Toyoda’s great gamble to attack and destroy the American landing forces in Leyte Gulf involved a classic pincers maneuver. Three strike forces would sail from Japan and Brunei to penetrate the gulf from the north and south and meet on the morning of October 25, “X-day.” The most powerful force, Force A to the Japanese, and “Center Force” to the Americans (I’ll use the latter for clarity) was commanded by Adm. Kurita Takeo and consisted of five battleships including the superships Yamato and Musashi, 10 heavy and two light cruisers and 15 destroyers.
The “Southern Force”, under the command of Vice Adm. Nishimura Shoji, which the Japanese called Force C, was made up of two battleships, a heavy cruiser, and four destroyers. To beef up Southern Force’s hitting power a fleet called Second Strike Force headed by Vice Adm. Shima Kiyohide, was on the way from Japan with three cruisers and seven destroyers. The two flotillas sailing in from opposite directions would try and slip through the two straits that led to Leyte Gulf. Center Force would sail through the San Bernardino Strait north of Leyte, and Southern Force with Second Strike Force the Surigao Strait south of it.
Sho-Go 1 presented Toyoda’s admirals with a daunting task. How could they penetrate the passages with two powerful US fleets to contend with? Here is where the cleverness of Sho-Go 1 became clear. Another armada, the Decoy Force commanded by the respected Vice Adm. Ozawa Jisaburo, and consisting of one heavy and five light carriers, two battleships fitted with flight decks as hybrid carriers, two cruisers and 10 destroyers, would sail south from Japan to the waters off northern Luzon. On paper Ozawa had eight carriers but in reality it was a shell of a force with less than 100 aircraft, piloted by yet more undertrained crews. The Decoy Force would have one purpose: to offer itself as a sacrifice to the Americans by enticing Halsey and luring him away from Leyte and hopefully even the odds enough in Center and Southern Forces’ favor.
It was a plan designed to exploit Halsey’s legendary aggressiveness, some would even say recklessness, especially in pursuit of enemy carriers. In this case, they would give the American Bull exactly what he longed for…a chance to wipe out the remaining IJN Kido-Butai, (“mobile striking force”). Halsey’s impetuousness would hopefully be MacArthur’s demise.
It was a desperate gamble with the entire fleet. But, as Toyoda later told interrogators: “Should we lose in the Philippines operations, even though the fleet should be left, the shipping lane to the south would be completely cut off so that the fleet, if it should come back to Japanese waters, could not obtain its fuel supply. If it should remain in southern waters, it could not receive supplies of ammunition and arms. There would be no sense in saving the fleet at the expense of the loss of the Philippines.”
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Krueger’s Sixth Army began landing on October 20, 1944, hitting two beaches 12 miles apart. (The designation “D-Day” having already been used in Normandy, this date would be “A-Day”.) Japanese resistance was relatively light as they were husbanding their strength to fight further inland. They’d learned by now not to contest the beaches if it was avoidable as naval gunfire could blast them on the shore.
The landings were roughly four hours along when MacArthur and his staff, along with Philippines president Sergio Osmeña, descended the ladder of the Nashvilleto a landing craft and chugged toward land. Sporting a freshly pressed khaki uniform, MacArthur hoped to tie onto a pier and majestically strut ashore dry and immaculate as befit the American Caesar come to take back his beloved islands where both he and his Medal of Honor winner father had served and had deep roots. The beachmaster, however, had other ideas. When the Higgins boat filled with top brass got bogged down fifty yards out, he didn’t have time to devote to finding them one of the few intact piers. As the absolute authority, the beachmaster barked “Let ‘em walk!”
And thus was the famous image of MacArthur wading ashore in knee-deep water, ruining the perfect creases on his trousers. What photographers took to be MacArthur’s steely look of determination as he strode ashore was actually him glaring at the impertinent beachmaster. (When he saw the photo later, however, the general immediately realized its dramatic imagery and opted to purposefully wade in on subsequent landings. Those who saw his later landings proffered the myth that the original was staged. It was not.)
Four days later, MacArthur would have far more to worry about than wet shoes and rumpled trousers. Unbeknownst to the Americans, Toyoda activated all elements, land, sea, and air, of Operation Sho-Go1. The great attack to finally turn the tide of war back in Japan’s favor was underway.
Brad Schaeffer is the author of the acclaimed World War II novel Of Another Time And Place.