WW11, largest sea battle in history, Leyte gulf.

[powderman]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyeiEaiuvas
 
Battle of Leyte gulf believed to be the largest air and sea battle in history. POWDERMAN. 

[spruce]

I've read several accounts of the battle and it truly was a David vs Goliath fight.  Only the extreme heroism of the men on a small and outgunned fleet of ships saved the day.  A proud chapter in U.S. Naval history.

[yellowtail3]

I've read several accounts of the battle and it truly was a David vs Goliath fight.  Only the extreme heroism of the men on a small and outgunned fleet of ships saved the day.  A proud chapter in U.S. Naval history.

Well, for a couple hours at Samar that was the case... otherwise, the Imperial Navy was vastly outgunned by the USN in every category. Overall, Leyte was not a close-run battle. It pitted the world's largest and most modern carrier and surface fleet, with great logistical support, against what was left of the Japanese navy, which no longer had an air arm to speak of. For us to actually lose the battle at Leyte would have required a really big screw-up, and for a while it looked like Halsey provided just that.

Even Samar wasn't that close... all the Taffies had quite a few aircraft between them. The Japanese lost more in that battle than they killed, and much of the damage was done by aircraft, not the DDs/DEs of the Taffy screen. Just imagine how bad off the Japanese would have been if Sprague had a few light cruisers and some more destroyers...

[Larry L]

This battle will certainly convince you that there is a supreme being. We should not have won. While RA Oldedorf was successful in stopping the southern Japanese force and reducing it to near near nothing, Halseys incompetence just about cost the US the entire campaign. He had ordered all capital ships to chase a decoy designed to lure the idiot away- he fell for it even though under direct orders from Nimitz to support the landing. Had Kurita organized his ships into a combat force, we would have lost everything. The suicidal efforts of 3 destroyers from Taffy 3 saved the day and the Samuel B Roberts etched it's name in history as this WWI destroyer lead the attack against the largest battleships in the Japanese Navy. The attack was so fierce that it confused the Japanese and Kurita decided there was an apparent larger US force than these destroyers. Otherwise he could have easily eliminated Taffy 3 within minutes. I would have liked to have seen or heard the conversation between Nimitz and Halsey after Nimitz issued the open communication stating "Where is Task Force 34, the world wonders". Had Halsey followed orders, it certain would have been the largest Naval encounter ever.

[yellowtail3]

Larry knows the story. A small nit: The Samuel B Roberts was not a WW1 destroyer, but rather a modern DE - and she fought all out of proportion to her modest tonnage & armament.
Here's the story, told by her CO:
http://www.bosamar.com/pages/de413


and some more:
http://www.bosamar.com/pages/bosc10

[spruce]

Halsey wasn't involved in the battle of Leyte Gulf.  He had been duped by the Japanese and went off to chase their decoy, leaving behind a skeleton force to guard the landings.
 
The force he left behind WAS vastly outgunned by the Japanese force.

[yellowtail3]

Halsey wasn't involved in the battle of Leyte Gulf.  He had been duped by the Japanese and went off to chase their decoy, leaving behind a skeleton force to guard the landings.

If memory serves... Halsey didn't leave anything behind, when he took off after Ozawa. The Taffies where protected only by their DD/DE screens and their own aircraft - nothing bigger than a DD to protect them, and all those were part of their screen, not left by Halsey. Of course, Lee had no problems dealing with Shimura's southern force, and scuppered it completely. If Kurita had gone through the Taffies and headed toward the Leyte beaches, Lee's battleships and cruisers and destroyers would have run north to meet him, and the outcome would have done in Kurita, I think, if he'd stuck around long enough. Even if and Kurita's ships survived that... they'd have had to deal with Halsey's returning carrirers, and the battleships Halsey detached and sent toward Samar after Nimitz' 'where is TF34? .. the world wonders' msg.
 

The force he left behind WAS vastly outgunned by the Japanese force.

well... yeah... the TAffies were. But add in all the aircraft of ALL three taffies AND Lee's force that'll be coming north, and Kurita is looking at a Götterdämmerung should he push into Leyte.

[Oldshooter]

One message from Kinkaid, sent in plain language, read: "MY SITUATION IS CRITICAL. FAST BATTLESHIPS AND SUPPORT BY AIR STRIKES MAY BE ABLE TO KEEP ENEMY FROM DESTROYING CVES AND ENTERING LEYTE." Halsey recalled in his memoirs that he was shocked at this message, recounting that the radio signals from the 7th Fleet had come in at random and out of order because of a backlog in the signals office. It seems that he did not receive this vital message from Kinkaid until around 10:00. Halsey later claimed he knew Kinkaid was in trouble, but he had not dreamed of the seriousness of this crisis.

Halsey, a tough capable Admiral, Really made a terrible mistake. One of the few times in WWII that "WE" did what the japs planned we would do. It was almost a disaster.