Leyte Gulf, October 1944
The largest naval battle in history — four engagements in three days, the last sortie of the battleships, and the first organized kamikazes.
When American troops landed on Leyte in October 1944, Japan committed what remained of its navy to one final, all-or-nothing plan: decoy carriers to lure away the US Third Fleet, while two surface forces converged on the invasion shipping. Between 23 and 26 October the plan detonated into four separate battles — Palawan Passage and the Sibuyan Sea, Surigao Strait, Samar and Cape Engaño — the largest naval engagement ever fought.
It produced some of the war’s most extraordinary hours: Musashi dying under massed air attack, the old battleships avenging Pearl Harbor in the night at Surigao, and off Samar a handful of destroyers and escort carriers — Taffy 3 — turning back a battleship fleet by sheer ferocity. It also produced something new and terrible: the first organized kamikaze attacks. When it was over, the Imperial Japanese Navy had ceased to exist as a fighting force.
