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original and 1 more drawn by sakurato_tsuguhi

Artist's commentary

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    The Blue-Eyed Brute Ship

    When speaking of ships that charge into enemy formations alone and go absolutely berserk, first to mind are the likes of Yuudachi or Ayanami...

    ...But such fools exist in America as well.

    In the Battle off Samar, as part the American fleet group known as Taffy 3, a single destroyer escort guarding a carrier encountered overwhelming odds and naval power in the form of the Kurita Fleet - known as the Decisive Battle Fleet.
    Yet, this solitary destroyer escort charged headlong into the formation of her enemy's fleet, using smokescreens and rain squalls as cover to run wild.
    She targeted Choukai and, plunging right into the thick of things, rained every shell she had at hand onto Choukai's bridge. Furthermore, she also attacked Haguro, Tone, and Chikuma, and - if the stories are to be believed - scored a torpedo hit against Chikuma, destroying one of her gun turrets.
    It took a bombardment from Kongou to halt her rampage, and only under the combined firepower of the 17th Destroyer Division was she sunk beneath the ocean.

    Really, Yuudachi and Ayanami have plenty of strength as surface combatants, but all this girl had was a pair of 5-inch single-turret guns and one triple torpedo launcher. Her performance was totally above her weight class as a mere destroyer escort, huh? For real.

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    NWSiaCB
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    It's worth noting that KanColle doesn't generally bother with escorts and support ships, other than ones that were refitted into "no really, Ryuuhou's a front-line ship and not an escort, we swear!"

    I'd guess DEs might be kindergartener-level girls, although she's actually at around the same tonnage as the Mutsuki-class. (Although she was significantly slower...)

    Also worth noting is that, in spite of her "fought like a battleship" moniker, she didn't actually sink any enemy ships, herself. She significantly damaged Choukai with a torpedo and hit the bridge and disabled the third gun of Chikuma with gunfire, but Chikuma was sunk by torpedo plane. Choukai, of all things, was the only ship ever sunk by direct fire from a carrier's guns when White Plains hit her torpedo rack, causing a chain reaction that sank her.

    Roberts's heroism is more in bull-charging ships that vastly outclassed her and taking extraordinary amounts of gunfire to sink (including direct hits from Kongo blowing 40-foot holes in her). Basically, damage control worked on Roberts until there was more hole in the ship than ship left.

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    • WhiskeyWolf
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    NWSiaCB said:

    Also worth noting is that, in spite of her "fought like a battleship" moniker, she didn't actually sink any enemy ships, herself. She significantly damaged Choukai with a torpedo and hit the bridge and disabled the third gun of Chikuma with gunfire, but Chikuma was sunk by torpedo plane. Choukai, of all things, was the only ship ever sunk by direct fire from a carrier's guns when White Plains hit her torpedo rack, causing a chain reaction that sank her.

    The "fought like a battleship" line has more to do with the fact of the odds she - along with three Fletcher-class DDs - was facing when it came down to slowing down Kurita's advance.

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    • Eboreg
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    NWSiaCB said:
    She ... hit the bridge and disabled the third gun of Chikuma with gunfire....

    She did a heck of lot more than that! Her rapid-firing five-inch guns straight up MAULED the Chikuma like a rabid wolverine tearing up some hapless deer, so much that the combined weight of firepower forced the Japanese to scuttle her while getting away. Make no mistake about it. This. Girl. Is. Vicious.

    Updated by Eboreg

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    • sgcdonmai
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    Artist has a few details mixed up in the history (see artist commentary) but he's got the gist of things right.

    Also worth noting is that Samuel B. Roberts managed to thwart an attempted submarine torpedo attack and sowed significant confusion in the Kurita Fleet's formation. She may not have scored any kills in the engagement, but there's more that counts in contributing to a fleet action - especially a suicidally-desparate counteroffensive like the Battle off Samar - than just number of hulls brought low.

    She, Johnston, Hoel, Heermann, and White Plains were all they had to defend a Marine landing force at Samar against a force consisting of several heavy cruisers, submarines, battleships, and - off in the distance - the great Yamato herself. They fought like absolute demons, to the point that Kurita turned tail. Likely, he believed that such a minor American fleet would only fight so bravely if they had the assurance of a much larger battlegroup heading in to reinforce them, and he couldn't risk Yamato against the prospect of the US Navy's main carrier group.

    Pretty impressive feat, for a little frigate that was mainly designed to fight submarines, working as part of a dinky little escort detail.

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    • WhiskeyWolf
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    You_Will_Fear_my_Laser_Nipples said:

    I seem to recall there being another destroyer or something that had the same tittle?

    Am I mistaken or right?

    You are thinking about the third ship carrying this name that was also famous - USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58), the Oliver Hazard Perry-class guided missile frigate.

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