Battle of Leyte

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Wikipedia: Battle of Leyte

The World War II Battle of Leyte involved the reconquest of Leyte by American and Allied forces under the command of General Douglas MacArthur between October 20 and December 10, 1944. On October 20, 1944, General Douglas MacArthur waded ashore on Leyte, saying "I have returned". However, the Japanese did not give up so easily, as the ensuing Battle of Leyte proved, and convergence of naval forces resulted in the four-day Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval battle in history.

Under the protection of massed naval forces (see belowf) General Walter Krueger's United States Sixth Army and supporting forces made amphibious landings on the east coast and, after heavy fighting, were able to secure the island. The US Army suffered over 3,500 casualties, the defending Japanese more than 55,000.

The Battle of Leyte Gulf, was a World War II engagement between October 23 and October 26 1944. It was the largest air-sea battle in history.

Background

The US Third Fleet under Admiral William Halsey was protecting the landings of Allied forces at Leyte in the Philippines. The Japanese plan was to lure the Third Fleet away to the North using an apparently vulnerable force of aircraft carriers, and then to attack the landing forces with two attack forces sailing from the West. The diversion was successful, yet one of the Japanese attack forces was driven off by a force of six old battleships, five raised from the bottom of Pearl Harbor.

The other attack force fell on a group of escort carriers, designed for anti-submarine warfare, and escorting destroyers. Massively outgunned the carriers fought back, and the Japanese withdrew.

Battle off Cape Engano

Shortly before midnight on 24 October 1944 the three American carrier groups made rendezvous off Luzon and began a high-speed run northwards to strike the Japanese Northern Force at daybreak. During the run northward the ships which were to make up Task Force 34 were detached from the carrier groups and Task Force 34 was officially formed at 0240 October 25. This force swept northwards in the van of the carrier groups to follow up with gunfire the carriers’ attacks on the Japanese ships. The carriers launched their first attack group of 180 aircraft at dawn, before the Northern Force had been located, and the search aircraft made contact at 0710. At 0800 the air strikes began and continued until the evening, by which time the American aircraft had flown 527 sorties against the Northern Force, and sunk the carrier Zuikaku], the last survivor of the six carriers which had launched the attack on Pearl Harbor, and two of the three light carriers, crippled the remaining light carrier, and sunk a destroyer.

When added to the three battleships and nineteen smaller ships it represented a quarter of the Japanese losses so far.

Battle off Samar

The force under Admiral Kurita passed through San Bernardino Strait at 0300 on 25 October 1944 and steamed south along the coast of Samar. At dawn the Japanese ships engaged an American fleet of six escort aircraft carriers, three destroyers and four destroyer escorts under the command of Admiral Clifton Sprague which they thought was part of the 3rd Fleet. The escort carriers launched their aircraft which attacked the Japanese ships as they pursued the fleeing American force. The seven small ships turned to attack the Japanese fleet and, while three were sunk and the others damaged, they delayed the Japanese pursuit. The Japanese ships also had to evade the aircraft from the escort carriers and were soon spread out and were in some confusion while Kurita, who still thought he was engaging the Third Fleet, expected a massive air strike. He received a message from Ozawa that he was engaging the Third Fleet, which further confused the action, and he turned north. He felt that the Fast Carrier Task Force was close by and could engage the fast carriers while their aircraft were busy with Ozawa. He did not make contact with Halsey’s ships but continued to take punishment from Admiral McCain’s Task Group then from the carrier group returning from the north. Kurita then turned westward and retreated through the San Bernadino Strait.

Kamikaze

By extension, during World War II the word came to be used for desperate suicide attacks, particularly by aircraft assigned to destroy US and Allied ships by flying directly into them. Japan had lost any pretext of having competitive fighters by 1944, and were hardly able to service them, so expending them as bombs was suggested by Admiral Takijiro Onishi in October 1944. The official name of the mission was 神風 (shinpuu; the same characters as kamikaze but a different pronunciation) 特別 (tokubetsu) 攻撃隊 (ko-geki tai) literally meaning divine storm special force units. Due to that name, Japanese often know kamikaze as tokko or 特攻 (from tokubetsu kogeki).

On the Japanese side, the human loss from the navy air force was 2,525 and from the army air force was 1,387. According to a Japanese announcement, the missions sank 81 ships and damaged 195, but actually 34 were sank and 288 were damaged. According to a Japanese tally, suicide attacks accounted for up to 80 percent of American losses in the final phase of the war in the Pacific. The military effect of kamikaze tactics was significant but not overwhelming. Even so, the psychological effect on Allied soldiers, sailors and airmen was profound.

The first sortie by the Special Attack Force (Tokkotai, or Kamikaze Squadron) took place at the Battle of Leyte Gulf of the Philippines. The Japanese forces had lost the power they had at the beginning of the Pacific War (known officially as the Great Eastern Asian War in Japan) after their defeat at the Battle of Midway, and the US forces, with their rich resources and strong industrial power, were cornering the Japanese. On July 15, 1944, Saipan, which was the important base for the defense of Japanese mainland, finally fell to the Americans. The capture of Saipan made it possible for the US forces to strike the Japanese mainland with B-29 Superfortress long-range bombers. After the capture of Saipan, the US captured the Philippines, the islands where General MacArthur promised to return, and tried to make these islands the base for the attack on Japanese mainland. The Philippines were strategically important since the islands were located between the oil fields of Southeast Asia and Japan. For that reason, the Imperial Headquarter was forecasting that the Americans would try to capture the Philippines.
Japanese Zero as it collides with a US warship

On October 17, 1944, the US forces started to land on Suluan Island at the entrance of Leyte Gulf. On the next day, the Imperial Headquarter officially announced Shou ichi gou sakusen (捷１号作戦, The Operation Syou No.1) in order to defend the Philippines. In this operation, Kurita fleet (栗田), which was supplied in Burney, Borneo Island, was supposed to storm into Leyte Gulf and destroy the US forces. In addition, the Ozawa fleet (小沢) joined the operation as decoy, and the Nishimura fleet (西村) and Shima fleet (志摩) joined the operation as mobile forces. Also, the First Air Fleet joined the lines to support the operation.

However, the First Air Fleet at that time only had 40 airplanes, which were 34 Zeros (零戦), 1 reconnaissance plane, 3 Nakajima B6N Tenzan (Jill, 天山), 1 Mitsubishi G4M1 (Betty, 一式陸攻), and 2 Yokosuka P1Y1 Ginga (Frances, 銀河). In order to make it possible for the mobile forces to destroy the US landing forces in Leyte Gulf, it was necessary to stop the movement of the US task forces. The goal of the First Air Fleet was to fight the US task forces, however it seemed totally impossible to carry out the mission with only 40 airplanes.

Given the impossibility of the mission, the First Air Fleet was therefore the first squadron ever to form a Kamikaze Special Attack Force and the commandant of the First Air Fleet, Vice Admiral Onishi Takijirou, was known as the father of kamikaze attack. ?

Vice Admiral Onishi (大西) was assigned to Manila on October 17, 1944. Two days later, he went to Magracut Airport. At the 201st Navy Flying Corps headquarter in Magracut, a historical meeting was held. Finally, Vice Admiral Onishi suggested to his men. "I don't think there would be any other certain way to carry out the operation than to put a 250kg (app. 552lbs)-bomb on a zero and let it crash into a US carrier, in order to disable her for a week." The captain of the 201st Flying Corps, Commander Tamai (玉井), is said to have responded by telling Vice Admiral Onishi that he couldn't make any decision without a presence of Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku (山本 五十六). Vice Admiral Onishi told Commander Tamai that he already had Admiral Yamamoto's approval, however, and so Commander Tamai asked for a time to consider the proposal. Discussing the suicide missions with Lieutenant Shijuku, Commander Tamai, known for his gentleness and modesty, finally decided that there was no choice but to carry out the suicide mission, and his agreement was conveyed to Vice Admiral Onishi.

With the official formation of the special attack force, Commander Tamai asked twenty-three pilots from the Class-A Student Pilots of the 10th Session Training, who Commander Tamai had personally trained, to participate in the operation. All pilots agreed to join the operation, raising both their hands. Although it was already becoming obvious at this point that Japan was starting to lose the war, the morale of the soldiers was very high (details on their morale is described on another page).

For the commander of the special attack force, Lieutenant Seki Yukio, the 70th graduate of the Naval Academy, was named. When Lieutenant Seki was asked by Commander Tamai to be a commander of the special attack force, Lieutenant Seki closed his eyes and thought for ten seconds, hanging down his head. Then finally, he told Commander Tamai "please let me do that." Therefore the first 24 kamikaze pilots were chosen. The name of the special attack force was officially decided to Kamikaze Special Attack Force. The names of each four units, which were Unit Shikishima, Unit Yamato, Unit Asahi, Unit Yamazakura, was taken from a patriotic poem (waka or tanka) by an old Japanese classical scholar, Motoori Norinaga, which reads; If someone asks about the Yamato (Japanese) spirit of Shikishima (Japan), It is the flowers of yamazakura (mountain cherry blossom) that is fragrant in the Asahi (rising sun).

The first kamikaze strike came on October 25, 1944, off the Philippine island of Leyte. Twenty-six Mitsubishi Zeros were split into four groups to attack shipping, and five of these were able to hit the US aircraft carrier St. Louis with their load of 250kg of explosives, and sink her. Others hit and damaged several other carriers, and a submarine attack added to the confusion.

Conclusion

Having defended the landing force against the air and naval challenge, the way was opened for the reconquest of Leyte by the land forces under the command of General Douglas MacArthur, in the Battle of Leyte.