Five days of coordinated submarine, surface, and air combat sank three Japanese battleships, four carriers, 10 cruisers, and eight or nine destroyers while damaging most other important units. The surviving fleet was crippled and reduced to an auxiliary role. Japanese naval aviation became primarily defensive and increasingly dependent on suicide attack, whose first success described here was the sinking of the escort carrier St. Lo. Princeton, Gambier Bay, two destroyers, a destroyer escort, a motor torpedo boat, and a submarine made up the comparatively limited Allied ship losses listed in the account. Yet the fleet was defeated rather than completely destroyed, and Japanese land-based air power could still cover reinforcement convoys into the Philippines, prolonging the campaign and requiring further Allied effort into 1945.
Chapter · 53:43-55:19
Leyte Gulf: decisive victory without annihilation
Leyte Gulf crippled Japan's fleet and naval air arm but left enough surviving power to demand months of further Allied effort.
Battle Of Leyte GulfDestroyersEscort CarriersFleet In BeingJapanese Naval AviationJapanese NavyKamikazeLand Based Air PowerLeyteMotor Torpedo BoatsNaval AttritionPhilippines CampaignReinforcement ConvoysSubmarinesSuicide AttacksUS Navy Destroyer EscortsUSS Gambier Bay (CVE-73)USS Princeton (CVL-23)USS St. Lo (CVE-63)