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Surface Warrior - Remembering Ernest Evans

Nov. 29, 2016 | By Sam Cox (Rear Adm. USN, Ret.), Director, Naval History and Heritage Command
"In no engagement of its entire history has the United States Navy shown more gallantry, guts and gumption than in those two morning hours between 0730 and 0930 off Samar," - Rear Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison in his seminal "History of United States Naval Operations in World War II" regarding the Battle of Samar.
I first read those words long before I joined the U.S. Navy. Before I was in kindergarten, my father, who served in Korean waters during that conflict, would drill me on a couple hundred ship recognition silhouettes he'd made as a draftsman in the Navy. His father had enlisted in the Navy during World War I and then fought in the Pacific with the Seabees. Both instilled in me a love of Naval History that exists to this day. By the time I was in the fourth grade, I'd read all 15 volumes Morison's epic work, including a well-thumbed Volume XII, "Leyte."

Ernest Evans Naval Academy Photo
Ernest Evans Naval Academy Photo
Ernest Evans Naval Academy Photo
Ernest Evans Naval Academy Photo
Ernest Evans Naval Academy Photo
Photo By: NHHC
VIRIN: 210920-N-N0147-1002

Other kids had sports heroes. Mine was Cmdr. Ernest Evans, the skipper of the Fletcher-class destroyer Johnston (DD 557) and one of the many heroes of the Battle off Samar on October 25, 1944. Surprised by an overwhelming Japanese force of four battleships, eight cruisers, and many destroyers, Evans nevertheless chose to attack rather than flee. He understood the stakes. If the Japanese got through to General MacArthur's troop transports and supply ships, the landing at Leyte would become a disaster. Evans had previously told his crew that he would never run from a fight; he was true to his word, and he did not wait for orders. His gallant actions bought desperately needed time for the escort carriers he was charged with protecting to survive long enough to launch aircraft. In conjunction with the incredibly heroic actions of the rest of the destroyer and destroyer-escort screen, the Evan's USS Johnston inflicted enough physical and psychological damage on the Japanese to turn the tide of the desperate battle. Ernest Evans' actions inspired me as a kid, and throughout my 37-year navy career.

Evans Navy Life and Leadership
Ernest Evans may have been a United States Naval Academy graduate, but he came about it the hard way. A Native American with Creek and Cherokee bloodlines, he experienced the prejudices prevalent during his youth growing up in Muskogee, Oklahoma. With hopes of becoming a Marine officer, Evans sought entry into the Academy but was not selected. Undeterred, he enlisted in the Navy. After more than a year of service, Evans was accepted into the Academy's Class of 1931 through a fleet competition. During the Oct. 27, 1943, commissioning ceremony of Johnston, Commanding Officer Evans made his mission clear to the Sailors assigned to the ship: "This is going to be a fighting ship. I intend to go in harm's way, and anyone who doesn't want to go along had better get off right now." No one did.

As commanding officer, Evans was the rare leader who "appreciated the hidden nature of things, the power of the unseen over the tangible," according to those who served with Evans, as quoted in The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors, by James D. Hornfischer. He never exploded in anger and seldom upbraided a subordinate in front of others for poor performance. He gave his men the opportunity to fail, knowing they would learn and not fail him again. His devotion to protecting the Marines fighting onshore went beyond providing them cover with the allotted amount of ammunition. He often ordered his ship in so close to shore it was hit with small arms fire. When Evans demanded more ammunition, he climbed into a wooden gig and motored over to the task group's flagship to request it in person. And he got it.

The Battle
On Oct. 20, 1944, Evans and his Johnston crew joined the Seventh Fleet's Escort Carrier Task Unit 77.4.3, which went by the call name "Taffy 3." Taffy 3 was defending the north Leyte Gulf, east of Samar and off San Bernardino Strait, and the Leyte beachhead of General MacArthur's "return to the Philippines." At dawn on Oct. 25, 1944, a pilot flying patrol was surprised to see the Japanese Center Force steaming into Leyte Gulf. The remaining force of four Japanese battleships, eight cruisers, and at least 12 destroyers had reversed course under cover of darkness and transited through the unguarded San Bernardino Strait.

There was no question what decision Evans would make, despite having only two hours of fuel. "All hands to general quarters. Prepare to attack major portion of the Japanese fleet. All engines ahead flank. Commence making smoke and stand by for a torpedo attack. Left full rudder." Every ship in Taffy 3's screen performed with extreme heroism that day, but as the Gunnery Officer of Johnston, XXXX Hagen noted, "we were the first destroyer to make smoke, the first to start firing, the first to launch a torpedo attack. . . ." Once the Johnston got to within the range of its 5-inch guns, under a hail of Japanese fire, she fired more than 200 rounds and 10 torpedoes at Japan's heavy cruiser, Kumano. Many shells and at least one torpedo hit, and the Kumano later sank. But Japanese shells found their mark as well. Johnston was shattered, the damage and casualties were horrific, and Evan's himself was seriously wounded.

Despite grave damage, greatly reduced speed and firepower, and no remaining torpedoes, Evans nevertheless chose to bring Johnston out of the refuge of a rain squall and commenced a second attack on the Japanese, supporting the Hoel, Heerman, and Samuel B. Roberts as they were valiantly sacrificing themselves to protect the escort carriers. In the ensuing melee, limping along on one boiler, Johnston fired nearly 30 rounds in 40 seconds into a 30,000-ton battleship. Evans then noticed Japanese ships had targeted the escort carrier Gambier Bay (CVE 73). Hagen said his skipper "gave me the most courageous order I've heard: 'Commence firing on that cruiser, draw her fire on us and away from Gambier Bay.'" Hagen continued, "We were now in a position where all the gallantry and guts in the world couldn't save us, but we figured that help for the carrier must be on the way, and every minute's delay might count."

In The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors, Capt. Bob Copeland, the commanding officer of Samuel B. Roberts, describes the moment he watched Johnston limp by slowly, with her captain calling orders down the hatch where sailors were turning her rudder by hand. He was stripped to the waist and covered in blood with his left hand wrapped in a handkerchief. When he saw Copeland, he waved. One by one, Johnston took on the Japanese destroyers, bluffing them into thinking she had torpedoes. After the first two turned away, the rest broke off to get out of Johnston's gun range to launch torpedoes. All missed. The charge ended Johnston's improbable two-and-a-half-hour battle. Surrounded by enemy ships and dead in the water with no boilers or power, Evans made the call at 9:45 a.m. to abandon ship. Twenty-five minutes later, the destroyer rolled over and began to sink. One survivor said a Japanese destroyer captain saluted the ship as she went down.

LCDR Ernest Evans, USN Description: (1908-1944) At the commissioning ceremonies of USS Johnston (DD-557), Seattle, Washington, 27 October 1943. He was Johnston's Commanding Officer from then until she was sunk in the Battle off Samar, 25 October 1944, and was lost with the ship. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.
LCDR Ernest Evans, USN Description: (1908-1944) At the commissioning ceremonies of USS Johnston (DD-557), Seattle, Washington, 27 October 1943. He was Johnston's Commanding Officer from then until she was sunk in the Battle off Samar, 25 October 1944, and was lost with the ship. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.
LCDR Ernest Evans, USN Description: (1908-1944) At the commissioning ceremonies of USS Johnston (DD-557), Seattle, Washington, 27 October 1943. He was Johnston's Commanding Officer from then until she was sunk in the Battle off Samar, 25 October 1944, and was lost with the ship. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.
Commissioning Ceremony of USS Johnston (DD-557)
LCDR Ernest Evans, USN Description: (1908-1944) At the commissioning ceremonies of USS Johnston (DD-557), Seattle, Washington, 27 October 1943. He was Johnston's Commanding Officer from then until she was sunk in the Battle off Samar, 25 October 1944, and was lost with the ship. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.
Photo By: NHHC
VIRIN: 210920-N-N0147-1001

Of Johnston's crew of 327, only 141 survived. Johnston wasn't the only ship sacrificed that day. Both Hoel and Samuel B. Roberts sank, along with Gambier Bay and Heerman was pounded to a hulk. Taffy 3 did its damage, though, sinking two enemy cruisers while stopping the Central Fleet in the Battle off Samar. Evans was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, and his ship received six battle stars for her service in World War II and the Presidential Unit Citation. In sacrificing his ship, most of his crew, and his life, Ernest Evans set an example of incredible resolve, followed by many others that horrible day, that turned an almost certain catastrophe into a hard-fought victory. "The skipper was a fighting man from the soles of his broad feet to the ends of his straight black hair. He was an Oklahoman and proud of the Indian blood he had in him," Hagen said. "The Johnston was a fighting ship, but he was the heart and soul of her." I wanted to be part of the history that included people like him, and that is why I joined the U.S. Navy.