Battle of Leyte Gulf

USS Samuel B. Roberts

bigpigeon.us webpage WW II - Japan > Philippines Liberated > Battle of Leyte Gulf, updated by RAC 7 Oct '19.

The Battle of Leyte Gulf was a collection of naval engagements fought in the Philippine Islands area and lasting over several days. In sum, the Battle of Leyte Gulf may have been the largest naval battle in history.

The United States began the liberation of the Philippines with a massive 20 October 1944 amphibious landing on the east coast of Leyte.

The four army divisions that initially landed on Leyte were supported by two navy fleets:

Admiral Thomas Kincaid's 7th Fleet, permanently attached to General Douglas MacArthur's command and charged with supporting MacArthur's land operations. The 7th Fleet included three task groups of small escort carriers, Taffy 1, Taffy 2, and Taffy 3, and a bombardment force of old battleships, of whom several had been sunk at Pearl Harbor and then raised and repaired.
Admiral William Halsey's Task Force 38 of the 3rd Fleet, overseen by Admiral Chester Nimitz in Hawaii. Task Force 38 consisted of five task groups of varying strengths. Each task group had one or more fast aircraft carriers, and the 3rd Fleet also included fast modern battleships. The 3rd Fleet arrived in the Philippines from operations off Formosa.

Most of Halsey's Task Force 38 had just participated in the Air Battle of Formosa, from 12 to 16 October. Here they had destroyed much of the Japanese air power that would have hindered US forces in the subsequent amphibious landing at Leyte and naval battles near Leyte. However, Task Force 38 was no longer fully equipped for combat, a fact that influenced the pending battle.

In a final attempt to destroy American forces, the Imperial Japanese Navy assembled most of its remaining combat-ready warships into the four groups as shown in red on the following map.

Historians generally break the entire Battle of Leyte Gulf into four segments. I believe it is easier to understand by listing seven separate engagements. In the following bullet list, one bullet is Halsey's fateful decision to abandon protection of the Leyte Gulf area and pursue the Japanese Northern Decoy Force.

6:30-7:30 am 23 Oct: (off the map to the left) US submarines Darter and Dace ambush the Japanese Central Force off the west coast of Palawan and sink two cruisers. (Palawan is off the center left of the map.)
9:38 am 24 Oct: (above #1 on map) Japanese land-based aircraft aerial bomb hits the aircraft carrier USS Princeton of Task Group 38.3 east of Polillo Island, which is in the Philippine Sea east of Manila. 3:23 pm explosion on Princeton kills nearly 233 on the cruiser USS Birmingham. Birmingham survives but Princeton is abandoned and sunk at 5:53 pm by cruiser USS Reno.
daytime 24 Oct: (#1 on the map) Third Fleet carrier aircraft fly 259 sorties against the Central Force in the Sibuyan Sea. The Central Force pauses to regroup.
8 pm 24 Oct: Third Fleet commander Halsey assumes the Central Force is no longer a threat and dispatches Task Groups 38.2, 38.3 (less ships damaged earlier in the day), and 38.4 north to engage the Northern Force. (Halsey's remaining two task groups have been sent to Ulithi for replenishment.)

Battle of Leyte Gulf, October 1944

10:36 pm Oct 24 - 7:23 am Oct 25 (#2 on the map): Japanese Southern Force defeated by 3rd Fleet battleships at Suriago Strait, which opens onto Leyte Gulf. Renmants of Southern Force begins to retreat. Shima's Force, following the Southern Force, reverses course without engaging.

Battle of Suriago Strait

6:45am - 9:25am 25 Oct (#4 on the first map): In the Battle off Samar, Central Force, having passed the north coast of Samar undetected at night, surprises the 7th Fleet's Taffy 3 task group. In the resulting engagement, Taffy 3 and the planes of Taffy 2 to the south, inflict enough damage on the Central Force and doubt in Admiral Kurita's mind, that the Central Force withdraws.

Battle Off Samar

25 Oct: In the Battle off Cape Engano to the north, units of Halsey's 3rd Fleet engage the Japanese Northern Decoy Force via four air strikes throughout the day.

Battle Off Cape Engano

7:45am 25 Oct: First organized Kamikaze action of the War with Japan begin. Kamikaze planes attack Taffy 1. Around 10:5am Kamikazes attack Taffy 3. Taffy 3's escort carrier St. Lo is sunk.

When World War II began, Japan had the world's third largest navy (after England and the United States), and perhaps the best-trained navy. After the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the Japanese navy was no longer a cohesive force of any significance. The United States Navy would suffer serious losses after Leyte Gulf but they were mostly due to Kamikaze pilots flying from land bases.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Leyte_Gulf provided the following list of warship losses during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Actually the USS Eversole was sunk by a Japanese submarine several days later.
Allied losses[edit]
The United States lost 7 warships during the Battle of Leyte Gulf:

One light aircraft carrier: USS Princeton
Two escort carriers: USS Gambier Bay and USS St. Lo (the first major warship sunk by a kamikaze attack)
Two destroyers: USS Hoel and USS Johnston
Two destroyer escorts: USS Samuel B. Roberts and USS Eversole
Four other American ships, along with HMAS Australia, were damaged.

Japanese losses[edit]
The Japanese lost 26 warships during the Battle of Leyte Gulf:

One fleet aircraft carrier: Zuikaku (flagship of the decoy Northern Forces).
Three light aircraft carriers: Zuihō, Chiyoda, and Chitose.
Three battleships: Musashi (former flagship of the Japanese Combined Fleet), Yamashiro (flagship of the Southern Force) and Fusō.
Six heavy cruisers: Atago (flagship of the Center Force), Maya, Suzuya, Chokai, Chikuma, and Mogami.
Four light cruisers: Noshiro, Abukuma, Tama, and Kinu.
Nine destroyers: Nowaki, Hayashimo, Yamagumo, Asagumo, Michishio, Akizuki, Hatsuzuki, Wakaba, and Uranami.

Sources for the WW II - The Battle of Leyte Gulf webpage

The webpage header photo, USS Samuel B. Roberts, is courtesy of www.navsource.org.
The Battle of Leyte Gulf, October 1944 map - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippines_Campaign_(1944–1945)#/media/File:Leyte_map_annotated.jpg
The Battle off Samar map is courtesy of saltofamerica.com.
The Battle off Cape Engano map is courtesy of saltofamerica.com.
https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/rep/Leyte/BatExp/Leyte-BE-78.1.html is a good on-line overview.
https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/daily/wwii/clash-at-surigao-strait-the-last-battle-line/ details the Battle of Suriago Strait.

Pottawattamie County, Iowa WW II Dead - Battle of Leyte Gulf
(taken from the bigpigeon.us WW II Dead webarea)

07-02 - Philippines - Battle of Leyte Gulf: (one dead, updated 6 Oct ’19)
† Fox, Louis Wendell Sr. - SN O-070987, US Navy
escort carrier USS St. Lo (CVE-63); KIA 25 Oct ’44 off Samar, Philippines; ship sunk by kamikaze, ~ 143 dead; Battle of Leyte Gulf; BNR.

07-02 - Other Philippines Area Naval Losses: (five dead, updated 6 Oct ’19)
† Adler, Marvin Sanford - SN 7246092, US Navy
destroyer USS Anderson (DD 411), Task Group 77.2, Leyte Gulf, Philippines; WIA 1 Nov ’44; DOW 4 Nov ’44; kamikaze attack, 16 dead.
† Crose, James Harvey - SN 37-470-848, USAAF
498th Bomber Sqdn., 345th Bomb. Gp. 5th AF; on Liberty ship SS Thomas Nelson; KIA 12 Nov ’44, Dulag Harbor, Leyte Gulf, Philippines; kamikaze attack; ship survived, 136 died, 133 were AAF.
† Daughtrey, Gilbert Pryor - SN 7010470, US Navy
submarine USS Growler (SS 215); KIA 8 Nov ’44 W of Manila Bay, Philippines, South China Sea; ship likely sunk by Japanese depth charge, all 86 dead, BNR.
† + Etheridge, Lindsey Edward - SN 6218827, US Navy
destroyer USS Monaghan (DD-354); DNB 18 Dec ’44 E of the Philippines, ship sank in Typhoon Cobra, 256 died, six survived; BNR (two other destroyers were lost in Typhoon Cobra).
† Riddle, Carl William - SN 6487355, US Navy
destroyer USS Cooper (DD 605); KIA 3 Dec ’44 off west coast of Leyte, Philippines; sunk by Japanese destroyer torpedo; 191 lost, 168 saved; Battle of Ormoc Bay; BNR.