How The Major Characters That Made An Important Part Of The Battle For Leyte Gulf

This paper discusses key events and major characters that played an important part of the Battle for Leyte Gulf. Some of those characters that will be mentioned throughout the course of this paper will be Fleet Admiral Nimitz, General McArthur, Admiral Halsey, Vice Admiral Kinkaid, Captain Wiley, and Admiral Kurita from the Imperial Japanese Navy; we will reference some of the decisions this major characters made and how they affected the course of the battle. Furthermore, this paper will talk about major battle fought in Leyte Gulf and reasons why this battle is so historically significant and different from any other battles before it. The Battle for Leyte Gulf is by all means considered the largest naval clash of World War II, and conceivably

To avoid this, they devised a very risky plan that would jeopardize their surface force, but if successful would destroy the ally invasion and separate the ground troops already in Leyte from the fleet. This plan revolved on deploying decoy forces. Since their carriers had no trained pilots available, they were the obvious choice for the mission. “The Japanese Fleet was by no means impotent at this time, and general strategic factors were heavily in the enemy's favor. While our lines of communication and supply were being stretched to tremendous distances his were being materially shortened.” The Northern fleet with four carriers and a dozen of other ships commanded by Vice Admiral Ozawa would be the decoy; their mission would be to draw off the American attention from Leyte. Meanwhile the remaining fleets – the central and southern fleets, would join and attack the forces in Leyte Island. The southern fleet commanded by Rear Admiral Nishimura would approach Leyte through the Surigao Strait. The Central fleet commanded by Vice Admiral Kurita would sail down through the Strait of San Bernardino, down the coast of Samar, and intercept the American fleet from the north-east of Leyte. “The greatest interest was excited by the appearance of the mysterious new battleships Yamato and Musashi. Few Americans had even seen them, much less attacked them, and

The main battle fleet, under Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita, moved eastward through the central Philippines, intending to pass through San Bernardino Strait and then turn south to attack the U. S. invasion beaches on the shores of Leyte Gulf. Two separate Japanese units, also advancing through the central Philippines, would enter Leyte Gulf from the south through Surigao Strait. From the far north came a carrier force under Vice Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa. Ozawa had too few aircraft left to mount a serious attack-a fact unknown to the Americans-and sought only to decoy Halsey's Third Fleet away from the battle area so that Kurita could reach Leyte Gulf