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SCHAEFFER: The Battle Of Leyte Gulf: Part 8 – ‘Bull’s Run’

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United States Navy Battleship Carrier USS Lexington at sea,
Photo by Arkivi/Getty Images

Naval colleges will debate this series of events until the end of time, but the question surely the readers must be asking is why Halsey would take his entire Task Force 38 and leave the vital San Bernardino Strait wide open.  And how could Kinkaid and Nimitz give him leave to do so … especially Kinkaid, whose own heavy battleships were in the southern approaches to the beachhead finishing off Nishimura’s decimated column, thus leaving the invasion fleet vulnerable should the Japanese suddenly come chugging through the straight and get among his escort carriers and transports; something that was about to happen.

Part of the blame can be placed on the divided command structure.  Communication between Seventh and Third Fleet, being under MacArthur’s and Nimitz’s commands respectively, were indirect.  Thus much ascertaining of the others’ movements and intentions were gleaned from listening in to radio chatter.  In the early afternoon, suspecting that Japanese carriers were in the area, Halsey had drawn up plans to carve out a task force built around his fast battleships and one carrier group to remain near San Bernardino Strait should he head away from Leyte in pursuit of any carriers that popped up to the north.

It would be called Task Force 34 under battleship driver Rear Adm. Willis “Ching” Lee. The concept of the contingency plan was sent to Nimitz in Pearl Harbor and Kinkaid’s radiomen listening in also picked up the instructions.  What no one realized though was that for Halsey this was just housekeeping, preparations in case he decided on this approach, which he hadn’t.  And later when Halsey sent a message that he was, in fact, going after the enemy carrier force “with three groups” both Nimitz and Kinkaid listening in took this to mean three groups less the fast battleships.  And from this they further inferred that Lee’s remaining battleships would be positioned astride the San Bernardino Strait to cork the northern entrance to Leyte Gulf.  Eventually Halsey would activate Task Force 34…but they, too, would be headed north, away from the real threat bearing down from the west.

Why wouldn’t Halsey opt to leave behind Task Force 34 as a precaution regardless?  The Bull had three choices that day: 1) Ignore the carriers and stay close to Leyte, which would not only ignore a grand prize, but possibly even violate Nimitz’s directive; 2) Attack with his carrier fleet and escorts while leaving Lee and his fast battleships to cover Kinkaid’s Seventh Fleet.  This would have diluted Halsey’s forces, and deprived his own carriers of much needed anti-aircraft support as well as guard against the surface ships reported to be with the Japanese carrier force; 3) Attack with all he had and destroy any remaining threat of IJN carrier air power in the war once and for all.

We must remember that Halsey was under the impression that Kurita had taken a serious pounding and was slinking away to the west.  Furthermore, according to the admiral’s later reflections, even those enemy ships that were still afloat had to have taken serious topside damage from the bombs and strafing attacks, especially to gunnery and fire control. To Halsey option number three made the most sense.  And off he went, in what would be known pejoratively as “Bull’s Run.”

The next morning, Halsey’s fliers would begin their systematic mauling of Ozawa’s empty carriers. And in so doing, would leave the door wide open for the real threat.

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At midnight October 25, 1944, Kurita’s Center Force, having made their turn-around, left the Sibuyan Sea behind and sailed back easterly into San Bernardino Strait.  They were not unnoticed.  A special night reconnaissance aircraft from Independence shadowed them as they entered the channel.  The impending danger was reported up the chain to the New Jersey but for reasons too detailed and convoluted for our format, they were effectively ignored.

On board Lexington, Burke and another officer, Cmdr. James Flatley, were sufficiently alarmed by the news to wake Mitscher who asked, “Does Halsey have this report?”  When they said he did, Mitscher went back to sleep.  Vice Adm. Lee in command of Task Force 34, also suspecting they might be sailing into a ruse, alerted the New Jersey as well of his suspicions.  His concerns too were ignored.  As such, not even an American canoe was present to block the Japanese passage into Leyte Gulf.

It was an astounding piece of good fortune that to Kurita must have made the anguish his armada had suffered at the hands of U.S. aircraft and submarines up to this point all worthwhile.   Every hour that passed he got closer to Leyte Gulf where the defenseless U.S. transports and support craft jam packed on the beaches would be at his mercy. Although due to communications issues he hadn’t heard from Ozawa, which would become problematic as events would show, it was apparent that wherever Halsey’s ships were, they were not blocking the strait.  Sho-Go1 was on the verge of a victory to rival Tsushima.

This was the moment Toyoda had been dreaming of since the Philippine Sea fiasco.  This would be the day the setting sun rose again.  By 0300 on October 25, an unmolested Center Force had passed through the San Bernardino Strait and turned south following the coast of the island of Samar.  Only a thin screen of Adm. Sprague’s TG-77.4 with its little escort carriers and “tin can” destroyers and destroyer escorts stood between the big guns of Kurita’s four battleships and twice as many cruisers and the beaches of Leyte.  The fox was among the chickens.  Vice Adm. Kusaka Ryunosuke recalled that when the news of Kurita’s successful passage reached Combined Fleet Headquarters on Formosa, the staff was so overjoyed “they almost stood on their heads.”  Banzai!   

Brad Schaeffer is the author of the acclaimed World War II novel Of Another Time And Place.

 

 

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