The Yamato the largest battleship in the world that saw action in the Battle of Layte Gulf IJN Photo |
The largest naval battle in the history of the world was the
battle for Leyte Gulf
that involved most of the Japanese fleet including the two super battleships of
the Yamoto
class and 7 other battleships, 1 fleet carrier, 3 light carriers, 14 heavy
cruisers, six light cruisers, 35+ destroyers, 300+ planes including land-based
planes.
They were opposed by the forces of the United
States and Australia
with a force of 8 fleet carriers, eight light carriers, 18 escort carriers, 12
battleships, 24 cruisers and 141 destroyers and destroyer escorts. The Allied
fleet also had numerous PT boats, submarines and auxiliaries along with about
1500 planes.
The Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines lasted from the
23 to 26 October 1944 that
resulted in a decisive Allied victory.
You might just as well call this battle, the battles for Leyte
Gulf since it involved several major operations.
Before it was renamed the Battle
for Leyte Gulf it was known to historians as the second Battle of the Philippine Sea.
This was by far the largest naval battle fought during World War II, and
according to some historians was the largest naval battle in history.
This battle was fought around the Philippine Islands of Leyte,
Samar and Luzon between the combined
forces of the American and Australian fleets against the Japanese Imperial
Navy. On 20 October 1944 United
States troops invaded the island
of Leyte in a strategy aimed at
isolating the countries Japan
had occupied in Southeast Asia especially depriving them
of the vital oil supplies needed by both the Fleet and Japanese industry.
The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) had mobilized nearly
all of its major naval vessels in an attempt to defeat the invasion of Leyte.
The Japanese attack was repulsed by units of the American third and seventh
fleets, so the IJN and failed to achieve any of their goals and were handed
some very heavy losses. This was the last time the IJN was able to sail into
battle and something nearing a comparable force. For the rest of the war also
surviving heavy ships of the IJN were deprived of fuel and were forced to sit
out the remainder of the war at anchor at their bases for the remainder of the
war.
Rather than one all-out battle the Battle of Leyte Gulf
included 4 major naval battles: the Battle of the
Sibuyan Sea, the Battle
of Surigao Strait, the Battle off
Cape Engano and the Battle
off Samar, as well as a number of other lesser actions.
It should be noted that the Battle of Leyte Gulf was the
first battle in which Japanese aircraft carried out organized kamikaze attacks against their
enemies. It is also worth noting that in this battle the Japanese actually had
less planes than the Allies had ships. This was a clear indication of the
flagging Japanese power at this point in the war.
References:
Battle of Leyte Gulf, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Leyte_Gulf
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