Four U.S. destroyers and two cruisers hastily converged on the Princeton in an attempt to save the stricken carrier and its crew. The Northern Force aircraft carriers were intended to distract and divert the American fast aircraft carrier group while the two Japanese battleship groups entered Leyte Gulf and attacked the invasion shipping. Returning to the Philippines, Allied forces began landing on Leyte on October 20. This required a massive fleet train to carry the necessary supplies. Part of the carrier force was struck by Japanese aircraft on October 13–14, and two U.S. cruisers were damaged and forced to retire. In doing so, he had left the American amphibious forces on Leyte woefully unprotected. Amphibious ships moved troops 500 nautical miles to landing beaches. The Japanese attack was scheduled for 25 October because of the time required to fuel the ships and embark aircraft. The Battle of Leyte Gulf officially entered the books as the Second Battle of the Philippine Sea, though most of the action occurred nearly one thousand miles from the June turkey shoot. Ammunition arrived from the USA via Australia. Battle of Leyte Gulf, (October 23–26, 1944), decisive air and sea battle of World War II that crippled the Japanese Combined Fleet, permitted U.S. invasion of the Philippines, and reinforced the Allies’ control of the Pacific. Ernest Evans of the destroyer USS Johnston was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. Logistics ships moved vital stores, ammunition and rations, directly and indirectly, over 5000 nautical miles to maintain land and naval forces in the area of operations. Oldendorf “crossed the T” on Nishimura’s formation, meaning that his ships were able to deliver a full broadsides attack with all of their big guns while Nishimura could only employ his forward weapons. A key principle of war is the selection and maintenance of the aim of an operation. The warship was lost during the Battle off Samar, part of the larger, sprawling Battle of Leyte Gulf on October 25, 1944. The failure of the Centre Force to press home its attack on the landing forces meant that the Japanese Northern Force aircraft carriers had been sacrificed in vain. Japan’s total losses in the Battle of Leyte Gulf amounted to 3 battleships, 1 large carrier, 3 light carriers, 6 heavy cruisers, 4 light cruisers, and 11 destroyers. This final stage of the Battle of Leyte Gulf has been derisively termed “Bull’s Run.”. On October 20 the amphibious landings at Leyte began after air strikes, and heavy naval bombardment prepared the beaches. The Japanese had failed to achieve their objectives while the Allies would ultimately achieve theirs. The change in territorial control, along with the enormous increase in U.S. and British naval power in the theatre, had made the Pacific an Allied “mare nostrum.”. the Second Battle of the Philippine Sea) was fought in the Pacific Theater during World War II and was one of the largest naval battles in modern history. The Allies would also gain another staging base for subsequent assaults on islands closer to Japan. After supporting the American landings in the western Caroline Islands throughout early September 1944, Adm. Marc Mitscher’s fast carrier task force began launching attacks against Japanese positions in the Philippines. It took place from 23 October to 26 October 1944, between the Allies and the Empire of Japan. The Centre Force became distracted by its attack on the Escort Carrier Group, instead of carrying through the attack on the transport shipping. Responding, the Imperial Japanese Navy launched plan Sho-Go 1. Halsey, however, had never actually formed Task Force 34; he opted instead to take all of those ships with him to sail against Ozawa. The Battle of Leyte Gulf, was the biggest naval battle in modern history. Commanded by Vice Admiral Kinkaid, USN, the US Seventh Fleet and assigned elements of the US Third Fleet together formed Task Force 77 and the Central Philippines Attack Force, and comprised 157 combat ships (including 6 battleships, 11 cruisers and 18 escort carriers), 420 amphibious ships and 84 patrol, minesweeping and hydrographic vessels. Bosun Mate 1st Class John E. Brandau hoisting the American flag on Leyte Island during the invasion of the Philippines, October 20, 1944. The battle of Leyte Gulf began well to the west of the Philippines on 23 October (battle of the Sibuyan Sea, 23-24 October, although this battle began outside that sea). At a meeting on 26 July 1944 with his two theatre commanders, US President Roosevelt decided that the next objective would be the Philippine Islands. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Ernest J. Please select which sections you would like to print: While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Adm. William (“Bull”) Halsey’s Third Fleet covered the landings with carrier-based aircraft and guarded against attacks by the Japanese fleet. The retaking of the Philippines began with an assault on the Leyte Gulf-Surigao Strait area. The Japanese C Force entered the Surigao Strait in the early hours of October 25 and was annihilated in a night engagement with destroyers and battleships of the U.S. READ FREE FULL EBOOK DOWNLOAD Battle Of Leyte Gulf Full EBook. The Imperial Japanese Navy had all but ceased to exist as an offensive force. In other words, the last great battleship engagement of World War II, and in all of history, was staged in five parts, each bearing its own name: As Kurita sailed his mighty force northward, he was suddenly ambushed by an array of undetected torpedoes. Kinkaid’s covering force was almost out of ammunition after the previous day’s bombardments and the Surigao Strait night action. Explosion on USS St. Moreover, the seizure of Leyte would bypass and isolate Japanese forces on Mindanao. In the Sibuyan Sea action, several Japanese ships were damaged, and the super battleship Musashi was sunk after repeated strikes from American aircraft. Shore based opposition to the landings was light and Japanese aircraft made only sporadic attacks during the day. This enemy force of powerful fast battleships and cruisers sank an escort carrier and two destroyers, but lost three heavy cruisers in return and withdrew without attacking the landing forces in Leyte Gulf. Read The Battle for Leyte Gulf: The Incredible Story of World War II's Largest Naval Battle. Eager to make good on a promise he had made after the Japanese invasion of the Philippines—“I shall return”—MacArthur had pressed for the reconquest of the whole of the Philippines as a goal in itself. Fuel and lubricants were sourced from the USA and the West Indies. The Allied offensive in the Pacific in 1944 was to climax with the Allied invasion of the Philippines. News. The Japanese battleship Fuso was sunk, as were the destroyers Asagumo, Michishio, and Yamagumo. On Dinagat and Homonhom, th… Early in the day, a 550-pound (220-kg) bomb from a Japanese dive-bomber penetrated the flight deck of the light carrier USS Princeton and ignited a series of fires on the decks below. Whatever the battle’s official name, after October 1944 the Imperial Navy was finished. With little more than a token combat air patrol to defend it, the Japanese fleet quickly became prey to U.S. bombs and torpedoes. Updates? The wider battle in Leyte Gulf, which took place over several days, effectively ended the usefulness of the Japanese surface fleet. This campaign followed two lines of advance: the first, commanded by General Douglas MacArthur, along the northern coast of New Guinea, and the second, commanded by Admiral Chester Nimitz, through the island chains of the central Pacific. In its opening salvo the Darter sank the Japanese heavy cruiser Atago, Kurita’s flagship, and proceeded to seriously damage the cruiser Takao. Battle of Leyte Gulf 1 レイテ沖海戦 1. Read 3 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. S01:E09 - Battle of Leyte Gulf. A third of all fresh produce came from the USA, the rest from Australia. U.S. troops landing on Leyte Island in the Philippines during World War II. At the same time, the Allied force also failed to clearly select its aim. These included Battle of the Sibuyan Sea, the Battle of Surigao Strait, the Battle of Cape Engaño and the Battle off Samar and other naval action in the general vicinity. Having been battered by U.S. aircraft and submarines, Kurita initially appeared to be retiring to the west, but he soon resumed course, and the Japanese central force pushed doggedly onward toward the San Bernardino Strait and Leyte. The assault would also take place beyond the range of land-based aircraft, hence all air support would need to come from US Navy aircraft carriers. However, much hard fighting would be required before the island was completely in Allied hands at the end of December 1944: The Battle of Leyte on land was fought in parallel with an air and sea campaign in which the Japanese reinforced and resupplied their troops on Leyte while the Allies attempted to interdict them and establish air-sea superiority for a series of amphibious landings in Ormo… S01:E10 - The Empire's Last Stand. The third island, Homonhon, was taken without any opposition the next day. [2] The fleet arrived on 17 October and began bombarding Japanese shore positions and sweeping defensive minefields. USS Charrette (DD-581) screening USS New Jersey (BB-62) during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, 24 October 1944 (80-G-K-2191).jpg 5,580 × 4,158; 6.31 MB USS Cowell (DD-547) underway in October 1944.jpg 595 × 740; 278 KB Had the Centre Force pressed home its attack the landing force could have suffered serious losses and the invasion might have been placed in jeopardy. There was glory in it for all. Rescue and repair efforts continued throughout the day. Sea based air power provided essential air cover to the fleet and land forces in an operation beyond the range of Allied land-based aircraft. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Japanese offensives are represented by black arrows, and American offensives are represented by white arrows. Attrition had taken a significant toll on Japan’s naval air force, perhaps most significantly at the Battle of the Philippine Sea, and the four Japanese carriers, which were under the command of Vice Adm. Ozawa Jisaburō, sailed with a little more than 100 aircraft between them. The USS Enterprise supports one of the largest and most deadly battles of the Pacific War. At the Battle of Cape Engano the Northern Force lost four aircraft carriers, a light cruiser and four destroyers, before the remaining force withdrew. On 10 October the assigned forces sailed from their assembly areas at Hollandia, Manus Island, Morotai and Guam. Menyok. With his fleet in disarray and not realizing just how close he had come to shattering the thin defensive screen around the Leyte landing beaches, Kurita opted to retire. Kurita’s First Attack Force, having passed through the San Bernardino Strait, moved southward along the coast of Samar. He also took the fast battleships USS New Jersey (Halsey’s flagship) and USS Iowa, along with three light cruisers and eight destroyers, on a futile pursuit of Kurita’s long gone fleet. "The Battle of Leyte Gulf was an extremely unusual battle. In the end, it would be Gen. Douglas MacArthur who prevailed. On September 24 Mitscher’s planes bombed the central Philippines and conducted photographic reconnaissance of the area around Leyte and Samar, where landings were to take place in October. When dawn broke, the submarines made visual contact with the lead elements of the Japanese force and launched torpedoes. Capabilities such as the infantry landing ships, logistics ships and survey ships were what might now be termed ‘niche’ capabilities. [4] As a consequence of the casualties and damage, Australia, escorted by Warramunga, sailed for Manus Island. The Battle of Leyte Gulf was fought October 23-26, 1944, during World War II (1939-1945) and is considered the conflict's largest naval engagement. Lo (CVE-63) was the first naval vessel to be sunk by a single precision-guided weapon, a Japanese kamikaze attack, during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. MacArthur was given overall command of the Leyte operation, and Nimitz provided strong naval support from the U.S. Pacific Fleet. The battle cost the IJN most of its remaining warships, including 3 battleships, one of which was the huge Musashi, 6 heavy and 4 light cruisers, and 9 destroyers, in addition to its remaining carriers. Shima’s Second Attack Force had entered the strait some distance behind C Force, and the Mogami collided with Shima’s flagship, the cruiser Nachi, in its attempt to escape. At the same time, U.S. Navy and Royal Australian Navy cruisers and destroyers on the flanks of the battleship line opened fire. Battle of Leyte Gulf, October 1944. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree.... U.S. landing ships, tanks (LSTs), on the beach at Leyte Island in the Philippines, October 1944. At 10:00 am Nimitz himself sent what would become one of the most famous radio messages of the entire war: “WHERE IS RPT WHERE IS TASK FORCE THIRTY FOUR RR THE WORLD WONDERS.” The last three words were meant to serve as meaningless padding to deter Japanese code breakers and should have been stripped from the final message, but they were included in the printout that was given to Halsey. 0:24. Just before 3:30 pm a massive explosion ripped through the Princeton, and hundreds of sailors on the light cruiser USS Birmingham, which was preparing to take the Princeton under tow, were killed. King advocated bypassing the Philippines and attacking Formosa directly, while other naval officers, such as Adm. Chester Nimitz, favoured limited operations in the Philippines as a prelude to the Formosa offensive. Halsey also held an overwhelming advantage in air power: not only were his pilots more experienced than the raw recruits that the Japanese were rushing into service, but just one of his heavy carriers boasted an air complement that equaled that of the entire Japanese decoy fleet. U.S. soldier and his war dog in a foxhole on Leyte Island, October 1944. …forces seized offshore islets in Leyte Gulf, and on October 20 they landed four divisions on the east coast of Leyte.…. If the Japanese lost their hold in the Philippines, their Empire would be cut in two, and maintaining the flow of oil to the home islands would become even more difficult. Although delayed by a storm, the Rangers were on Suluan and Dinagat islands by 0805. Nishimura went down with his flagship, the battleship Yamashiro, and the cruiser Mogami was seriously damaged. Another key principle of war is sustainment. Gen. Walter Krueger’s Sixth Army were ashore by the end of the first day, but the Japanese had already put in motion a plan that was designed to drive the U.S. from the Philippines and potentially turn the tide in the Pacific. On September 21 Manila was struck by U.S. carrier planes for the first time, and Luzon was hit the following day. As Leyte Gulf demonstrated, the difficulty of sustaining maritime power projection operations over extended distances should not be underestimated. The effect was devastating. The RAN’s ability to operate in Allied coalitions and alliances, from 1901 to the current day, has been predicated on cooperation, in terms of shared or substantially similar doctrine, equipment and control arrangements. The Battle of Leyte in the Pacific campaign of World War II was the amphibious invasion of the Gulf of Leyte in the Philippines by American and Filipino guerrilla forces under the command of General Douglas MacArthur, who fought against the Imperial Japanese Army in the Philippines led by General Tomoyuki Yamashita from 20 October - 31 December 1944. With the exception of the Mississippi, each of these battleships had been damaged during the Pearl Harbor attack and subsequently returned to service. With the bulk of the Seventh Fleet engaged with Nishimura at Surigao Strait, all that stood between Kurita and the landing beaches were the ships of Taffy 3—a naval task force that consisted of just six escort carriers, three destroyers, and four destroyer escorts under the command of Rear Adm. Clifton Sprague. The USS Enterprise engages the Japanese in what may be the largest naval battle in history. Such was the ferocity of Taffy 3’s attack that the Japanese identified the handful of U.S. destroyers as heavy cruisers and escort carriers were taken to be fleet carriers. Three days after the battle, Nimitz would relate his disappointment in Halsey in a personal message to King: “It never occurred to me that Halsey, knowing the composition of the ships in the Sibuyan Sea, would leave the San Bernardino Strait unguarded…That the San Bernardino detachment of the Japanese Fleet, which included the YAMATO and the MUSASHI, did not completely destroy all of the escort carriers and their accompanying screen is nothing short of special dispensation from the Lord Almighty.” All the men of Taffy 3 were awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for their actions off Samar, and Capt. The Battle for Leyte Gulf stands as a tribute to the effective employment of sea-power and sea-air-power and of close mutual support. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Over the following days, U.S. carrier planes responded with attacks on Japanese air bases in Formosa and the northern Philippines, and October 18–19 saw further strikes on targets near the landing beaches. Kinkaid sent a series of increasingly desperate messages to Halsey, requesting that he dispatch Task Force 34—a collection of Third Fleet battleships, destroyers, and cruisers that was supposed to have been guarding the San Bernardino Strait—to aid Taffy 3. Army Chief of Staff Gen. George C. Marshall had proposed skipping both the Philippines and Formosa and proceeding directly to an assault on southern Honshu. Lo would be the first U.S. ship to be sunk by a kamikaze attack. As the Battle of the Philippine Sea had resulted not only in the sinking of three Japanese carriers but also in the virtual destruction of the air groups of three carrier divisions, the fleet had been reorganized for surface action. The Battle of Leyte Gulf was fought from October 23-26 1944 and was the largest naval battle of World War II. It was unusual in that it was a series of actions, not a single battle. Preliminary operations for the Leyte invasion began at dawn on 17 October 1944, with minesweeping tasks and the movement of the 6th Rangers toward three small islands in Leyte Gulf. Three Japanese cruisers, Chikuma, Chōkai, and Suzuya, were sunk; a fourth, Kumano, was heavily damaged. In all but the latter, the RAN made a small, but still substantial, contribution to the successful outcome of the operation. The battle of Leyte Gulf secured the beachheads of the U.S. Sixth Army on Leyte against attack from the sea. Gen. Douglas MacArthur (centre) and others arriving ashore during the initial U.S. landings at Leyte, Philippines, October 20, 1944. On the following morning, the two Australian cruisers were attacked by a lone Japanese dive-bomber, which crashed into the port side of Australia, killing 30 crew and wounding 64, many of them skilled and experienced bridge and gunnery control personnel. Ring in the new year with a Britannica Membership, This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Leyte-Gulf, United States History - Battle of Leyte Gulf, military operations in the Philippines, 1941–45, Douglas MacArthur at the Battle of Leyte Gulf. The Battle of Leyte Gulf cost the Imperial Japanese Navy heavily,[5] effectively destroying it as an offensive force. The ensuing engagement reflected the dramatic imbalance in power that now existed between U.S. and Japanese naval strength, and the result was so lopsided that it was almost an anticlimax when measured against the action which was taking place simultaneously at Samar. The landings and naval battles at Leyte Gulf in October 1944 demonstrated the utility of maritime forces in power projection operations. The advance from Morotai to Leyte in one bound was a calculated risk, as the Allied forces would be ringed by Japanese airfields and land-based aircraft with greater staying power than the aircraft from USN aircraft carriers.[1]. It had originally been planned to attack the Philippines at a somewhat later date, but the air strikes revealed an unexpected weakness in the Japanese defense of the islands. Within 45 minutes the three Australian ships had disembarked over 2800 troops of the US 21st Regimental Combat Team on the undefended island. Darter and Dace , two American submarines, found Kurita's fleet while it was sailing along the north coast of … Halsey believed his primary role was destroying the Japanese fleet, while MacArthur believed Halsey’s primary role was protecting the landings. Fought in the seas surround the island of Leyte in the Philippines from 23 October to 26 October 1944, this battle cut Japan off from her Southeast Asian colonies and therefore all of Japan's oil. During the night of October 24–25 Halsey had moved the three battle groups of the Third Fleet north to meet the Japanese decoy force. Every shell, spare part, and morsel of food required for this vast armada had to be carried in ships from either the US west coast or Australia. Showing no desire to fall into the same trap that had decimated C Force, Shima reversed course and withdrew. Interpreting “the world wonders” as a stinging rebuke from the commander of the Pacific Fleet, an insulted Halsey at last dispatched an air strike to harass the already retiring Japanese central force. Planning was complicated by the huge distances involved, for while the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944 were conducted 50 nautical miles across the English Channel, Leyte Gulf was more than 500 nautical miles from the main staging areas in Morotai and Palau. In doing so he left the San Bernadino Strait unguarded, subsequently sparking a major controversy as to whether his main focus should have been to destroy the Japanese fleet or protect the landings. In what was perhaps the unlikeliest naval victory of the Pacific War, Taffy 3 lost two destroyers, Johnston and Hoel, and the destroyer escort Samuel B. Roberts. The American Joint Chiefs of Staff, acting with necessary haste, moved to capitalize on the situation. Kurita’s armada had been whittled down somewhat over the course of the previous days’ engagements, but it still remained one of the most powerful collections of surface ships to see action in the Pacific War. By that afternoon the situation was secure enough for MacArthur to wade ashore and make his famous “I have returned” broadcast. The St. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. The Battle of Leyte Gulf consisted of two preliminary strikes against the Japanese forces on the way to battle and three massive engagements once the fleets tangled. On 18 October Gascoyne and the American minesweeper YMS 393 entered San Pedro Bay and laid channel markers and shoal water buoys. With no aerial reconnaissance of his own to determine the makeup of the enemy fleet, and unaware that Halsey had taken the bait and moved his ships away from Leyte, Kurita believed that he had engaged a significant portion of the Third Fleet. The Japanese Navy activated its Operation SHO-1 defence plan as soon as the Allied assault forces were sighted on 17 October. Although Taffy 3’s carrier planes has been outfitted for close air support of the landing forces, they dominated the airspace above the Japanese ships and were eventually joined by aircraft from Taffy 2, another task force that was a short distance away. Units of the RAN provided essential capabilities that complemented those of the US Navy at Leyte Gulf. This, of course, was entirely the point. At the Battle off Samar Island the Japanese Centre Force attacked the US Navy Escort Carrier Force, which was left exposed by Halsey’s departure. The only Japanese carriers involved in the battle were in the northern decoy force. Task Group 30.8 of the Third Fleet, which augmented the Seventh Fleet support force, comprised 34 oilers, 11 escort carriers, 19 destroyers and 26 destroyer escorts. It may well be regarded as the largest naval battle in military history. For the next several hours, the two submarines shadowed the Japanese armada and radioed vital information about its speed, heading, and makeup back to the Pacific Fleet. Following the initial Japanese advance in late 1941 and early 1942, and the halting of the offensive in the Solomons and New Guinea, the United States, supported by its allies, began its trans-Pacific assault. Leyte Gulf was the last naval battle between battleships in history. Action of 24 July 1945 The Battle of Leyte Gulf, also called the Battles for Leyte Gulf, and formerly known as the Second Battle of the Philippine Sea, is generally considered to be the largest naval battle of World War II and, by some criteria, possibly the largest naval battle in history. By autumn 1944 the Japanese had been dislodged from many key outposts in the southwest and central Pacific, and other Japanese-controlled islands had been allowed to wither on the vine. By 1944 these two lines began to converge on the ‘Taiwan-Luzon-China’ triangle. Corrections? Several important lessons can be drawn from the Leyte Gulf operation. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. The assault on Leyte marked the joining of the two major advances on Japan—the central Pacific offensive commanded by Nimitz and the southern Pacific approach under MacArthur. Seventh Fleet and the cruisers and destroyers of the Royal Australian Navy’s Task Force 74. The aim of SHO-1 was to disrupt the landings by attacking the transport shipping in Leyte Gulf. Another 17 aircraft carriers, 6 battleships, 16 cruisers and 56 destroyers of the Third Fleet, under Admiral Halsey, USN, were tasked with covering the invasion. Preparatory and diversionary carrier strikes preceded the landings: the Ryukyu Islands (including Okinawa) were attacked on October 9–10, northern Luzon on October 11, and Formosa and the Pescadores on October 12–13. The main landings at Tacloban and Dulag were accompanied by a full bombardment from battleships, cruisers, destroyers and rocket ships, including Australia, Shropshire, Arunta and Warramunga. And sank shortly after the main engagement had ended Allied forces began landing Leyte. Its opening salvo the Darter sank the Japanese ships sailed north through the attack on Princeton... Passed through the San Bernardino Strait, moved to capitalize on the situation battleship Fuso sunk. Engagements between Allied forces and the American amphibious forces on Leyte Island in the Pearl Harbor attack and subsequently to... 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