(The biggest Naval battle in history - yet most have never heard of it...)
The Battle for Leyte Gulf is considered with consensus by naval historians as the largest and greatest naval battle ever fought; never to be repeated - this battle covers well over 1,000 square miles of ocean. The landings at Leyte were equal to those at Normandy - but the landings only help to give tension for the last and main phase of the battle.
Some background history would include the attack on Pearl Harbor (as battleships that were damaged and even sunk would come back to slug it out with Japanese on the night of October 24th). The Japanese sweep of the Pacific (dwarfs Hitler's Blitzkrieg) and US failings, US Carrier after US Carrier was sunk. "Then There Was One" (also the title of a book) and the USS Enterprise was alone to hold off the Japanese's vastly superior forces. Most wouldn't know it, but US surface engagements during the night regularly fell victim to their Japanese counterparts. Cruisers and destroyers were sunk by the Tokyo Express in Iron Bottom Sound (its name was given from all the ships at the bottom - mainly American). 1942 was dark and gloomy for the United States.
Then the US buildup kicks in and planes and ships begin to enter the Pacific in early 1943. The Japanese begin to take the defensive now. Japanese landings were being destroyed by US aircraft, destroyers, cruisers and battleships.
The final battle before the battle - The Battle of the Philippine Sea. Admiral Spruance makes the right decision and stays to cover his Marine and Army landings allowing the Imperial Japanese Navy to escape with minor damage... He is criticized by many, but Nimitz and King (overall commanders of the Pacific War) stand by him. Halsey, a close friend of Spruance, records nothing against his friend, but William "Bull" Halsey is not going to let the Japanese Navy escape under his command. By the way, Halsey didn't like being called "Bull".
Now for the pre-battle scenes which include battle conditions; admirals', generals' and the President's egos. MacArthur and Nimitz have a special meeting with the President. They each present their case for where to strike next. There are some MacArthur and Roosevelt issues; namely politics, and Philippines history. When the Philippines fell early in 1942, America was humiliated. MacArthur escaped by PT boat and the Philippines president escaped via a sub. MacArthur's persuasion wins over Roosevelt and surprisingly Nimitz as well. One of Nimitz's own, Bill Halsey, discovered through the coast watchers and his own carrier raids on the Philippines that Japanese resistance was less than expected. The decision made, the next major event of the Pacific war will be landings at Leyte Gulf.
It's Halsey's turn once more to tangle with the Japanese Navy and so once more Task Force 58 becomes Task Force 38 under the direction of Admiral Bill Halsey. One of the four Japanese forces (the carrier group) slips past three subs undetected in the Inland Sea (Japan) so Halsey is worried about what he considers the main threat - the carriers - being found. This force is actually a decoy that is trying to be found but gets lost in the heat of several battles. One by one the three real forces intended on pounding the US landings on Leyte with their big guns are detected and attacked - some with more damage than others - but they are not stopped. The biggest battleships ever built - roughly 16,000 tons (the size of a cruiser) bigger than the USS Missouri (Iowa class) with bigger main guns (18 inch - 3,200 lb. projectiles) are part of this story.
Two US submarines begin this great battle. They run across Kurita's battleships and sink his cruiser flagship (Kurita is pulled from the sea - a humiliating ordeal for an admiral) another cruiser and send a third limping home. The two subs have to evade destroyers and work their way back to finish off the crippled cruiser. They are in "dangerous waters" as the Japanese nautical charts indicate and USS Darter winds up beached on a reef more than 75% out of water! They transfer the crew (10 men at a time) to the USS Dace and try to scuttle Darter. The detonators fail. It's becoming daylight. Dace comes round about again. They fire their guns at her. Still won't sink or blow up. A Japanese warship comes alongside - they board her (searching for papers and secret codes) - then several hours later leave. Her crew is preparing to re-board to try again to blow her up just as a Japanese bomber comes in for the kill. The two crews in Dace are sitting ducks. The pilot bombs the beached sub and no doubt swore at himself after realizing his mistake in target choice.
Ozawa's decoy carrier force breaks radio silence several times in hopes to be detected - they send in a hopeless carrier strike (Japanese naval pilots by this point in the war are virtually inexperienced) in order to be discovered - Ozawa figures it will be a bonus it they hit anything. His planes are confused with the land-based planes from the Philippine islands (although sharp radar operators notice their ocean-ward versus landward direction and report it; the information takes some time to finally reach upper levels of command) - still they go undetected while Kurita's main force of battleships, heavy and light cruisers and destroyers are being pounded. The Musashi takes 16 torpedoes and 12 1,000 lb. bombs and finally flounders (most ships go down with one, two or three bombs and/or torpedoes). Her sister, the superbattleship Yamato presses on unscathed.
Halsey’s Northern carrier task force was under fierce attack from land based planes and was unable to send off scout planes to the northern sectors they were assigned let alone join in on the attack of the discovered battleship group moving towards Leyte Gulf. This is why the Japanese Northern decoy went undetected for so long. The USS Princeton, a CVL (Escort Carrier - smaller than the fleet carriers but unlike the CVE's, CVL's are fast) took a bomb hit from a Japanese bomber that snuck in behind some returning fighters. The bomb went down deep before exploding. When everything seemed to be under control and the USS Birmingham (cruiser) came along side to assist, the rear magazine exploded killing and wounding hundreds aboard the Princeton. The Birmingham which had many men topsides lost several hundred men and hundreds more were maimed and wounded as the ship was peppered with shrapnel from the exploding Princeton. Now near tragedy erupts as the Irwin is ordered to dispatch the Princeton - ablaze and still afloat. The torpedo controllers were damaged when Irwin slammed against Princeton while trying to assist the stricken carrier. The first fish went off wildly to the right. The next went to the left. The third turned around and was heading straight for Irwin! The captain took quick action and the torpedo missed by 50 yards. The forth torpedo veered off wildly again and the fifth turned on the Irwin with an even closer call. By this time the crew of the Princeton now aboard Irwin were at near mutiny. Finally the group commander assigned the task of sinking the Princeton to USS Reno.
The attacks on Task Force 38.8 subsiding, the scouting missions to the north were launched. Halsey finally discovers the decoy and takes the bait. More miscommunications occur in the fog of war. Three levels of command fail to rectify the problem of checking on who was guarding San Bernardino Straight. Halsey takes off north after the carriers (there were only around 30 planes on the combined five Japanese carriers) and does not leave battleships and cruisers to guard San Bernardino Strait. Everybody thinks he has.
Meanwhile Admiral Kinkaid (overall commander of the landing forces) sends battlewagons that were seeking vindication for Pearl Harbor (these are the resurrected ones) to Surigao Strait covering the southern entrance to Leyte Gulf. Nishimura and Shima’s two forces had been discovered earlier that day. The Japanese where executing a "pincer" move on the US landings attacking from both flanks - the main force coming from the north. US Navy personnel were all listening in on radio traffic and they knew something big was happening. A Destroyer group commander assigned to cover the landings was itching for battle and radioed to the battleship group suggesting that his ships could make torpedo runs just before the big guns began pounding. Admiral Oldendorf liked the idea and Captain Coward (he worked hard to dispel the sounds of his name) was in the fight.
Clouds roll in - occasional rain squalls - 0200 - it is now pitch black.
78’ wooden PT boats made the first runs on the Japanese Southern Forces and radioed locations after their several attacks. Some PT boats took direct hits. Fires broke out and the geysers from near misses quenched the fires. Some were not able to make their runs. Most did but no torpedoes made their mark...
Now it was the destroyers' turn. The combined weight of Coward’s five destroyers was around 12,500 tons - not even half the weight of one of the Japanese battleships. The Japanese were already alerted to the PT boats. Coward would need to slip in undetected. Now, what seemed like an eternity of waiting the torpedo crews on the destroyers felt their ships lurch forward as they made their run on the advancing Japanese southern force. Coward's destroyers picked up speed and ran parallel and undetected. For the moment. A parachuted flare shot up revealing their position. Rounds were fired. Coward's five destroyers made left and right flanking torpedo runs and scored multiple hits on two cruisers and then high tailed out of the narrow strait zigzagging as they went. The Japanese Battleships kept coming and the life of one US destroyer still lay in the balance. On her retreating run, Coward’s destroyer had been targeted by a US PT boat. With the excitement of battle it is easy to make mistakes. Just before the PT attacked, Coward was able to radio the PT boat skipper and call off the attack. Close call...
Now two more destroyer groups made their runs. The last made a bold up the middle move with two simultaneous flanking attacks. This last attack occurred as the range of the American trap came to bear. One of the destroyers trailing up the middle, USS Grant, was experiencing engine problems when much graver problems soon arose. Being very close in to the Japanese force, a US cruiser began training her 8 inch guns on the US destroyer at the same moment a Japanese cruiser also found the hapless destroyer. She took 11 US salvos and 9 Japanese salvos and was dead and burning in the water.
The Japanese force was coming up through the narrow Strait in two columns. The American fleet of battleships and cruisers was in the open mouth exit of the strait with maneuvering room - but more importantly, they were the bar or cap of the "T". This brought all the heavy guns to bear (broadsides) as the Japanese force advanced "crossing the T". This classic battleship tactic smashed Nishimura's fleet sending its two battleships to the bottom (the Huruna broke in half and each half stayed afloat for awhile) and pounded all but one destroyer to the bottom. (Actually - the Mogami which had been wrecked at the Battle of Midway was not sunk yet retired chasing off and destroying some ensuing PT boats finally to succumb to aerial bombings the next morning).
Then, Shima's group of cruisers and destroyer followed about 20 minutes in Nishimura's wake. They passed the retiring Shigure from Nishimura's battlegroup and signaled each other. The destroyer's commander incredulously does not warn them of the trap that lies ahead (Shima and Nishimura don't like each other). They pass the flaming hulk of the Mogami still at flank speed - drop torpedoes and begin receiving heavy US shells. They turn and run sustaining some damage. The Battle of Surigao Strait is over. The surviving battleships of the Pearl Harbor attack are vindicated.
But the biggest and most dramatic battle has yet to begin. The next morning at sun up the Main Japanese striking force including the superbattleship Yamato will round the tip of San Bernardino Strait, unopposed, to within sight of the baby flattops and destroyers - the only thing between the Japanese and the vulnerable landing forces where MacArthur has just recently announced his triumphant return. Kinkaid’s battleships and cruisers are still South covering Surigao Strait and Halsey is off with everything he has after the Japanese Carriers.
As entertaining as Star Wars may be, it is simply science-fiction. The battle of Leyte Gulf is real, and the main action is about begin. Charge of the Light Brigade - you simply have to read it to believe it...