Oct 25-27, 1944
(Click for 1947 track resolution)

The grand Japanese plan was ill fated. American aircraft intercepted the first unit well before the Surigao Strait. Halsey's Third Fleet decimated the unprotected Formosa contingent. The second force had two battleships severely damaged in the Sibuyan Sea but made it through the San Bernardino Strait, coming within 70 miles of the first unit. Another 90 minutes more and the two forces might have met and pounded Leyte while Halsey was up north chasing empty carriers. Finding itself all alone and bleeding, the second force fled, hounded by American planes.

Suffice to say that MacArthur was saved in the nick of time. The Japanese Navy's "future efforts can only be on a diminished scale," he said, calling it "the most crushing defeat of the war." It's said that every Japanese ship in the first two units has either been sunk or damaged. Admiral King said, "There are yet some features of this action that we have not yet been able to fathom." Indeed, perhaps the Japanese were fooled by their own propaganda and beaten by the ghosts of their box score victories.

MacArthur gave some advice to our guerrillas and issued a communiqué recognizing their activities and valuable and increasing sacrifices for the cause. The most fantastic part was about the death of the unnamed Commander in Chief of the Combined Japanese Grand Fleet [Yamamoto or Koga] in a plane crash, and the subsequent capture, probably by the guerrillas, of the complete Japanese plans for the defense of the Philippines! He added that he would like to mention names but must desist for obvious reasons.

...ooOoo...