In October 1944, the United States began an amphibious landing on the island of Leyte, Philippines. The original plan was to capture the southern-most island and fight north, but from previous interactions with the Japanese the US could see that there was not as fierce of resistance as they thought. The centrally located island of Leyte was chosen, as US naval superiority meant that they could deny Japanese resupplying of the southern divisions holed up, and that the soldiers would either surrender or wither away from attrition.
Unlike the German Atlantikwall, the Japanese did a very poor job of preparing their beaches for a potential invasion. American forces were able to land with ease, allowing 200,000 American forces under Douglas MacArthur to disembark onto the island.
This famous photo of MacArthur was taken at Leyte; with him is the Philippines president and MacArthur’s staff.
The important battle, though, was fought in the sea in the following days. The battle is considered by many historians to be the largest naval battle in history. A few other interesting things is it is the last naval battle between battleships, it marked the first organized use of kamikaze attacks, and it included the destruction of the final Japanese aircraft carrier that had survived from Pearl Harbor (there were originally 6 but by this time the other 5 had been scuttled or sunk). The Japanese and Americans had 4 major engagements during this naval battle, resulting in 6 American ships lost, of which 3 were capital ships, and 28 Japanese ships lost, of which 7 were capital ships.
Each number represents the individual battles that happened between William Halsey’s American/Australian combined force and Takeo Kurita’s Japanese force.
The interesting thing is that before any of these engagements occured, two American submarines managed to take down Kurita’s flagship and her sister ship, both heavy cruisers.
This battle’s significance is that it was the last time when the Japanese Imperial Navy had a chance to score a major naval victory. Halsey had left the San Bernadino Strait open in his pursuit of a Japanese carrier bait force (almost all of the carrier planes had already been shot down in the initial troop landing), which left the US landing force vulnerable to the Japanese fleet. Admiral Halsey sent Task Force 34 to cover the straight after receiving desperate calls for help from the 7th Fleet. The San Bernadino Strait folly had left the 7th fleet’s flank exposed. It is believed if TF 34 was deployed at the first request of help, the entire Center Force of Japanese ships would have been annihilated.
This was a really interesting read to me as I had always been under the impression that most of the Japanese fleet had been destroyed in the Battle of Midway. Beyond that, I think it is really interesting how towards the end of the war, as Japan started running low on equipment, a lot of defense positions were left undefended simply from a lack of available materials. I also just didn’t know that much about the retaking of the Philippines in the Pacific theater (most history focuses on Nimitz and island hopping.)
I’m embarrassed to say it, but I never really considered that we have that strong a goal coming into battles. Damn, that does make me feel stupid to type out but I suppose as someone not thinking about war too much then maybe that’s not beyond a stretch of the mind. Anyhow, the way you set the stage here peaked my interest quite a bit from the beginning in the way you mentioned the whole reason a battle occurred and why the hell people thought it may gain some advantage.