The Surigao Strait is 80 km long, 22 km wide in the south and 46 km wide in the north, and is almost vertical from south to north, making it easy to defend and difficult to attack. Particularly unfavorable for the Japanese, the two sides of the strait are full of rugged cliffs, and American ships can use the islands to hide their tracks, but the Japanese army is difficult to detect them through sight or radar. The Japanese fleet moved north in columns from the southern tip of the strait, providing an excellent opportunity for the Americans to block the exit of the strait and occupy the "t" head.
After Rear Admiral Davidson led the Fourth Brigade north, Kincaid knew that the daunting task of guarding the Surigao Strait could only be undertaken by his own Seventh Fleet. Fortunately, he had enough troops at his disposal. In Kincaid's view, the direction of the San Bernardino Strait is not to be worried. Even if the Japanese aircraft carrier fleet came from the mainland to the south to challenge, if all of Mitchell's aircraft carriers went north to meet the attack, there was also Lieutenant General Lee's Thirty-fourth Task Force guarding the exit of the strait, and the Japanese middle road fleet could not easily cross. Since the north is worry-free, he can safely use all the forces of the Seventh Fleet in the direction of the Surigao Strait.
After discovering that the Second Japanese Fleet was coming, Kinkaid received no further information. To be honest, since Kenny's Fifth Air Force did not yet have the capability to enter Leyte Island to support ground operations, it should devote more force to the search, especially in the southern strongholds of the Sulu Sea and the Surigao Strait. On the afternoon of the 24th, they should dispatch long-legged B-24 heavy bombers from Motero Island to attack the Nishimura fleet. Even so, the strategic intention of the Japanese fleet to raid Leyte Gulf through the Sulu Sea and then through the Surigao Strait has been revealed. On the morning of the 24th, Kinkaid had begun to prepare, as he himself said, "We have almost a whole day to think about how to deploy troops." ”
Kincaid was not as willing to compete with his subordinates for command as Halsey. At noon, he called Rear Admiral Jesse Oldendorf, commander of the Second Group of task forces of the Seventy-seventh Task Force, "Preparing for night combat, it is estimated that the enemy has 2 battleships, 4 heavy cruisers, 4 light cruisers, and more than 10 destroyers." It was reported that after 9 a.m. the Ministry was attacked by our carrier-based aircraft in the East Sulu Sea. The enemy could reach Leyte Gulf tonight. The telegram was copied to Halsey, Nimitz, and Admiral Kim of Washington at the same time. As can be seen from the telegraph data, the Americans clearly combined the two fleets of Nishimura and Shima, and the distance between them was too close.
Kim Kaider, who stood and spoke without waist pain, believed that the Japanese fleet was not strong, and it was enough to send 2 battleships, 3 heavy cruisers, 3 light cruisers and 10 destroyers against them. But Oldendorf, who was in charge of specific tactical command, didn't think so, "My theory is the theory of the old gambler: never give the bastards an equal chance." If my opponents were stupid enough to attack me with inferior troops, I certainly wouldn't give them a chance to breathe. I never entrusted the responsibility of making a battle plan to my subordinates. ”
Oldendorf decided to adopt the tactic of killing chickens with a cattle knife, and gathered all the ships that could be mobilized in the Surigao Strait: 6 old battleships, 4 heavy cruisers, 4 light cruisers and 28 destroyers, in addition to as many as 39 torpedo boats, almost twice as many as Kincaird had planned. In response to Oldendorf's above request, Kinkaid agreed on the spot. Now that Halsey was in control of the north, Vice Admiral Lee's Task Force THIRTY-fourth was firmly in control of the San Bernardino Strait, leaving most of its ships to Oldendorf without any serious trouble. With the issuance of one battle order after another, almost all of the Large Ships above the Cruiser of the Seventh Fleet and a large number of destroyers rushed to the northern mouth of the Surigao Strait, leaving only enough destroyers in the waters around the Gulf of Leyte to provide basic anti-submarine patrols for escort carrier formations. Thus between the battleships of the Kurita Fleet and the U.S. landing fleet, only the fragile escort carriers of Rear Admiral Thomas Sprague remained.
Kinkaid and Oldendorf agreed that after passing through the open Sulu Sea, the Japanese fleet would pass through the narrow Mindanao Sea between Negros and Mindanao, turn around Benavon Island and sail north into the Surigao Strait. According to the characteristics of the terrain, Oldendorf decided to take a series of blockades, consume one by one, and finally launch a duel on the main line, annihilating the Japanese south fleet in one fell swoop. He made arrangements strikingly similar to the trench system on the Western Front of World War I:
Guarding the southern entrance to the Strait and the waters beyond the entrance were 39 torpedo boats under the command of Colonel Hillman Pauling. Each of the three of them was divided into 13 squads: 3 squads were located in front of Panaon Island and at the entrance to the Strait; about 90 km in front of them, the other 5 squads were assembled at Point Pinnet, south of Panaon Island and near Cape Bila at the northern tip of Mindanao; and the remaining 5 squads were located within the Strait. The mission of the torpedo fleet was to find and report the whereabouts of the Japanese fleet at any time and wait for the opportunity to launch a torpedo attack. Major Robert Lisson, the tactical commander of the torpedo squadron, gave the order to the 13th squad leader: "As soon as there is an encounter with the enemy, report it immediately, the surface ones should report, the air ones should also report, they can be visually or radar, and then they can attack independently." ”
The second line of defense consisted of 20 destroyers from three squadrons of destroyers. The two destroyers of Colonel Jesse Coward's Fifty-Fourth Squadron formed the left wing, the remaining 3 destroyers of the squadron and the 6 destroyers of Colonel Macm Mayne's Twenty-Fourth Squadron were on the right flank, which together formed the first interception line; the 9 destroyers of Colonel Roland Smoot's Fifty-sixth Squadron formed a second interception line on the left and 6 on the right. The second line of defense, led by destroyers, would make full use of the cover of the islands and reefs on both sides of the strait to carry out torpedo and naval gun strikes against the Japanese fleet.
The third line of defense consisted of two formations of cruisers deployed on the flanks. The Western Formation was deployed on the Leyte Island side and consisted of the Royal Australian Navy's heavy cruiser HMS Shropshire and the light cruisers HMS Boise and HMS Phoenix. The eastern formation cruised in front of the battleship force, covering the sea between the main channel and Hebson Island and the eastern channel between the island and Dinagat Island, preventing the Japanese from making a detour from the eastern side. The Division has the heavy cruisers USS Louisville (Aldendorf's flagship), the USS Portland, the USS Minneapolis, and the light cruisers USS Denver and USS Columbia. It was escorted by four destroyers. The west formation is 2 km ahead of the east formation.
About 7 kilometers north of the cruiser formation, the main defensive front consisting of battleships, including six older battleships USS West Virginia, USS Maryland, USS California, USS Tennessee, USS Pennsylvania and USS Mississippi. With the exception of the Ussippi, the remaining 5 ships were heavily damaged at Pearl Harbor, salvaged for repairs and then put back into battle, and that night was a night of revenge for them. It is worth noting in particular that these old battleships have subsequently undergone many modernization modifications, equipped with new radars, fire control systems and anti-aircraft guns, which can be described as a rebirth. Of the 8 battleships that were attacked at Pearl Harbor, except for the Nevada, which was sent to Europe to participate in the Normandy landings, and the Oklahoma and Arizona, which lost their maintenance value due to too heavy damage, the remaining 5 ships were all assembled here.
For many years, grabbing the "t" prefix has been the ultimate goal of many players of the Big Ship Giant Gun Faction. If the "t" can be occupied, the heavy ships that cross the enemy ship can strike with full firepower, and the oncoming enemy fleet can only return fire with the bow gun. Even a fleet of the same size, the one with the advantageous "t" head will have a double firepower advantage over the opponent. Cruisers and destroyers aside, the U.S. military already had an absolute advantage of 6:2 in the number of battleships, such a formation was equivalent to the Japanese army can only use the "Fuso" and "Yamashiro" bow of the eight 356 mm main guns, with the U.S. ships 16 406 mm ("Maryland" and "West Virginia" 8 each) main guns, 48 (the remaining 4 ships 12 each) 356 mm main guns, the situation is desperate for them.