>>34498
I was wrong about the cargo ships part, it was actually escort carriers.
Admiral Halsey took the bait laid out by the Japanese and led the bulk of his fleet after a decoy set by the Japanese.
In this engagement (Battle off Samar if you want to read more) an American taskgroup designed for ground attack, i.e. Destroyers have guns for bombarding land and few torpedos, were engaged by a Japanese fleet consisting of 4 Battleships and a shit ton of cruisers and destroyers. These forces were thought to be in retreat after taking damage from American planes earlier in the overall battle of Leyte Gulf, so their counterattack came as a complete shock. In order for the escort carriers to escape, and on a larger scale, protect supply ships and troop transports taking part in the Philippines invasion, the US Destroyers, attacked this flotilla like fucking lunatics.
You can read the wikipedia articles for the Johnston, Samuel B. Roberts, Heermann, and Hoel to see just how nuts this was. Captain Copeland of the Samuel B. Roberts is quoted as saying to his crew, "This will be a fight against overwhelming odds from which survival cannot be expected. We will do what damage we can." This was also all in a rain storm. The attacks managed to break up the formations of the attack and caused the Japanese admiral to order a withdrawal.