Kurita’s wasn’t the only enemy armada coming at the Americans that day. While Halsey had mistakenly written off Center Force as all but neutralized, it was becoming quite clear to Kinkaid that another threat was heading towards Leyte Gulf from the south. This was the two surface fleets coming to fulfill their Sho-Go1 mission as the second pincer. The first, Adm. Nishimura’s Southern Force, was made up of the old battleships Yamashiro flying Nishimura’s flag, and Fuso, the heavy cruiser Mogami and four destroyers.
Fifty miles behind, Adm. Shima’s Second Strike Force, consisted of the heavy cruisers Nachi (Shima’s flagship) and Ashigara, the light cruiser Abukuma and four destroyers. Southern force had left Brunei on the afternoon ofOctober 22 , turning eastward into the Sulu Sea and then northeasterly past the southern tip of Negros Island into the Mindanao Sea. Nishimura then proceeded northeastward with Mindanao Islandto starboard and into the south entrance to the Surigao Strait. Nishimura was frustrated as he paced the bridge of Yamashiro. Due to radio silence he was unable to coordinate with Center Force or the Second Strike Force. When he entered the strait at 0200, Kurita was still navigating the San Bernardino Strait and Shima was a full 26 miles astern.
Unlike Kurita’s flotilla, whose whereabouts and intentions were unclear, Kinkaid’s scouts knew the exact location of Sho-Go1’s southern pincer, having tracked it since it weighed anchor, and where it was headed. The Japanese were making for the Surigao Strait between Leyte and Linagat islands. Alerted to the impending danger, TG-77.2 Commander Rear Adm. Jesse Oldendorf on board the cruiser Louisville saw a golden opportunity. If the Japanese attacked in line up the straight, he could position his older but still powerful battleships and cruisers perpendicular to their path and bottle up the entrance into Leyte Gulf.
This presented Oldendorf with the chance to achieve the highest tactical aspiration of any naval commander in a sea action. He could “cross the T” in front of the enemy ships, which would allow him to bring all of his guns to bear in broadsides against an enemy that could only present its bow. By the time the Japanese could maneuver into a line parallel with the opposing line of battle it would be too late.
As Southern Force entered Surigao Strait Oldendorf was making painstaking preparations to meet it. Darkness would prevent the use of aircraft, so it would be an old-fashioned sea action. The rear admiral ordered his forces to take up positions across the northern end of the strait and make ready to engage the enemy.
Starting at 2200 PT boats began harassing Nishimura’s column. The speedy attack boats scored no torpedo hits and one of their own was blasted by the angry Japanese, but they were able to give Oldendorf accurate and timely updates of the enemy’s progress up the narrows. The Americans were arranged east-to-west in a line of battle with six battleships and a six-destroyer screen behind them to guard against submarines, plus eight cruisers ahead of them and more destroyers in front of the cruisers. Destroyers, battleships, cruisers, destroyers. It was an imposing line, well-positioned for maximum firepower. Five of Oldendorf’s six battleships, West Virginia, Maryland, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and California had been either badly damaged or even sunk at Pearl Harbor, only to be salvaged, repaired, re-fitted and sent back out to sea.
At 0300 Oldendorf sent his two squads of U.S. and Australian destroyers racing down the strait to come up on either side of Nishimura’s approaching line of warships. This time the torpedoes struck home with devastating results. First to take hits was the battleship Fuso which was rocked by a spread fired from the USS Melvin and soon fell out of formation mortally wounded. Then she suffered a catastrophic explosion, rolled over, and sank at 0400. The battleship Yamashiro was hit as well, but she managed to steam on. Two of Nishimura’s destroyers were also sent to the bottom and a third fell out of the column only to be sunk later.
Before he even had a chance to engage the waiting American cruisers and battleships Nishimura had lost three-fourths of his striking power. At 0316 the West Virginia’s radar picked up the enemy column’s survivors at a range of 42,000 yards out. While the destroyers were making their torpedo attacks, Oldendorf’s battle line and flanking cruisers waited for Nishimura’s group to come within range. Explosions from the torpedo hits, along with the eruption of Fuso, were visible to anyone topside on any of the cruisers or battleships.
At 0345 Southern Force came into range and the big guns of the U.S. battleships and cruisers roared hurling shell after shell into the hapless Japanese column. West Virginia’s first salvo of 16-inch armor-piercing rounds slammed into Yamashiro, exploding within the hull and effectively crippling the ship. Mogami was also pounded from the front courtesy of the battleships and the sides as she was raked by Oldendorf’s flanking cruisers. The night sky was lit up like a lightning and thunderstorm brought down to sea level as the U.S. warships made quick work of Southern Force. Off the coast of Leyte, Allied sailors aboard support vessels were too far away to see or hear the battle, but they did see the flashes of gunfire reflected in the clouds. They could tell that “one hell of a shootin’ match” was taking place.
At 0400 the destroyer Bennion raced in to launch torpedoes at Yamashiro. One struck its target, blasting a hole in her side. The Japanese battleship abruptly rolled over and sank fifteen minutes later, taking Adm. Nishimura with her to the bottom of the strait that had become his Southern Force’s deathtrap. Mogamiwas pounded by a typhoon of shells and haplessly tried to return fire in all directions in confusion. Unable to withstand the bombardment, the wounded cruisersoon reversed course and along with the sole surviving destroyer Shigure, fled back down the Surigao Strait. The Mississippi let fly the last battlewagon broadside ever to be fired in anger at an opposing enemy ship of the line.
The Second Strike Force steaming up the strait soon came upon the two remnants of Nishimura’s group limping back the other way and, realizing what was waiting for them, at 0425 Shima recalled his destroyer screen and ordered a general withdrawal back to the Sulu Sea. All of her destroyers made it out safely, with only the cruiser Abukuma taking one torpedo hit from a PT boat. In the confusion Nachi collided with Mogami, tearing off Nachi’s bow while causing flooding to the already ravaged Mogami and compelling her to fall behind. Mogami would be finished off by U.S. carrier planes in the morning. The limping Abukumas uccumbed to Army B-24 Liberators that same day.
The southern attack on Surigao Strait which resulted in the last battleship-to-battleship exchange of broadsides in naval history had ended in disaster for the Japanese. Adm. Nishimura was dead and every vessel in his Southern Force except the lone destroyer Shigure would eventually be lost. In the coming days Shima’s vessels would fall under relentless air attacks from Kinkaid’s carriers, which sent flights of “Grummans” as the Japanese called them to harass the fleeing convoy. The hunt continued throughout the next few weeks; on November 5, Third Fleet carrier planes finally found Nachiin Manila Bay and sent her to the bottom.
The southern pincer of Sho-Go1 proved to be no threat at all. The same, however, could not be said for Kurita’s Center Force, which was sailing through the San Bernardino Strait without incident. Very soon the Americans would face a looming disaster of their own. One that was largely of their own making.
Brad Schaeffer is the author of the acclaimed World War II novel Of Another Time And Place.