The Twilight Warriors Read Online Free PDF

again came under attack from U.S. carrier planes. Though his warships took more damage, Kurita managed to escape with most of his fleet intact.
    The Battle of Leyte Gulf was a crushing defeat for the Imperial Japanese Navy. Conventional weapons and tactics had failed to inflict serious damage on the American fleet. But on the morning of October 25, 1944, while Kurita’s warships were in full retreat,Lieutenant Seki’s unconventional weapons were headed for their targets.

    T his time Seki was determined that he would not return. His five bomb-laden Zero
tokko
aircraft were escorted by four conventional fighters. They would comb the ocean to the east of the Philippines, and if they failed to find the carriers, they would strike at the flotilla of enemy supply and amphibious vessels supporting the landings on Leyte. These ships were nowhere near the value of enemy carriers, but they would be convenient targets.
    It was midmorning when Seki spotted what he was looking for. Down below in the gray seas off the coast of Samar were the telltale flat-topped shapes of aircraft carriers. What he didn’t know was that these were the escort carriers of the Taffy Fleet, still recovering from their surprise battle that morning with Kurita’s fleet.
    Each of the five
tokko
pilots selected a target. On Seki’s signal, they began their attacks.
    K
amikaze
. It was a new word to Rear Adm. Tom Sprague. Like most of the men aboard his flagship, the escort carrier USS
Sangamon
, Sprague had never seen a kamikaze. He was the commander of Task Unit 77.1, known as “Taffy One,” and had overall command of the three escort carrier units.
    Sprague’s carriers had already had a close call that morning. Their only losses from the Japanese battleships and cruisers were Taffy Three’s
Gambier Bay
as well as two screening destroyers and a destroyer escort. Now that the Japanese had withdrawn, Sprague had given the order to stand down.
    Suddenly, a new threat: from out of the gray sky appeared a Zero, weaving through a belated storm of antiaircraft fire. As Sprague watched, the Zero dove toward USS
Santee
, one of the Taffy One escort carriers. The Zero’s 20-millimeter cannons opened fire, spraying the flight deck.
    Every observer, from Sprague to the lookouts on
Santee
, knewwhat would happen next: the Zero’s pilot would release his bomb and pull out of the dive.
    He didn’t. Without wavering from the dive, the Japanese plane plunged straight into
Santee
’s deck. The bomb crashed through the wooden deck and exploded on the hangar deck below. In the ensuing carnage, sixteen men were killed and dozens more wounded.
    The attack astonished the men of the Taffy Fleet, but no one attached special significance to it. Japanese planes had been known to crash into their targets, especially after they were already hit.
    And then, minutes later, it happened again. Another Zero dove into the deck of the escort carrier
Suwannee
.
    The attacks continued. In quick succession, Japanese planes dove into the escort carriers
Kalinin Bay, Kitkun Bay
, and
White Plains
.
    By now it was clear: the Japanese had launched a wave of suicide attacks.
    At 1051, a low-flying Zero roared toward the stern of the escort carrier
St. Lo
. A half mile astern, the Zero pulled up, rolled inverted, and dove straight into the carrier’s flight deck.
    Just as with
Santee
, the kamikaze plane penetrated the thin wooden deck and exploded in the confined hangar bay, but the crash on
St. Lo
was even deadlier. A compartment of torpedoes and bombs exploded, ripping through the bowels of the carrier, sending an aircraft elevator and flaming hunks of metal and bodies a thousand feet into the sky.
    St. Lo
was doomed. Within half an hour the carrier had sunk and 143 crewmen were dead or dying.
    Tom Sprague and the men of the Taffy Fleet were bewildered. They were among the first to witness a terrifying new weapon. How did you defend yourself against an enemy who was determined to die?
    A t