Battle for Leyte Gulf

Battle for LEYTE GULF, a series of engagements fought (Oct. 23-26, 1944) between Japanese and mostly U. S. forces in the air, on the surface, and from beneath the surface of waters surrounding the Japanese-occupied Philippine Islands, which were being invaded by the U. S. Army. The Japanese were hampered by divided and poorly coordinated naval forces, the Americans by lack of unified command. Vice Adm. Thomas C. Kinkaid, commander U. S. Seventh Fleet, which staged the invasion, was responsible to Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander Southwest Pacific Area. The U. S. Third Fleet, supporting the invasion, was commanded by Adm. William F. Halsey, who was subordinate to the Commander in Chief Pacific Fleet, Adm. Chester W. Nimitz, at Pearl Harbor. The only command senior to both U. S. fleets was the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington.

When the Seventh Fleet invaded the Philippine Island of Leyte, the Japanese set in motion a complex defense plan. Down from Japan came the Northern Force, including four carriers. These, for lack of trained aviators, all lost in previous actions, were mere bait. Their function was to lure Halsey's Third Fleet away from the beachhead and thus clear the way for the Japanese Southern and Center forces. These were to converge on Leyte Gulf via Surigao and San Bernardino straits and attack the Seventh Fleet.

The Center Force--5 battleships, 12 cruisers, and 15 destroyers--while heading toward San Bernardino Strait, was attacked on October 23 by submarines and the next day by aircraft from Halsey's carriers. These attacks sank a battleship and two cruisers, disabled two cruisers, and so delayed the Center Force that it failed to coordinate with the Southern Force. The latter, intercepted in Surigao Strait before dawn on the 25th by Seventh Fleet surface ships, was utterly routed and nearly destroyed.

Halsey, having taken the bait, was now speeding north with all his available ships in pursuit of the Northern Force. Through San Bernardino Strait, thus left unguarded, came the battered but still powerful Center Force. Off Samar it attacked a small Seventh Fleet escort carrier unit and sank one of the carriers. While the rest fled, their accompanying destroyers and destroyer escorts turned and boldly counterattacked. Three of the American ships went down but, together with carrier- and land-based planes, they sank three Japanese cruisers and induced the rest of the Center Force to break off action.

Halsey, in response to a radioed nudge from Nimitz, toward noon divided his Third Fleet. While part continued north after the enemy carriers, Halsey led a force including six battleships and three carriers back south. When he arrived off San Bernardino Strait at midnight, the Center Force had already passed back through. The next day his aircraft sank another cruiser.

Meanwhile, the northern segment of the Third Fleet had finished off all four bait carriers, and planes of the newly formed Japanese Kamikaze Corps had crash-dived into five Seventh Fleet escort carriers, sinking one. Total American losses were 1 light and 2 escort carriers, 2 destroyers, and 1 destroyer escort. The once formidable Japanese had lost 3 battleships, 4 carriers, 10 cruisers, and 9 destroyers.

E. B. Potter
Author of The Naval Academy Illustrated History of the United States Navy