The Allied campaign from August 1942 to early 1944 drove the Japanese army from its many island bases in the southern and central Pacific, while isolated many other bases (most notably in the Solomon Islands , Bismarck Islands , Admiralty, New Guinea, Marshall Islands and Wake Island ), and in June 1944, a series of U.S. amphibious landings were carried out with the support of the Fifth Fleet Fast Carrier Task Force, occupying much of the Mariana Islands (bypassing Rota). The offensive broke through Japan's strategic internal defense circle and provided the Americans with a base from which long-range Boeing B-29 Super Fortress bombers could attack Japanese native islands.
Aerocarrier Fearless Launch Attack Squadron (October 24)
The Japanese army counterattacked in the Philippine naval battle. The U.S. Navy destroyed three Japanese aircraft carriers, , damaged other ships, and shot down about 600 Japanese aircraft, making the ship-based air force of the Japanese Navy very limited and experienced pilots very few. However, many senior officers outside the Joint Chiefs of Staff, including Admiral Chester Nimitz, believe that the large amount of land-based air force accumulated by the Japanese in the Philippines is too dangerous to bypass.
The next logical step is to cut off Japan's supply lines to Southeast Asia, depriving them of fuel and other war essentials, but there are two different plans to do so. Admiral Ernest King, other members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Admiral Nimitz, supported the blockade of the Japanese troops in the Philippines and invaded Taiwan, while Admiral 1 U.S. Army Admiral Douglas MacArthur hoped to fulfill the promise of "I will come back" in 1942 and support the invasion of the Philippines.
aerial shot of the Tacloban landing site.
Although Taiwan can also serve as a base for invasion of the mainland, MacArthur believes that this is unnecessary, it is estimated that this will require about 12 divisions of the Army and Marine Corps . Meanwhile, Australian troops dispersed due to the engagement of the Solomon Islands, New Guinea, the Dutch East Indies and other Pacific Islands, will not be able to free up any troops for such operations. Therefore, the invasion of Taiwan will be postponed until Germany's defeat in the war releases necessary manpower.
MacArthur, Nimitz and Roosevelt The meeting of the president helped confirm the Philippines as a strategic goal, but no decision was reached and the debate lasted for two months. In the end, Nimitz changed his mind and agreed to MacArthur's plan, and finally decided that MacArthur's army would invade Leight Island in the central Philippines. , commanded by Lieutenant General Thomas Kincaid, will provide amphibious forces and close-range naval support.
Fight between Japan and the United States Fleet (October 25, 1944, Sama Coast)
U.S. Seventh Fleet At this time, the units of the U.S. Navy and the Royal Australian Navy were included. Before the major naval operation in Leight Bay , the Royal Australian Navy ships and the USS Honolulu were severely damaged by air strikes; during the battle, the two cruisers were retired under the escort of HMAS Warramunga and headed to the main Allied base of Manus Island , 1,700 miles (2,700 kilometers) away for maintenance.
Prelude
Halsey decided to attack the aircraft carrier of the Northern Force of Japan to the north, which made the Strait of San Bernardino completely unguarded.
light aircraft carrier Princeton (left) caught fire after comet bombing, and light cruiser Birmingham (right) approached rescue
Senior officers of the Seventh Fleet (including Kincaid and his staff) generally believed that Halsey was taking his three available aircraft carrier groups northwards (McCain's fleet, the strongest of the third fleet, still returning from Ulich's direction), but left TF 34's battleship covering the San Bernardino Strait against the Japanese Central Forces.In fact, Halsey has not formed Task Force 34, and all six of Willis Lee's battleships are heading north along with the aircraft carriers and all available cruisers and destroyers of the Third Fleet.
Therefore, Kurita's central troops appeared unresistingly from the Strait of San Bernardino at 3:00 am on October 25 and headed south along the Sama coast. There are only three escort carriers units of the Seventh Fleet (call signs "Taffy" 1, 2 and 3) in its path, with a total of 16 small, very slow and unarmored escort carriers, each carrying up to 28 aircraft, screens of escort by light-armed and non-armored destroyers and small destroyers escort (DE). Despite heavy losses in the Palawan Strait and Sibuyan Sea operations, the Japanese Central Forces remained very powerful, consisting of four battleships (including the giant Yamato), six heavy cruisers , two light cruisers and eleven destroyers.
At 3:23 pm, a big explosion swallowed up a nearby rescue ship.
Fighting
Kurita's troops unexpectedly captured the task force of Rear Admiral Clifton Sprague 77.4.3 "Taffy 3" (Taffy 3) . Sprague directed his aircraft carrier to launch their planes and ran east to avoid the storm. He ordered the destroyers and DE to create smoke screens to hide the retreating aircraft carriers.
Kurita didn't know that Ozawa's bait plan had been successful, and thought he had found the aircraft carrier group of Halsey's Third Fleet. After just redeploying the ships into the air defense formation, he ordered the "general offensive" to further complicate the situation and asked his fleet to divide it into several divisions to attack independently.
Shancheng in the artillery battle (some people say this photo was taken during the air raid on the 24th)
destroyer Johnston is the closest to the enemy. Lieutenant Colonel Ernest E. Evans took the initiative to fly his hopeless ship into the Japanese fleet at flank speed. Johnston fired torpedo at the heavy cruiser Kumano, causing damage to her and forcing her to deviate from the route. Seeing this, Sprague issued the order to "Little Boy Attack" to send the rest of Toffee 3's screening ship into the battle. Taffy 3's two other destroyers, Hoel and Heermann, and the destroyer escorted Samuel B. Roberts, attacked with suicide determination, and fired and disrupted the Japanese formation when the ship turned to avoid the torpedo. When the ship approaches the enemy column, Lt. Cdr. Samuel B. Roberts's Copeland told everyone through the horns that it would be "a struggle with the overwhelming possibility of survival that could not be expected." As the Japanese fleet continued to approach, Hall and Roberts were hit several times and quickly sank. After exhausting all the torpedoes, the Johnston continued to fight with its 5-inch guns until it was sunk by a group of Japanese destroyers .
Musashi
When they were preparing for the plane to attack, the escort carriers fought back against Japan's firepower with all the fire they had - a 5-inch cannon for each aircraft carrier. The officers of the Tactical Command have instructed the aircraft carrier to "open to the Pea Shooter" and each ship will fire the enemy ship once it enters range. Fanshaw Bay opened fire on a cruiser, believed to have hit five times, one of which was located in a superstructure that caused smoke. Kalinin Bay aimed at a Miao-high heavy cruiser, claiming to hit the cruiser's turret No. 2, with the second turret located under the first. Gambier Bay found a cruiser and claimed to have hit at least three times. White Plains reportedly hit multiple targets, two between the superstructure and the stack ahead, and the other on the Heavy Cruiser's turret No. 1.
Meanwhile, Rear Admiral Thomas Sprague (not related to Clifton) ordered 16 of his three task force escort carriers to launch all their aircraft immediately — a total of 450 aircraft — with any weapons they can use, even if these are just machine gun or deep water bomb .The escort carriers have aircraft that are more suitable for patrol and anti-submarine missions, including older models such as the FM-2 Wildcats, although they also have TBM Avenger torpedo bombers, while Halsey’s fleet carriers have the latest aircraft equipped with adequate anti-submarine capabilities - Transport Ordnance. However, the fact that the Japanese army had no air cover meant Sprague's aircraft could attack without Japanese fighter confrontation. Therefore, the air counterattack was almost constant, and some, especially the mission unit 77.4.2 (Taffy 2), which was heavy.
Prince Harbour Square Cuartel Museum, Historical Mark of October 23, 1944 (left). The Japanese warship Nagamon and other ships anchored in Brunei (right)
Toffee 3's aircraft carrier turned south and retreated in artillery fire. Gambill Bay behind the U.S. formation became the focus of Yamato battleship , and capsized before sinking several times at 09:07. 4 Grumman TBM Avenger torpedo bombers crashed along with Gambier Bay. Several other aircraft carriers were damaged but were able to escape.
Admiral Kurita withdraws from
The ferocity of the US defense seems to confirm the Japanese assumption that they are fighting the main fleet forces, not just escort carriers and destroyers. Air and torpedo attacks exacerbate the chaos of the “total attack” command when Kurita’s flagship Yamato turned north to avoid torpedoes and lost contact with the battle.
1944 On October 24, 1944, Yamato was hit by a bomb near the front turret in the Sibuyan Sea
Kirata suddenly stopped fighting and ordered "all ships, my course north, speed 20", obviously to reorganize his messy fleet. Kurita's battle report said he received a message indicating a group of U.S. aircraft carriers were sailing to his north. Kurita would rather use his fleet against battleships than transport ships, and he began to pursue, thus losing the opportunity to destroy the shipping fleet of the Wright Bay and destroy the important landings of the Wright Bay. After failing to intercept the non-existent aircraft carrier further north, Kurita finally retreated to the Strait of San Bernardino. His three heavy cruisers were sunk, and his firm resistance convinced him that persistence in the offense would only cause further losses to the Japanese.
The poor communication and lack of aerial reconnaissance between the individual Japanese troops mean that Kurita was never told that the deception had been successful and that there was only a small and underfired force standing between his battleship and the fragile transport ship of the invading fleet. Therefore, Kurita remains firmly convinced that he has been fighting members of the Third Fleet, and it is only a matter of time before Halsey surrounds and annihilates him. After the war, Rear Admiral Clifton Sprague wrote to his colleague Aubrey Fitch, "I... told Admiral Nimitz that the main reason for their turn to the north was that they were too much destruction to move on, and I still hold this view, and the cold analysis will eventually confirm this."
Kirita's surviving troops almost all escaped. Halsey and the Third Fleet's battleship returned too late to stop him. Nagato and King Kong suffered moderate damage during the air strike of the Toffee 3's escort carrier. Kurita started the battle with five warships. Only Yamato and Haruna remain combat-capable when they return to the base.
1944 The light aircraft carrier Princeton east of Luzon caught fire on October 24, 1944
As the desperate surface operation was about to end, Lieutenant General Takijiro Oshiki put his Japanese special attack forces into operation from the base in Luzon, launching a kamikaze attack on Allied ships in Wright Bay and escort carrier units near Samar. This is the second organized Kamikaze attack in WWII after the attack on Toffee 1's Kamikaze hours ago near the Surigao Strait. Taffy 3's escort carrier St. Lo was hit by a Kamikaze plane and sunk after a series of internal explosions. Six Grumman FM-2 Wildcat fighters and five Grumman TBM Avenger torpedo bombers crashed along with San Ro. Three other Taffy 3 escort carriers, Kalinin Bay, Kikun Bay and White Plains, were also damaged in the same Kamikaze attack.
Both sides harmed
Japanese army
- Japan lost 28 warships in Light Bay naval battle :
- A fleet aircraft carrier: Ruihe (the flagship of the Northern Army).
- light aircraft carriers: Ruifeng , Chiyoda and Chiyoda and Chihosu .
- battleships: Musashi (the former flagship of Japan Joint Fleet ), Yamashiro (the flagship of the Southern Forces) and Fusang .
- heavy cruiser : Atago (the flagship of the central army), Maya , Suzuya , Bird sea , Thousand Bear , Thousand Bear , The most on.
- Four Light cruiser : can replace , Abukuma , Tama , Dama , Ghost rage .
- destroyers: Nowaki, Hayashimo, Yamagumo, Asagumo, Asagumo, Michishio, Michishio, Akizuki, Hatsuzuki, Wakaba, Uranami, Fujinami and Shiranui.
Allied
- The United States lost at least 9 battleships in the Battle of Lyte Gulf:
- A light aircraft carrier: USS Princeton
- Two escort aircraft carriers: USS Gambier Bay and USS St. Lo (the first large warship sunk by kamikaze
- two destroyers: USS Hoel and USS Johnston
- Two destroyers escorted: USS Samuel B. Roberts and USS Eversole
- A PT Ship: USS PT-493
- The other four ships (including Submarine USS Darter) and HMAS Australiacorrupted
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