Battle of Leyte Gulf (1944): The Largest Naval Battle in History

The Battle of Leyte Gulf, fought from 23 to 26 October 1944 in the waters around the Philippine islands of Leyte, Samar and Luzon, was the largest naval battle in history. Japan threw almost its entire surviving fleet at the American invasion of Leyte, but four separate engagements ended in a crushing US victory. The battle broke the Imperial Japanese Navy as a fighting force and saw the first organised kamikaze attacks.

Background: the return to the Philippines

By the autumn of 1944 the United States had won control of the central Pacific. The Battle of the Philippine Sea in June had destroyed most of Japan’s trained carrier pilots, and American bombers could now reach the Philippines. General Douglas MacArthur, who had left the islands in 1942, pressed for their liberation.

The choice of Leyte, in the centre of the archipelago, was made in September 1944 after Halsey’s carrier raids found Japanese air defences in the central Philippines weaker than expected. The planned landing on Mindanao was cancelled and the invasion brought forward by about two months.

On 20 October 1944 the US Sixth Army landed on Leyte, supported by Vice Admiral Thomas Kinkaid’s Seventh Fleet, which included Australian ships. Admiral William Halsey’s powerful Third Fleet, with its fast carrier task force, covered the operation from further out.

The Japanese plan: Shō-Go

Losing the Philippines would cut Japan off from the oil of the Dutch East Indies. Under the plan known as Shō-Gō 1 (“Victory Operation”), Japan’s commanders accepted the risk of losing the fleet in exchange for a chance to destroy the landing force.

Vice Admiral Jisaburō Ozawa’s carriers, which had very few aircraft left, would sail from Japan as a decoy to lure Halsey north. Meanwhile, Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita’s Centre Force, with the giant battleships Yamato and Musashi, would pass through the San Bernardino Strait, while a Southern Force under Vice Admirals Shōji Nishimura and Kiyohide Shima came through the Surigao Strait. The two forces were to converge on the landing beaches in Leyte Gulf.

The four battles

The battle is usually divided into four main engagements, fought over three days and hundreds of kilometres apart. Each Japanese force was too weak on its own, and success depended on precise timing that was never achieved.

Palawan Passage and the Sibuyan Sea (23–24 October). On 23 October the US submarines Darter and Dace ambushed Kurita’s force, sinking the heavy cruisers Atago and Maya and crippling Takao. The next day Halsey’s carrier aircraft attacked in the Sibuyan Sea and sank Musashi, which took around 17–19 bomb hits and some 19 torpedoes. Japanese land-based aircraft sank the US light carrier Princeton. Kurita turned back temporarily, and Halsey concluded his force was beaten.

Surigao Strait (night of 24–25 October). Nishimura’s battleships Yamashiro and Fusō steamed into the strait, where Rear Admiral Jesse Oldendorf had laid a trap. US torpedo boats and destroyers attacked first, then six battleships, five of them survivors or repaired veterans of Pearl Harbor, opened fire across the head of the Japanese column, a classic manoeuvre known as “crossing the T”. Both Japanese battleships were sunk and Nishimura was killed. It was the last battleship-against-battleship action in history.

Samar (25 October). Halsey had taken all of his fast carriers and battleships north after Ozawa’s decoy, leaving the San Bernardino Strait unguarded. At dawn Kurita’s battleships and cruisers came upon “Taffy 3”, a group of six escort carriers, three destroyers and four destroyer escorts under Rear Admiral Clifton Sprague. The small ships laid smoke and launched torpedo attacks, while aircraft from all three escort carrier groups attacked with whatever weapons they had. The destroyers Johnston and Hoel, the destroyer escort Samuel B. Roberts and the escort carrier Gambier Bay were sunk, but Kurita, confused and believing he faced fleet carriers, broke off and later withdrew without entering Leyte Gulf.

Cape Engaño (25 October). Far to the north, Halsey’s aircraft sank all four of Ozawa’s carriers, Zuikaku, Zuihō, Chitose and Chiyoda. Zuikaku was the last surviving carrier of the six that had attacked Pearl Harbor. An urgent message from Admiral Chester Nimitz, padded with the phrase “the world wonders”, prompted Halsey to send battleships south, but they arrived too late to catch Kurita.

The first kamikazes

On 25 October 1944 aircraft of the newly formed Special Attack Units under Vice Admiral Takijirō Ōnishi crashed deliberately into US escort carriers off Samar. The USS St. Lo was sunk and several other ships damaged. This was the beginning of the organised kamikaze attacks that would cost the Allies dearly over the following ten months.

Key people

• William Halsey, commander of the US Third Fleet, whose dash north remains the most debated decision of the battle.
• Thomas Kinkaid, commander of the Seventh Fleet, responsible for the landing forces.
• Takeo Kurita, commander of Japan’s Centre Force, whose withdrawal at Samar is still discussed by historians.
• Jisaburō Ozawa, commander of the decoy carrier force, who succeeded in drawing Halsey away.
• Clifton Sprague, commander of Taffy 3, whose ships fought far above their weight off Samar.

By the numbers

Consequences

Leyte Gulf ended the Imperial Japanese Navy’s ability to fight a fleet action. Its remaining battleships lacked fuel and air cover, and the few that survived were later sunk or immobilised. American forces went on to secure Leyte by the end of 1944 and to land on Luzon in January 1945, cutting Japan off from its southern oil supplies. The battle also cost Japan many of its most experienced naval officers and sailors, who could not be replaced. Among the remaining capital ships, Yamato was sunk on its final sortie in April 1945, and most of the rest were disabled by air raids on their home ports in July 1945.

Japan increasingly relied on suicide tactics, used on a massive scale at the Battle of Okinawa in 1945.

Legacy

The battle is studied in naval colleges for its lessons on command, communication and deception. Halsey defended his decision for the rest of his life, arguing that the Japanese carriers were the greatest threat; he did not know that Ozawa’s carriers were nearly empty of aircraft. Halsey was criticised for leaving the strait unguarded, while Kurita’s retreat at Samar remains one of the great “what ifs” of the war. The stand of Taffy 3, whose crews earned a Presidential Unit Citation, became one of the most celebrated episodes in US naval history. In 2019 the wreck of the USS Johnston was located, and in 2021 it was surveyed at a depth of about 6,500 metres, making it the deepest shipwreck ever surveyed at the time.

Timeline

• 1944, 20 October: US forces land on Leyte.
• 1944, 23 October: US submarines sink two Japanese cruisers in the Palawan Passage.
• 1944, 24 October: Battle of the Sibuyan Sea; Musashi and Princeton are sunk.
• 1944, 24–25 October: Battle of Surigao Strait at night.
• 1944, 25 October: Battles off Samar and Cape Engaño; first organised kamikaze attacks.
• 1944, 26 October: US aircraft pursue the retreating Japanese forces.

Why it matters

Leyte Gulf was the decisive naval battle of the Pacific War’s final year. It destroyed what remained of Japan’s sea power, made the liberation of the Philippines possible and opened the way for the final campaigns against Japan.