Leyte Gulf - USS Natoma Bay CVE-62

At last she had taken more punishment than her damage
control parties and engineers could handle. She lost power,
dropped astern, began to list, and at 0907 capsized and went
down.
A few minutes later lookouts on the remaining carriers
reported in amazement that all enemy vessels in sight were
turning away. Sprague, mystified by the retreat of the fleet
that appeared to him on the brink of victory, shaped course
southwest, ultimately for the Admiralties.
THE KAMIKAZES STRIKE
The October 25 trial of the Taffies was not limited to
surface attack. A little before 0800, six Zeros armed with
bombs dived out of a cloud almost vertically on the four
escort carriers of Admiral Thomas Sprague's Taffy 1, just as
the carriers were launching aircraft to go to the aid of
Taffy 3. Four of the attacking planes were shot down by
antiaircraft fire, but the other two crashed into the Santee
and the Suwannee, and their exploding bombs blasted gaping
holes in the carriers' flight and hangar decks. In the midst
of all the confusion, the Japanese submarine I-56 approached
undetected and fired a torpedo into the Santee. The two
damaged carriers, tough converted tankers, completed
emergency repairs and resumed flight operations before noon.
Taffy 1 had had the distinction of being the first target
of the new "suicide club" recently organized by Vice Admiral
Onishi on Luzon. Its members, aviators manifestly unable to
hit much of anything with bombs or torpedoes, would make up
in guts what they lacked in skill by crashing their bombarmed
aircraft - and themselves - into enemy vessels.
Officially named Special Attack Corps, the participants and
their planes were generally known as "Kamikaze" (divine
wind), the name applied to the typhoon that in 1274 saved
Japan from invasion by scattering Kublai Khan's fleet.
A couple of hours after Kurita had broken off
action, Taffy 3 also had a visit from the Kamikazes.
One struck the carrier Kitkun Bay a glancing blow and
bounced off, but its exploding bomb caused widespread
damage. Two crashed into the Kalinin Bay, setting
32 Leyte Gulf