Making History Come Alive continues with its naval battle series: Midway and Leyte Gulf
MAKING HISTORY COME ALIVE OFFERS CONTINUATION OF GREAT NAVAL BATTLES- MIDWAY AND LEYTE GULF
Battle of Midway (1942): This World War II battle is often considered one of the most significant naval battles in history. It was a turning point in the Pacific Theater, where the United States Navy defeated the Japanese fleet, sinking four aircraft carriers and crippling their naval power.
On the morning of June 4, 1942, aircraft from Japanese carriers attacked and damaged the US base on Midway. The US Marine Corps force stationed on Midway endured devastating losses, but the facilities only suffered minor damage. The US carrier force was to the east of the island and had located the main body of the Japanese force. As the Japanese aircraft returned to their carriers, the Japanese navy became aware that US naval forces were in the area.
From the American carriers USS Yorktown (CV-5), USS Enterprise (CV-6), and USS Hornet (CV-8) TBD Devastator torpedo bombers launched to attack the Japanese force. Drawing out enemy aircraft, they cleared the skies for SBD Dauntless dive bombers from the Enterprise and Yorktown to make an attack, leaving the Japanese carriers Kaga and Akagi fatally damaged and wrecking the carrier Soryu. The only surviving Japanese carrier, Hiryu, launched two waves of attacks against the American carriers, bombing Yorktown. Severely damaged, the ship’s crew fought to keep the carrier afloat. Dauntlesses from Enterprise struck the Hiryu in the early evening, striking a fatal blow against the fourth and final Japanese carrier off Midway.
On June 5, Rear Admiral Spruance pursed the Japanese fleet to the west with his task force as the Japanese were forced to scuttle Akagi and Hiryu. The crew of Yorktown continued to fight to save the damaged carrier. On June 6, the final aerial attacks took place. Dive bombers (SBDs) from Enterprise and Hornet inflicted sever damage on the Japanese fleet, sinking the heavy cruiser Mikuma, and damaging three other ships. Salvage operations on Yorktown were interrupted by a Japanese submarine, which torpedoed the carrier and the destroyer USS Hammann (DD-412). On June 7, Yorktown rolled and sank at dawn.
Battle of Leyte Gulf (1944): Known as the largest naval battle of World War II, this battle took place in the Philippines. The US Navy engaged the Imperial Japanese Navy in a series of engagements, resulting in a decisive victory for the Americans and securing their control over the Pacific.
On 15 October 1944, following indications of impending Allied landings in the Philippines, the Japanese Imperial Navy’s First Mobile Fleet launched Operation Shō. Shō pulled together the majority of Japan’s remaining battleship, cruiser, and carrier forces in a desperate, multi-pronged attempt to interdict and destroy Allied landing forces off of Leyte in the central Philippines and inflict crippling damage on U.S. naval forces. The limited strike capabilities of severely depleted Japanese carrier air groups were to be augmented by land-based naval and army aviation units based in Formosa (Taiwan) and the Philippines. The stage was set for the multiple, widely separated engagements that made up the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
The First Mobile Fleet’s Main Body (“Northern Force”), which included the carrier force based in Kure, Japan, approached the Philippines from the northeast. It successfully drew Admiral William F. Halsey’s Third Fleet (including TF 34, its powerful fast battleships) away from the Leyte Gulf area, exposing the northern flank of Vice Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid’s Seventh Fleet invasion force. The Northern Group would be largely destroyed by Halsey’s carrier air wings in the Battle of Cape Engaño on 24 October. Meanwhile, the First Mobile Fleet’s Third Section, based in Brunei and approaching the Philippines from the southwest, and the Kure-based Second Diversion Attack Force approaching from northeast to northwest, were combined in a “Southern Force.” This force would be soundly defeated by the U.S. Seventh Fleet’s Bombardment and Fire-Support Group (battleships, cruisers, destroyers, and PT boats) in a tumultuous surface engagement on 24/25 October in the Battle of Surigao Strait as it attempted to force its way into Leyte Gulf from the south. It was one of the unique instances in naval warfare where a U.S. force successfully crossed the "T” of a Japanese force.
The Brunei-based Japanese First Diversion Attack Force (“Center Force”), also approaching from the southwest, was hit by U.S. submarines in the Palawan Strait on 23 Octoberand by U.S. naval air attacks as it transited the Sibuyan Sea in the center of the Philippine archipelago on 24 October. After being sighted by American carrier pilots in apparent retirement to the west, the force resumed its eastward passage and broke out of the San Bernardino Strait north of Samar, focused on destroying U.S. amphibious shipping to the south in Leyte Gulf. Due to the Northern Force’s successful decoy of U.S. Third Fleet, the Center Force was faced only by three U.S. Seventh Fleet escort carrier task units when it emerged from the strait in the early morning hours of 25 October. These task units had been providing close air support and an ASW screen for the Leyte landings. The resulting clash of the utterly mismatched forces and ultimate Japanese withdrawal—the Battle off Samar—would prove to be the most dramatic naval engagement of the Leyte campaign.
By 26 October, Operation Shō had been repulsed successfully. Despite hard battles ahead, the American offensive in the Philippines and beyond was to continue unabated. Most important, Leyte completely destroyed the strategic threat posed by the Imperial Japanese Navy.