The Battle of Leyte Gulf
...uld sneak through the Surigao Strait, followed by three more cruisers and four destroyers sailing in from Japanese home waters. However the main force would sail from Brunei consisting of five battleships, twelve cruisers, and fifteen battleships. They would sneak through the San Bernardino Strait, loop around the island of Samar, and smash the Americans. The Japanese would fight a fleet that consisted of 151 LSTs (landing ships, tank), 58 transports, 221 LCTs (landing craft, tank) and 79 LCIs (landing craft, infantry), and hundreds of other vessels in five battles. The first stage of the Japanese Navy’s trap did not go so well. As they advanced up the Palawan Passage, two American submarines, the Darter and the Dace, picked up “many ships” on their radar that morning, and then laid in ambush waiting for the force to sail by. They launched a spread of torpedoes undetected by the Japanese that sunk two cruisers, one of which contained the Admiral who luckily was not injured, and hurt another cruiser. The second stage did not go any better for the Japanese. The battle consisted of two waves. On the first wave, the largest battleships ever built, the Yamota and the Musashi, and the Myoko were targeted. Due to their immense protection, the Yamota and the Musashi were hardly damaged. The Myoko, however, was forced to turn back to Brunei, and Kurita had lost another heavy cruiser. The second wave concentrated on the Musashi, which was successfully hit and eventually rolled over and sunk. Kurita was last seen retreating to the west, Halsey saw the “bait,” and pursued Admiral Ozawa and his carriers. The third stage of the Battle of Leyte Gulf was another stunning blow to the Japanese. Vice Admiral Nishimura and the battleships Fuso and Yamashiro along with the heavy cruiser Mogami and the destroyers Shigure, Michishio, Asagumo, and Yamagumo headed east towards Surigao Strait. The Americans were perfectly deployed and anxiously waiting for the ships to sail into their trap. Vice Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid and Rear Admiral Jesse B. Olendorf had an excellent plan of what they were going to do when the Japanese got there. After the first attack, the Yamashiro was broken in two, and the destroyers Michishio, Asagumo, and Yamagumo were sunk. In the second wave of the attack, two cruisers and four destroyer under Vice Admiral Kiyohide Shima passed by the battle. Shima ordered his force to reverse course to avoid a similar fate. The Battle of the Surigao Strait ended with two Japanese battleships, one cruiser, and three destroyers destroyed. ...