Posted on 11/19/2015 6:43:05 AM PST by lbryce
The Battle of Leyte Gulf was the biggest and most multifaceted naval battle in history. It involved hundreds of ships, nearly 200,000 participants, and spanned more than 100,000 square miles. Some of the largest and most powerful ships ever built were sunk, and thousands of men went to the bottom of the sea with them.
Every facet of naval warfare—air, surface, subsurface, and amphibious—was involved in this great struggle, and the weapons used included bombs of every type, guns of every caliber, torpedoes, mines, rockets, and even a forerunner of the modern guided missile.
But more than mere size made this battle significant. The cast of characters included such names as Halsey, Nimitz, MacArthur, even Roosevelt. It introduced the largest guns ever used in a naval battle and a new Japanese tactic that would eventually kill more U.S. sailors and sink more U.S. ships than any other used in the war. It was the last clash of the dreadnoughts and the first and only time that gunfire sank a U.S. aircraft carrier. It was replete with awe-inspiring heroism, failed intelligence, sapient tactical planning and execution, flawed strategy, brilliant deception, incredible ironies, great controversies, and a plethora of lessons about strategy, tactics, and operations.
If all this is true, why is Leyte Gulf not a household word—like Pearl Harbor? Why have fewer Americans heard of it than the Battle of Midway or the Normandy invasion of Europe? The answer lies in timing. Leyte Gulf occurred late in the war, after several years of conflict, when great battles had become commonplace. Tales from such places as Midway, Stalingrad, Guadalcanal, and Normandy were by then frequent fare. More significant, however, was that the Battle of Leyte Gulf happened when most of the United States had accepted ultimate victory
(Excerpt) Read more at usni.org ...
I came across this link doing research for a project and thought the community would enjoy reading it so I posted to share with everyone.
Read “Last Stand Of The Tin Can Sailors” and learn of the extraordinary heroism of the men of the US Navy in this battle.
ping
Didn’t the US Navy ‘cross the T’ in that battle. Classic.
Nice post. Destroyers fighting battleships.
I've read that, and it is awesome. The book, and the fortitude of the sailors when they knew what they were facing.
Yes. There were six battleships in the USN Surigao Straight blocking force: West Virginia, Maryland, Mississippi, Tennessee, California, and Pennsylvania. All but Mississippi had been sunk or damaged in the attack on Pearl Harbor and then repaired.
The captains of the destroyers exhibited peerless courage and leadership.
Would have loved to have been on shore watching that.
My dad was there. He was a MM1/c in one the engine rooms on the USS West Virginia BB-48
bump for later
LOL!
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