers that were sunk explicitly because of their torpedo launchers. As epic as the battle was, it was more a heroic death that denied the Japanese the overwhelming victory that they, based upon their on-paper overwhelming advantage, should have had.
Besides, 1-1-1 seems more akin to the actions taken in very early 1942, when the Japanese were attacking Dutch colonies and American ships that were hopelessly unprepared for war.
Basically every American destroyer and destroyer escort in the Battle Off Samar was sunk with massive casualties.
It wasn't a total wipe out, 3 destroyer escorts which providing the smokescreen for the escort carriers, 4 escort carriers that were trying to get away from the Center Force, and USS Heermann DD-532, one of the ships that charged the Japanese fleet, managed to survived the attack. 2 destroyers, 1 destroyer escorts and 2 escort carriers were sank in battle.
If Admiral Kurita did decided to annihilate Taffy 3 and penetrated through Leyte. The Center Force will probably encountering Task Force 34 that had recently realized that they were fooled by the Northern Force which is moving at flank speed to assist the Invasion Force at Leyte. The fleet carriers from the Task Force 38, and the Battleship Line that had been protecting the Surigao Strait and recently annihilated the Southern Force. Though Admiral Halsey will be in really big trouble if that happens.
And beside, Taffy 3 really did a huge favor to the USN since being there did minimized the potential damaged will cause if the two strongest fleets did clash, and if the TF-34 didn't took the bait (or if there weren't any confusion in the radio waves), there will be the supposed Battle of San Bernardino Strait.
Also, the i-class here is probably USS Edsall DD-219.
It wasn't a total wipe out, 3 destroyer escorts which providing the smokescreen for the escort carriers, 4 escort carriers that were trying to get away from the Center Force, and USS Heermann DD-532, one of the ships that charged the Japanese fleet, managed to survived the attack. 2 destroyers, 1 destroyer escorts and 2 escort carriers were sank in battle.
If Admiral Kurita did decided to annihilate Taffy 3 and penetrated through Leyte. The Center Force will probably encountering Task Force 34 that had recently realized that they were fooled by the Northern Force which is moving at flank speed to assist the Invasion Force at Leyte. The fleet carriers from the Task Force 38, and the Battleship Line that had been protecting the Surigao Strait and recently annihilated the Southern Force. Though Admiral Halsey will be in really big trouble if that happens.
And beside, Taffy 3 really did a huge favor to the USN since being there did minimized the potential damaged will cause if the two strongest fleets did clash, and if the TF-34 didn't took the bait (or if there weren't any confusion in the radio waves), there will be the supposed Battle of San Bernardino Strait.
Also, the i-class here is probably USS Edsall DD-219.
The carrier escorts were trying to do nothing but retreat from the start. It's pretty bad that 2 didn't manage to get away in and of itself.
Other than that, TF34 (incidentally, led by Rear Admiral John McCain Sr.) didn't so much "realize they were fooled" as "eventually were fed up and disobeyed Hallsey's orders, and went off to fight Kurita on their own while Hallsey had a cry in his room". If TF34 were properly formed and sent the moment the central force was detected, it's estimated they probably could have been there in time to have joined the engagement and defeated far more of Kurita's forces.
(Which is to say it's not entirely Kurita's fault for not recklessly charging ahead - he had no particular way of knowing how reckless and stubborn Hallsey would be, and was risking the bulk of the naval might of the IJN.)
The carrier escorts were trying to do nothing but retreat from the start. It's pretty bad that 2 didn't manage to get away in and of itself.
The escort carriers did contributed in the fight (perhaps, they had the biggest contribution), by launching every planes they have (this also includes Taffy 1 and 2) and swarmed it around the Center Force, it created an overwhelming confusion that had Admiral Kurita ordered a retreat. This also sank some of the heavy cruisers by strafing their torpedoes.
The escort carriers somehow played a very valuable role in the invasion since they were tasked to provide air cover for the ground troops in the island during the landings. The whole operation will be in peril if they've lost most of the escort carriers around Leyte. (It will be like how the Marines were pissed off when Fletcher pulled out the carriers during Guadalcanal).
In addition, USS Gambier Bay CVE-73 would been the only carrier lost in the fight (note that she was the only American carrier that had been sank by gunfire). If USS St. Lo CVE-63 wasn't struck by a Kamikaze (note that she was the first ship that was sank by it).
The escort carriers did contributed in the fight (perhaps, they had the biggest contribution), by launching every planes they have (this also includes Taffy 1 and 2) and swarmed it around the Center Force, it created an overwhelming confusion that had Admiral Kurita ordered a retreat. This also sank some of the heavy cruisers by strafing their torpedoes.
The escort carriers somehow played a very valuable role in the invasion since they were tasked to provide air cover for the ground troops in the island during the landings. The whole operation will be in peril if they've lost most of the escort carriers around Leyte. (It will be like how the Marines were pissed off when Fletcher pulled out the carriers during Guadalcanal).
In addition, USS Gambier Bay CVE-73 would been the only carrier lost in the fight (note that she was the only American carrier that had been sank by gunfire). If USS St. Lo CVE-63 wasn't struck by a Kamikaze (note that she was the first ship that was sank by it).
The carriers weren't exactly participating directly, however. (And especially as the whole reason this got brought up was talking about a lone destroyer making a stand...) Most of the aircraft on the carriers were actually getting rearmed from runways on land, (and the land-based air strips were the ones they were flying to because the carriers didn't have any bombs for attacking ships) making the carriers more target than combatant at that point.
(Well, OK, so there was some direct participation in the sense that Samar was the only battle where a carrier actually landed direct gunfire on an enemy ship with its rear-mounted "stinger" cannon - potentially knocking out Choukai no less - but "I got a lucky hit in while making a panicked retreat" isn't nearly as heroic a victory as people tend to make it out to be.)
The aircraft definitely made a telling difference in general, however, but that still doesn't corroborate the original claim here - that a lone destroyer can somehow hold off a large Japanese task force (much less 6 carriers...) on its own.
Most of the aircraft on the carriers were actually getting rearmed from runways on land, (and the land-based air strips were the ones they were flying to because the carriers didn't have any bombs for attacking ships)...
Those planes were carrier-based aircraft which took off from the carriers, they were only ordered to proceed to Tacloban Airfield to rearm and refuel once they've done their purpose (while some continued fighting until they run dry), the only weapons the carrier planes to bear were their machine guns, a few rockets and torpedoes and depth charges, some of them took off without carrying any weapons.
Meanwhile most of the American land-based planes (most were P-38s) during that time were still busy intercepting and engaging incoming Japanese land-based planes coming from different airfields within the archipelago.