Talk:Samuel B. Roberts/@comment-121.54.41.121-20180423171359/@comment-26998554-20180423172910

Sammy B and the rest of Taffy 3 - destroyers, destroyer escorts, and some escort carriers - repelled the Kurita fleet. You know, from last event, which consisted primarily of "Every big ship in the Imperial Navy that was still afloat".

As I recall, the destroyers and destroyer escorts pulled some trick with their engines to throw up a smoke cloud to keep the IJN from really seeing who they were fighting. They fought hard enough (pulling some Yuudachi-esque "banzai charge into the midst of the enemy fleet" shenanigans) that the Japanese were convinced that they'd found the main enemy fleet, and that they had to retreat. In reality, the bulk of the American fleet was elsewhere at the time, having fallen for Ozawa's decoy.

Hence, "The destroyer escort that fought like a battleship" - Sammy B was, statistically speaking, kind of crap, but repelled a fleet that contained every battleship the Japanese had left.