Leyte Island is located in the central Philippines, with Cebu and Bohe Islands in the west and Sama Island in the northeast.

The capture of Leyte is to cut off the Philippine Islands and also provide a forward base for attacking Luzon.

Therefore, the battle of Leight Island was naturally mentioned to a prominent position.

MacArthur plans to land in Tacloban, Durager, the north section of the east coast of Leight Island and Olmok port on the west coast.

After landing, you will go straight to the Port of Caligara on the north bank, which is 500 kilometers away from Manila. It is possible to establish aviation and a ship base as a springboard for attacking Luzon.

Then landed from Lingayan Bay, Luzon Island with 4 divisions, and the north and south will attack Manila. MacArthur requested that enough landing ships be allocated immediately.

The 3rd Fleet of Halsey was ordered to dispatch support to the Southwest Pacific War Zone. MacArthur was worried that the Navy would intervene too much in the attack on Wright and advanced the attack date to October 20.

The old battleships of the Seventh Fleet of Admiral Kincaid and the escort aircraft carrier were used to support landing forces, and the Special Mixed Fleet of Admiral Halsey was used to cover amphibious operations and seek to destroy the Japanese fleet.

Before this, the Japanese base camp did not know the specific route of the US military. It could only strengthen the defense between Taiwan and the Philippines at the same time. It was not until mid-October that the Japanese base camp realized that the situation on Leyte Island was highlighted.

Subsequently, the Japanese army dispatched air corps from Manila, Kaohsiung and Taipei to launch a counterattack and actively attacked the US fleet located in the waters east of Taiwan.

However, they were willing but not able to do so. After more than ten days of intense consumption, the Japanese air force in Taiwan and Nanyang areas was eventually consumed.

When time came on October 20, after sufficient artillery preparations, a huge fleet of more than 700 Allied ships in the Southwest Pacific Theater entered the waters east of Leight Island, officially launching the Leight Island landing battle.

MacArthur, commander-in-chief of the Leight Island Operations, took the light cruiser Nashville to supervise the battle on the spot, and the maritime operation was authorized to command Kincaid.

It’s just that Kincaid could not command Halsey, and the relationship between the two was only to inform each other of the situation.

Halsey obeyed Nimitz of Pearl Harbor and had the right to deal with it on the spot.

The Japanese fleet did not appear in the first three days of landing war. Halsey had nothing to do. He wanted to cross the Philippine Islands and enter the South China Sea, but was strictly prohibited by Nimitz.

Until October 23, the Japanese joint fleet consisting of 7 battleships, 2 aviation battleships, 4 aircraft carriers, 13 heavy patrols, 6 light patrols, 31 destroyers and 36 submarines finally "later".

And this is the maximum mobilization of the Japanese Joint Fleet at present.

Soon, the Allied fleet, which had been prepared for a long time, launched an active attack and launched an unprecedentedly tragic sea battle within hundreds of kilometers of the Philippine Islands.

The Pacific naval warfare model has lasted for three years. The Japanese knew very well that there was no enough aviation force at sea, but they had to fight to slow down the Allied offensive pace.

With the total aberration of aviation power, Japan once again organized suicide attacks by Kamikaze Special Attack Team, sinking two light aircraft carriers and a heavy cruiser and other Allied ships, which had a relatively obvious effect.

At this time, the Japanese army's suicide attacks had greatly improved compared to a few months ago, both in terms of the number of personnel and the attack methods.

In addition to the previous Zero ship fighter aircraft, the Kamikaze Special Attack Team's vehicle also has comet-type carrier-based dive bombers and Sakura Special Attack Planes.

The Comet-type carrier-based dive bomber was a dive bomber that Japan began to produce in 1943, and is now transformed into a suicide bomber dedicated to the Kamikaze Special Attack Team.

Bulletproof armor and bulletproof fuel tanks are installed around the cockpit, and fixed hangers are installed to hang an 800-kilogram bomb.

During this Battle of Wright Gulf, the USS Princeton was sunk during a suicide attack on a comet-based ship-based dive bomber.

The Sakura Attack Plane is a special wooden attack plane with a length of 6.06 meters, a wingspan of 5.12 meters, and is equipped with a rocket engine with a thrust of 79 kilograms of intense explosives.

The maximum speed is 876 kilometers per hour and the longest range is 37 kilometers. The troops that use Sakura to fight are called the Shenlei attack team, which is different from the Kamikaze Special Attack Team that uses aircraft.

The Sakura Attack Plane is mounted by a bomber to be thrown near the enemy ship, and only provides one-way fuel. The special attack team members are tied to the special attack plane or fighter plane, and do not provide umbrellas, which cut off their hope of survival.

Its purpose is that the pilots fly aerospace vehicles loaded with explosives and hit enemy ships without hesitation.

The Sakura Attack Plane is not equipped with any weapons or landing gear for its special purpose. In the fundamental sense, it is actually a special aircraft similar to a missile.

In addition, the Navy has also developed a torpedo for suicide attacks.

The torpedo is 1 meter in diameter. One passenger can be loaded inside the torpedo. The passenger can confirm the position of the enemy ship and control the torpedo to increase the hit rate against the enemy ship. The amount of explosives loaded is 3 times more than that of ordinary torpedoes.

The early type of the torpedo was equipped with a crew escape system, which was set to allow the occupant to eject from the torpedo before the final attack acceleration section of the torpedo was activated.

But in fact, no records show that occupants escaped from the torpedo after successful self-release and returned to the submarine or other vehicle.

In the later stage, Huitian torpedo simply gave up the setting of the crew escape system. Once the torpedo attack fails, a self-destructing system allows the crew to manually self-destruct the torpedo.

The Japanese army had only weak aviation forces, and all naval battles occurred under asymmetric conditions.

The cruel reality is always so cold and objective. The first thing that affects the success or failure of a battle is strength. Scheming and ruthlessness can only play a supporting role.

This naval battle, which ranked first in the world in total displacement of ships participating in the battle, lasted for four days and nights, and it did not gradually come to an end until October 26.

As a result of the final battle, the Allied forces sunk 8 Japanese aircraft carriers, 3 battleships, 6 heavy patrols, 3 light patrols, 9 destroyers, and 9 submarines, with a total standard displacement of 276,800 tons, shot down more than 600 Japanese carrier-based aircraft, and killed more than 10,000 Japanese crew members.

The Allies lost 3 light aircraft carriers, 4 escort aircraft carriers, 1 heavy patrol, 3 light patrols, 5 destroyers, 4 submarines, 1 frigate, 3 landing ships, 2 supply ships, and 320 carrier-based aircraft. The total number of casualties reached more than 4,000.

There are 6 aircraft carriers, 1 cruiser, and 4 destroyers who are injured to varying degrees.

The Allied fleet achieved the final victory without any suspense, and the Japanese combined fleet did not meet the expected combat goals: attacking the US amphibious forces and landing grounds in Wright Bay, and defeating the Allied naval forces.

The Japanese Navy Combined Fleet, which was far inferior in number, was defeated, and 13 heavy warships above cruisers were sunk, and Japan's sea-based and land-based aviation forces in the Philippines were eliminated, which seriously damaged Japan's overall strength.

The victory of this battle laid a solid foundation for the Allied forces to successfully capture the Philippine Islands, Okinawa and other places.
Chapter completed!