#21: USS Johnston (DD-557): The Destroyer That Charged a Fleet
On October 25, 1944, Commander Ernest E. Evans drove the destroyer USS Johnston straight at the largest Japanese surface fleet assembled since Midway, four battleships, six heavy cruisers, two light cruisers, and eleven destroyers. His ship displaced 2,700 tons. The Yamato alone displaced 72,000. Evans charged anyway, firing torpedoes that blew the bow off the heavy cruiser Kumano.
At the Battle off Samar, Johnston and her outnumbered escorts from Taffy 3 fought for over two and a half hours against impossible odds, protecting the vulnerable escort carriers behind them. Johnston was hit repeatedly, losing her engine room, her forward turrets, and most of her bridge crew. Evans, already missing two fingers from an earlier hit, continued directing fire from the fantail until the ship went down. Of 327 men aboard, 186 perished, including Evans, who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. Japanese officers were later reported to have saluted Johnston as she sank. It remains one of the most extraordinary acts of courage in naval warfare history.
