[GATOR NAVY]

That said, Halsey left his slow battleships to cover San Bernadino Strait, and took his fast BB's with him as insurance. Had Halsey known that the Japanese CV's posed no threat (they didn't have any aircraft embarked), he might have reacted differently.

Halsey and 3rd Fleet didn't have any slow BBs-his were all capable of keeping up with the carriers. You might be thinking of the slow BBs at Surgio Strait, but they belonged to Kinkaid and 7th Fleet and were never in position to block San Bernardino Strait.

In fact, it was Kinkaid asking whether or not San Bernardino Strait was covered that led to the whole TF 34 fiasco.

[Gator101]

I am sure you knew this GN but for anyone who doesn't know what the "TF 34 fiasco" was, the message below was sent from Nimitz to Halsey once the battle off of Samar had started:

TURKEY TROTS TO WATER GG FROM CINCPAC ACTION COM THIRD FLEET INFO COMINCH CTF SEVENTY-SEVEN X WHERE IS RPT WHERE IS TASK FORCE THIRTY FOUR RR THE WORLD WONDERS

Task force 34 contained the fast battleships that many wrongly assumed Halsey had left covering San Bernadino Strait. The parts before the GG and after the RR are meaningless "padding" meant to confuse code-breakers. For some reason the padding at the end was left on when it was read to Halsey. Perhaps the radioman thought it was fitting. Anyways Halsey thought Nimitz had sarcastically dressed him down over the airwaves and was pretty sore over the issue.