"The Greatest Naval Engagement Ever Fought"
- Dennis L. Peterson
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
The last half of October marks the anniversary of what has been called "the last great fleet action" and the "greatest naval engagement ever fought." It made the English defeat of the Spanish Armada look like children playing in the kiddie pool.
The Battle of Leyte Gulf occurred October 23-26, 1944, between the massive forces of Japan and the United States. At stake were the U.S. landings at Leyte in the Philippines and the survival of Japan's navy--and ultimately the outcome of World War II.
Ironically, the battle was so big because the Soviet Union, which was supposed to be our ally in the war (at least in the European Theater), tipped off the Japanese that the U.S. was planning to launch an amphibious landing at Leyte. (With "friends" like that, who needs enemies, right?!) Japan was intent on disrupting those plans.
The U.S. was, indeed, planning to retake the
Philippines, starting at Leyte. That plan had been in the works from the day General Douglas MacArthur had been evacuated from those islands and had pledged, "I shall return!" And MacArthur had assembled a formidable force to ensure his return. The naval forces alone were enormous and comprised two task forces, the Third Fleet commanded by Admiral William "Bull" Halsey and the Seventh Fleet commanded by Vice Admiral Thomas Kincaid, both of whom were under the overall command of Admiral Chester Nimitz.
The Third Fleet included 8 aircraft carriers, 8 light cruisers, 1,000 planes, 6 battleships, 15 cruisers, and 60 destroyers. In the Seventh Fleet were 6 battleships, 9 cruisers, 18 escort carriers, 400 planes, 29 submarines, and numerous PT boats.
Knowing the place the American attack was to occur, the Japanese planned to disrupt the Americans' plans, amassing their naval assets in four forces. One force would be a decoy, luring Halsey's Third Fleet away from Leyte, thereby allowing the other three forces, coming from two different directions, to concentrate on knocking out Kincaid's Seventh Fleet using a classic pincer movement.
The Japanese forces under the overall command of Admiral Soema Toyoda amassed the following armada.
Northern Force, commanded by Jasaburo Ozawa: 4 carriers, 116 planes, 2 battleship, 3 cruisers, and 8 destroyers.
Center Force, commanded by Takeo Kurita: 5 battleships, 12 cruisers, and 15 destroyers. His fleet included Japan's two largest battleships, the Musashi and the Yamato.
Southern Force, commanded by Shoji Nishimura: 2 battleships, 1 cruiser, and 4 destroyers.
Second Attack Force, commanded by Shima Kiyohide: 3 cruisers, 4 destroyers, 300 land-based planes on Luzon, and 14 submarines.
Although the U.S. forces outnumbered the Japanese in every category of weaponry and type of vessel, they were nonetheless a formidable foe, seasoned, battle tested, and wily in the execution of their plan, even to the point of taking fanatical and suicidal actions for the honor of themselves and their emperor.
U.S. submarines sighted the Central Force on October 23, noted their direction of travel, and discerned their intentions. The Japanese had lost the element of surprise. The Northern Force was successful, however, in luring Halsey after them, thereby abandoning his assignment of protecting the Leyte invasion forces. He succeeded, however, in sinking one destroyer and all four of Ozawa's carriers, thereby eliminating a quarter of the total number of planes. The only other planes of the Japanese were on Luzon. Moreover, the Japanese used for the first time in the war a new weapon, kamikazes, and an unknown number of other hard-to-replace planes and irreplaceable pilots were lost in those attacks.
Halsey's losses included the light carrier U.S.S. Princeton, two escort carriers, two destroyers, and a destroyer escort, the U.S.S. Samuel B. Roberts, which was said to have "fought like a battleship." Many other vessels were damaged.
Meanwhile farther south, Kincaid's force was being attacked in the planned pincer movement, and Halsey was too far away to be of any help. Kincaid lost two escort carriers, including the U.S.S. St. Lo, which was the first major warship sunk by a kamikaze. He also lost two destroyers and two destroyer escorts.
The Japanese plan to disrupt the American landings at Leyte was foiled. But when Halsey broke from his fight with Ozawa, he blew the chance of destroying the Japanese navy. He was so successful, however, that the Japanese navy was never again so formidable a foe.
This battle in the Pacific Theater achieved for the U.S. a naval superiority much as had been achieved in the European Theater in air superiority. It didn't end the war, but it made the landings at Leyte successful and the end much more likely, if not inevitable. And it proved Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto's fear that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor had, indeed, awakened a sleeping giant of industrial production and terrible retribution.
American industrial efficiency was enabling the U.S. naval forces to convert Japanese steel vessels into scrap metal that rested on the bottom of the sea. American battleships that the Japanese had written off as destroyed in their sneak attack on Pearl Harbor had risen from the flames like the legendary phoenix. The battleships U.S.S. California, U.S.S. Maryland, U.S.S. Pennsylvania, U.S.S. Tennessee, and U.S.S. West Virginia had all been damaged at Pearl Harbor, but they had been resurrected and modernized and played major roles in the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
As the saying is, "What goes around soon comes around!"
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