U.S. Battleships Avenge Pearl Harbor Attack at Surigao Strait

By DAVID F. WINKLER

On Oct. 20, 1944, the United States made good on Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s “I shall return” vow with landings at Leyte in the southern Philippine archipelago. Fully aware of the strategic implications of an American return to the Philippine Islands, the Japanese Navy executed a bold plan to disrupt the invasion force.

The plan hinged on a ploy to lure Adm. William F. Halsey’s Third Fleet carriers and accompanying fast battleships away from waters contiguous to Leyte Gulf. Vice Adm. Jisaburo Ozawa dangled the remnants of Japan’s carrier fleet to the north as bait. Meanwhile a powerful surface force that included Musashi and Yamato, Japan’s two super battleships, under the command of Vice Adm. Takeo Kurita would penetrate San Bernardino Strait from the west and swing south along the east coast of Samar to attack American amphibious forces in Leyte Gulf.

At the same time, two potent groups of battleships and cruisers under Vice Adm. Shoji Nishimura and Vice Adm. Kiyohide Shima would surge through Surigao Strait to the landing area from the south. If all worked to plan, the U.S. Navy would be dealt a crushing blow as the sun rose on the morning of Oct. 25. The Americans discerned Japan’s intentions and struck hard against Kurita’s force on the 23rd and 24th.

Early morning attacks on the 23rd by the submarines USS Dace and USS Darter claimed two Japanese heavy cruisers and crippled another. More significant, the submarines radioed contact reports to Halsey and his air group commanders.

On the 24th, Halsey’s aviators fended off attacks from land-based enemy aircraft and went after Kurita’s ships. Halsey, however, lost the light carrier USS Princeton after a Japanese bomb hit eventually led to a magazine explosion. The cruiser USS Birmingham, alongside to assist the burning carrier, suffered extensive damage from the blast.

In what became known as the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea, waves of American aircraft dropped their lethal ordnance on Kurita’s advancing flotilla. Musashi eventually succumbed to 19 torpedoes and 17 bombs. Pummeled, Kurita temporarily reversed course. His force would be unable to arrive at Leyte Gulf at dawn.

In contrast, the Japanese ships proceeding toward Surigao Strait endured some air attacks on the morning of the 24th, but steamed unmolested through the rest of the day. Forewarned, Seventh Fleet Commander Vice Adm. Thomas C. Kinkaid ordered Rear Adm. Jesse B. Oldendorf and his invasion bombardment and fire-support group to block the exit of the strait.

With overwhelming force, Oldendorf created an impenetrable gauntlet. After sunset, Vice Adm. Nishimura’s force of battleships and cruisers advanced through a series of torpedo attacks launched by PT boats that had been sent down the strait to track his progress. Dodging repeated attacks past the midnight hour, Nishimura’s warships pushed ahead into a deadly cauldron.

After the last PT boat attack broke off at 0213, the Japanese sailors had about 45 minutes to catch their breath. From the north, Destroyer Squadron 54 quietly filtered down the strait in two columns to the port and starboard of Nishimura’s column of four destroyers, two battleships and a heavy cruiser.

Tracking the Japanese on radar, the American destroyers withheld gunfire, electing to launch their torpedoes. The underwater missiles ripped into Fuso, setting the veteran battleship adrift and ablaze. Torpedoes from the destroyer USS McDermut sank one Japanese destroyer and crippled two others. Follow-on torpedo and gunfire attacks reduced Nishimura’s force to his flagship, the battleship Yamashiro, the cruiser Mogami and a destroyer.

To his left flank, three heavy and two light U.S. cruisers waited for his three ships. To his right flank ahead were another heavy cruiser and two light cruisers, another destroyer squadron and a line of six battleships, five of which had been at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

On the destroyer USS Bennion, a young gunnery officer named James L. Holloway III watched salvo after salvo fly through the air and crash down on the Nishimura’s doomed flagship and accompanying cruiser. The future chief of naval operations observed, “I could clearly see the explosions of the shells bursting on the Japanese ships, sending up cascades of flame as they ripped away topside gun mounts and erupted fiery sheets of molten steel as they tore into the heavy armor plate.”

Burning, Mogami reversed course to intercept Vice Adm. Shima’s group of ships. Shima, who had already been bloodied when a PT torpedo crippled a light cruiser, wisely decided to withdraw through the strait. A collision with another Japanese cruiser, additional shellfire hits and dawn air attacks finished off Mogami. Shima escaped with his two heavy cruisers and four destroyers. Though Surigao Strait proved to be a lopsided triumph for the Americans, the battle for Leyte Gulf was not yet won.

Dr. David F. Winkler is a historian with the Naval Historical Foundation.

Source: Samuel Eliot Morison, Two Ocean War (Boston: Little, Brown, 1963); Library of Congress Veterans History Project interview with Adm. Holloway and Sen. John W. Warner by author May 28, 2004.