#头条创作挑战赛 #
The Pacific War refers to the war between the U.S.-led Allied forces and Japan during World War II, including the Sino-Japanese War. The Battle of Leyte Gulf, which broke out in the Pacific War, was the largest and largest naval battle in human history, and the aircraft carrier combat capability of the Japanese Navy's combined fleet was completely destroyed, laying the foundation for the return of american troops to the Philippines and then the capture of Okinawa.
After the U.S. army landed on Leyte Island on October 20, 1944, the Japanese army immediately launched the "Jet 1" operation, mobilizing fleets from the Japanese mainland, Singapore, Brunei and other places to the Philippines to counterattack the US army, from the 23rd to the 25th, a total of four naval and air battles occurred, constituting the entire Naval Battle of Leyte Gulf.
Act I: The Battle of Sibuyan
The Kurita fleet, which was responsible for the Japanese "main attack" task, under the command of the commander Vice Admiral Keno Kurita, entered the waters of Palawan Island on the evening of October 23, and was found by the US submarine sentry net, and the US submarine immediately launched an attack, Kurita's flagship heavy cruiser "Atago" and another heavy cruiser "Maya" were sunk by the US army, and the heavy cruiser "Kaohsiung" was seriously injured and forced to return;
Keno Kurita transferred his flagship to the battleship Yamato.
At this time, the Third Fleet, led by Admiral Halsey, the commander of the Us Third Fleet, still firmly guarded the San Bernardino Strait in the north, learned of the approaching fleet of Kurita, and immediately ordered his most powerful combat force, the Thirty-eighth Task Force, to send attack aircraft to attack the Japanese troops passing through the Sibuyan Sea.
After the three waves of air raids on the twenty-fourth day, the "Musashi" was hit by at least a dozen bombs and multiple torpedoes, the bow was seriously flooded, and the speed slowed down, at this time Kurita Keno ordered the fleet to turn around and withdraw from the US air raid range, but the "Musashi" was unable to catch up with the team, and finally capsized and sank.
The Japanese air force in the Philippines, which was supposed to cover the advance of Kurita's fleet, was not useless, with at least eighty fighters attacking the third detachment of task force, and as a result, the using aircraft prince was hit and fired by an armor-piercing shell projected by a Japanese dive bomber, causing the ammunition depot to explode and sink, which also affected the U.S. fleet's alert net, so that the U.S. military did not discover the enemy-lured fleet led by Jizaburo Ozawa from the north to the south by the evening of the same day.
Halsey then ordered the Third Fleet to begin sailing north, believing that he had repelled the Kurita Fleet, and he also sent a letter to The Commander of the Seventh Fleet, Vice Admiral Kinkaid, telling him that his mission objective had been changed to "pursuing the Japanese fleet" and "considering" forming task force Thirty-fourth Task Force to guard San Bernardino, but this plan did not come true, the strait became "undefended", and no one knew that kurita Fleet had once again turned around and continued its original mission as night was approaching. Drive to the San Bernardino Strait.
Act II: The Battle of Surigao.com
It is not surprising that the commander of the U.S. Seventh Fleet, Kinkaidok, ignored the defense of the San Bernardino Strait, believing that his old commander Halsey would guard the waterway, and second, his fleet had to deploy the Surigao Bottom Strait in addition to landing operations, especially since the U.S. military already knew that the Japanese Nishimura Fleet and the Shima Fleet were approaching.
Kinkaid gave command of the naval battle to his commander, Rear Admiral Odendorff, who was in the Surigaodi Strait, with six warships, eight cruisers, twenty-nine destroyers, and forty or fifty torpedo boats of the Seventh Fleet lay down a series of checkpoints to completely annihilate the invading Japanese ships.
At three o'clock in the morning of October 25, the Japanese Lieutenant General Shoji Nishimura led the Nishimura fleet into the Suri Gaude Strait first, but Nishimura Shoji did not have the opportunity to use the firepower of the six twin turrets of the Fuso-class battleships, because he was facing the disadvantage of the "T" shape in the battle column shelling tactics, and could only exert the bow firepower, but the US ships could shell with full force with side fire. In this last battleship-to-battleship gun battle in history, it was a completely one-sided massacre, the "Fuso" battleship was first blown in half by the American torpedo, and then the American battleship, guided by radar, accurately poured shells on Nishimura's flagship "Yamashiro" and the heavy cruiser "Top", and the two ships were quickly sunk.
Because Shima Kiyoei and Nishimura Shoji, two contemporaries of the Navy, were unwilling to coordinate and fight separately because of personal grievances, the Shima fleet and the Nishimura fleet did not have any tactical coordination at all. The subsequent arrival of Shima Kiyoei saw the tragic situation of nishimura's fleet and immediately ordered the fleet to turn around and retreat, and the main reason why the Shima fleet was able to escape the disaster was because of the "Battle of Samar Island" on the other side, and Odendorff had to turn back to support and had no time to take care of the Shima fleet.
Act III: The Naval Battle of Samar
After kurita's fleet turned, Kurita keno quickly passed through the undefended San Bernardino Strait, and spotted the U.S. fleet at dawn, and the U.S. army was surprised by the presence of the Japanese ships, because the Seventh Fleet thought that Halsey was still in the San Bernardino Strait! At this time, Lieutenant General Kinkaid had only three weak combat forces to block this powerful Japanese battleship formation:
Three escort ship detachments, each with six escort warships and several destroyers escorting them. These escort ships then turned and fled east, and took off fighters to attack the Japanese ships, and the destroyers also flew towards the powerful Japanese warships with fearless spirit! U.S. destroyers fired torpedoes and naval guns to jam and attract Japanese gunfire. These daring, suicide-like operations succeeded in disrupting the formation of the Kurita fleet, forcing it to fight separately, and in the melee, three heavy cruisers of the Kurita fleet were sunk, and at least two American escort ships were sunk, and the other two were severely damaged. However, as long as the Japanese army regrouped and continued to attack the U.S. landing field to the south, it would be a massacre! However, Kurita made the most bizarre decision of the battle, ordering the ships to gather their formations and then retreat northward; The reason was that he "sensed that the enemy support fleet was approaching."
Final scene: Naval Battle of Cape Nganio
When Halsey discovered Ozawa's fleet, he immediately ordered the fleet to move north in an attempt to eliminate the remaining Japanese aircraft carriers in the Pacific, believing that Kurita's fleet had been repulsed at the Battle of Sibuyan, and even if the reconnaissance planes later discovered that Kurita's fleet was advancing towards the Seventh Fleet, Halsey ignored it, believing that Kim Kai-tak was sufficient to deal with Kurita.
Halsey sent nearly 860 fighters to attack the Ozawa fleet on October 25, but the Ozawa fleet was already an empty shelf, not only lacking fighters, but also undertrained, so it quickly lost its combat effectiveness.
At this time, the news of the battle of Samar came, and in addition to the Seventh Fleet sending a letter to ask for help, even Nimitz, who was sitting in Pearl Harbor, sent a telegram to Halsey: "Where is Task Force THIRTY-fourth?" However, the officer in charge of the encryption of the telegram added the sentence "The whole world wants to know", and Halsey's decoding officer thought it was the main text and did not delete it, which made Halsey feel deeply humiliated and angry. In the end, Halsey ordered the fleet to turn around and go south to rescue the Seventh Fleet, leaving only a task force to "clean up" the remnants of Ozawa's ships, and also hastily ended the last aircraft carrier fleet showdown in history, Ozawa's fleet was completely destroyed, and the American army was slightly damaged, but Halsey's fleet did not pursue Kurita's fleet.
epilogue
The Battle of Wright was the largest naval battle in human history, and the last battleship duel and aircraft carrier duel in the history of war, the naval power of the Japanese Empire was basically destroyed after this naval battle, leaving only a small number of troops to carry out "special offensive missions", and the Allied forces led by the United States had 100% control of the Pacific Sea and were able to launch attacks on the Japanese-occupied areas from any location.
The Battle of Leyte Gulf was also a chaotic battle, the lack of effective communication between the two U.S. fleets led to the battle of Samar Island, Halsey was too obsessed with concentrating forces, destroying Japanese aircraft carriers, refusing to divide troops to guard the San Bernardino Strait, and even after receiving nimitz telegrams, he wasted an extra hour of temper before sending the fleet south, causing the remnants of Kurita's fleet to flee.
However, the Japanese army also lacked coordination and contact, when Ozawa successfully lured the enemy, he sent a letter to Kurita, but Kurita did not receive this information, not to mention the Battle of Suri Takadate, Shima Kiyohide and Nishimura Shoji, two sea officers of the same period, because of personal grievances and unwilling to coordinate, fight for their own battles, and finally led to the tragic situation of almost the total destruction of the fleet, which is more worthy of consideration and vigilance for posterity.
If you're still interested in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, you can learn more about the battle, and you can watch the Pacific War Trilogy, which provides an in-depth look at the Battle of Leyte Gulf and a more detailed account of the battles between Pearl Harbor and Midway.
After reading the "Pacific War Trilogy", it is very emotional, under the change, blind movement, just in the matter, far from enough. The geopolitical situation is turbulent, from the "isms" to the "idea" of the war of words, the sword and light sword shadow for a moment, how can human beings be reborn? What connects history to the present is to think twice. War is really a terrible practice of rationality and fanaticism, and we must never relax our vigilance against Japanese militants .↓↓↓
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