On this day: Battle of Leyte Gulf

Greetings Pacific History guide fans! This week we're marking the 81st anniversary of the Battle of Leyte Gulf, which reached its climax on this day with the Battles of Surigao Strait, Samar, and Cape Engano. Taken as a whole, the battle is a complex, multi-faceted series of events that reaches from Brunei to the Philippine Sea, from the tip of Luzon right down to the Sulu Sea. Described as the largest sea battle in history, the Battle for Leyte Gulf featured the first U.S. aircraft carrier sunk by naval gunfire (USS Gambier Bay), the first sunk by a kamikaze (USS St. Lo), the last battleship-on-battleship action (Surigao Strait) and the end of the Imperial Japanese Navy as an effective fighting force. Following Leyte Gulf, the IJN never again seriously contested a battlespace in the Second World War. There have been a great many books written about the battle, many of which can be found on the PHG reading list.

A map of the approaches to Tacloban Anchorage in the Leyte Gulf, from the U.S. Naval War College study of the battle

I recently gave a talk on one aspect of the battle, that of the decision-making of Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita, with WW2TV. You can find that talk linked here. Many of the works I used for my notes are primary source documents, including interrogations of surviving IJN Officers by the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey after the war. The U.S. Naval War College did a five-volume study of the battle, and although volume four, which encapsulates the Battle off Samar and that of Cape Enganao was later curtailed, what remains is an in-depth set of documents complete with maps (such as the one pictured above), charts, and interviews. Both of these publications are on the Pacific History Guide Resources Page.

The Battle of Leyte Gulf remains vitally important to the history of the modern Philippines, as the country was fighting for its independence alongside American and Mexican troops fighting inland from the island of Leyte and north toward Manila. There are many monuments and memorials, notably in Tacloban, where MacArthur came ashore to deliver his famous declaration 'I have returned', and in Surigao, where the Japanese Southern Force was annihilated by the ships of the U.S. Seventh Fleet.

MacArthur Landing Memorial National Park, Leyte

There are two monuments commemorating the Battle of Leyte Gulf in San Diego, one near the USS Midway downtown, and the other at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in Point Loma. You can read more about the battle here. I look forward to discussing some more of this with you all in the comments and on social media; if you've been to any of the Leyte Gulf monuments, let me know! Pacific History Guide is dedicated to connecting you with local and regional history, where you are. Keep discovering!