On 31 December 1944 Robinson and
the five other destroyers sailed from Seeadler Harbor in the screen for
Transport Group "Able" of the Lingayen Attack Force. Robinson
screened northwest of the transport area on the morning of 9 January 1945 as
the first waves of amphibious assault troops landed. She anchored in the
transport area that night and survived a pre-dawn attack by a Japanese
suicide boat. The underwater explosions temporarily put her sonar equipment
out of commission but did no other serious damage. At daybreak, Robinson's
gunners fought off a diving kamikaze suicide plane and knocked it down in a
spinning ball of flame. At dusk she opened fire on another suicide plane
diving at a high speed transport. That enemy missed its target and crashed
into the sea. Robinson returned to Leyte Gulf with the empty
transports on the 15th.
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