Chapter 87 Chapter 86

In this sea battle, the outcome depends on four factors: two are strategic, one is geographical, and the other is personnel. Therefore, the fate of Victor Henry and his son hangs in the balance. These four factors, so readers must remember these factors. When it comes to geography, we need only look at the entire topography of the Philippine archipelago.Seven thousand islands are scattered scattered about a thousand miles north and south between Japan and the East Indies.As long as it can occupy the Philippine Islands, it can cut off Japan's oil, metal and food supplies.Luzon Island is located at the northernmost point and is the largest island. It is located in the center of the archipelago; Ren Yain Bay leads to the South China Sea in the northwest, and is the most ideal landing place for capturing Luzon Island and going straight to Manila.

MacArthur planned a large-scale landing along the coast of Wright Gulf, and chose the smaller Wright Island far to the southeast as the base for the next attack on Luzon Island.Because in the waters there, there are many islands, large and small, forming a barrier, and only the east side is open to the Philippine Sea.When the U.S. military attacked, it could sail directly into the bay from the east, but the entire landmass and scattered islands blocked the west channel.Nearly all of the waterways winding among the maze of islands were too shallow for fleets to navigate. If the counter-offensive Japanese troops invade Wright Gulf from the Japanese mainland, they can bypass the east of the archipelago and go south, directly into the bay.However, if the warship wants to come from the west or southwest, for example, from Singapore or Borneo, then there are only two ways to pass through the archipelago and enter Wright Gulf: one is to take the San Bernardino Strait, especially The fleet can sail through the big Samar Island, then turn south from the north and enter Wright Gulf; the second is to take the Surigao Strait and enter Wright Gulf from the south along the strait.

In order to get close to the fuel base, the main fleet of the Imperial Fleet is stationed in the ocean outside Singapore.They planned to refuel in Borneo if they had to fight for the Philippine Islands. The personnel factor involved the thoughts of General Halsey.And his thoughts were mainly influenced by the incident five months ago. Back in June, Spruance's Pacific Fleet had seized Saipan in the Mariana chain as a starting point for the long haul flight to Japan.That landing provoked a decisive battle of aircraft carriers. The pilots of the U.S. Navy immediately gave this decisive battle a name, calling it "Mariana Turkey Hunting"; it was a disaster for the Japanese Air Force. In the first air battle, most of Japan's remaining front-line pilots were shot down, while Spruance suffered only minor losses.The Japanese aircraft carriers all escaped.The United States attacked Saipan and, after a short and brutal land battle, finally gained an air base that put Tokyo within range of bombers.The adversary Spruance had encountered at Midway, Admiral Nagumo, the bomber of Pearl Harbor, committed suicide on Saipan, because he believed that the breach of the Empire's inner defenses would mean the war was lost.Many leaders in Japan share the same view.The resignation of military prime minister Tojo caused a sensation all over the world, but the reasons for this incident have not been noticed.Because the attack on Saipan came at a time when Eisenhower's troops were fighting hard along the way, advancing on Cherbourg; so, like the battles of Imphal and Bagration, this battle did not receive the prominence it deserved in the newspapers. status.

Despite this overlooked but historic victory, Spruance has been heavily criticized internally.It turned out that several of his aircraft carrier commanders were gearing up to start from Saipan and attack the invading Japanese army head-on; they believed that this would wipe out the imperial fleet in one fell swoop.Spruance later had to veto the claim.In any case he refused to leave the landing force he was covering there, for he did not know if other enemy forces would come suddenly from behind and destroy the beachhead.So when the Japanese planes swarmed and attacked Spruance's fleet approaching Saipan, they were all shot down at the "turkey hunt", but most of their several aircraft carriers and some supporting forces escaped Both King and Nimitz later praised Spruance's decision, but the matter remained a matter of debate. Critics continued to argue that there were no other enemy forces at sea at the time, only because Spruance As a result of being cautious, he missed an opportunity to wipe out a large number of enemy troops and possibly shorten the war.

General Halsey certainly shared that view.He was also impatient, so at Wright Bay he was reluctant to repeat what he thought was a big mistake Spruance had made. When it comes to strategy, the two opposing views of the United States on the Pacific War finally formed a head-on conflict. One group echoed MacArthur's views and advocated advancing from Australia to the northwest and landing operations, which is the so-called "South Pacific Strategy"; the other group supported the navy. Opinion, advocated crossing the vast ocean between Pearl Harbor and Tokyo, and attacking island by island, which is the so-called "Central Pacific Strategy".

The admiral in the navy who made the battle plan advocated simply abandoning the Philippine Islands and landing on the coast of Formosa or the China Sea, so that the supplies from the East Indies could be blocked "like a bottle".They insisted that air bombing of waterways, ports, and cities, followed by submarine blockades, would soon force the enemy to surrender.MacArthur stuck to the traditional Army view that the enemy's armed forces had to be defeated on land. Attacking first New Guinea, then the Philippine Islands, and then the mainland of the three islands: this was his path to victory. Leading Naval Strategist , including Jin and Spruance, all thought it was a waste of time to do so. Spruance even strongly advocated crossing the sea to attack Iwo Jima and Okinawa. He believed that using these two controllable A small attack point for air combat and submarine warfare can kill Japan.

After the Battle of Saipan ended, the navy's strategy was valued by the chiefs of staff of the three armed forces.MacArthur was furious about this.In 1942, he was ordered by Roosevelt to fly out of the Philippines.When he arrived in Australia, he once swore in public: "I must go back." What he meant was not that he wanted to defeat Japan with the method advocated by the navy, and then fly back there by civilian aircraft.He requested an audience with the President, and was finally received by the President at Pearl Harbor in July. Roosevelt had just been nominated for a fourth term as president.Seeing that the war was being won steadily in Europe, he was unwilling to get into trouble with MacArthur, a military genius who was described by the opposition party as being coldly treated and discriminated against.Roosevelt arrived at Pearl Harbor while recovering from his illness, listened to MacArthur's impassioned speech, and asked for the recovery of the Philippines because "the country's prestige needs to be revived."

MacArthur prevailed.The offensive in the Philippines continued.However, the army and navy remained deeply divided.Nimitz will Thomas.The Seventh Fleet commanded by Vice Admiral Kincaid was handed over to MacArthur for his amphibious operations; Boats and tankers etc.But Nimitz kept a tight grip on those new fleets of aircraft carriers and fast battleships, the main force of his battle, known as the Fifth Fleet under Spruance and the Third Fleet under Halsey. . Thus Kincaid commanded a powerful navy under MacArthur's command; Halsey commanded another powerful navy under Nimitz's command; so the march into Leyte Gulf did not have a supreme commander.

So, how did the Japanese deal with the war situation?Halsey attacked Formosa before launching the campaign, and the Japanese staged a massive victory celebration.The Imperial Headquarters announced joyfully that the Yankees who acted rashly had finally suffered a disastrous defeat; the Japanese land and sea aircraft fleet attacked and wiped out the Third Fleet in one fell swoop! Eleven aircraft carriers were sunk and eight were seriously damaged; two battleships were sunk and two were seriously damaged; two cruisers were sunk and four were damaged; destroyers, light cruisers and more than a dozen other ships of unknown type may have been destroyed , or set on fire.

So much for the bulletin.This is an astonishing change in the battle situation, and the hatred in Saipan has been wiped out!The Philippine threat is gone!Mass parades took place across Japan.Both Hitler and Mussolini sent congratulatory messages.The new Prime Minister declared: "We have victory within sight," and the Emperor issued a congratulatory edict. The relentless fact is that Halsey's Third Fleet has returned from its sortie without loss of a ship.The Japanese Army Aviation Squadrons had been wiped out and their bases completely destroyed.The statistics of the losses are: about 600 planes were shot down, and another 200 were blown up and burned on the ground.Overwhelmed by overly optimistic thoughts, the Japanese High Command called out all the aircraft on the naval aircraft carriers and sent those squadrons to join the battle.Like the pilots of the army and navy, they are almost all inexperienced recruits.Halsey's battle-hardened pilots treated them like a joke, but the few who fell behind and flew back brought back ridiculous successes.Bombs stirred up the waves, or their own comrades' planes exploded in the sea, and they, in their excitement and naivety, took it for battleships and aircraft carriers going down in flames.Although the reported figures have been folded in half by the Japanese base camp, they are still absurd and nonsensical materials throughout.

Later, MacArthur's vanguard landed on some islands in Leyte Gulf, while reconnaissance planes reported that a large invasion expedition—the Seventh Fleet commanded by MacArthur's subordinate Kincaid, including seven hundred or more ships— Heading to the Philippines.Scout planes from Luzon also found Halsey's Third Fleet intact, cruising the seas.As a result, the war-weary Japanese army just woke up from the dream of victory, and began to have a real nightmare again.An order was immediately issued to the Imperial Fleet: execute the "Number One" combat plan. The Japanese code name "One Number One" means "Success". There were four operational plans for Number One, and their purpose was to counter enemy advances at four possible points along the empire's shrinking frontiers.Among them, "No. 1" is the combat plan in the Philippine Islands. The "No. 1" combat plan adopts the strategy of borrowing one from the city.The Imperial Fleet is to be dispatched in full, covered by the Army Air Forces of the Philippines and Formosa, to force its way into the American reinforcement fleet, sink its troop transports, and then annihilate its landing forces with artillery fire.The plan assumed that the Japanese would outnumber the enemy by a ratio of one to three; that Halsey's fleet alone, including his carriers and fast battleships, would have a strike force that the Imperial fleet could not match. Therefore, the whole point of the "Number One" battle plan is to use deceit.To offset the enemy's overwhelming odds, Japan's few remaining aircraft carriers would try to lure Halsey's Third Fleet away from the beachhead into a carrier showdown.At this time, the main force of the Japanese army quickly rushed to defeat MacArthur's landing force before the arrival of the support ships of the Kincaid Seventh Fleet, and then sailed away from the area. However, after the "victory" of Formosa, the "No. 1" plan has become difficult to implement.The ground-based support army air force has already lost more than half, suffering from insufficient numbers, and the aircraft carriers that lure the enemy can no longer fight once they lose the air force squadrons on board.At best, they could only lure Third Fleet roaring far away from the beachhead to destroy them.When the Japanese base camp reluctantly made this decision, it thought it was enough to be able to do this. As long as Haier got the trick and left there, the main fleet composed of battleships and cruisers could still break into Wright Gulf and sweep MacArthur's beachhead.The purpose of making all these sacrifices is only to create an acceptable use and condition after winning.Fighting like this is actually tantamount to launching a large-scale kamikaze-style attack.It is indeed terrible for the fleet to sacrifice like this, but what they faced was a situation of great disparity in strength and almost no hope of victory. Isn't it right to risk everything that's left of a great navy in such a desperate way?However, according to Japanese thinking, this is not wrong.What was there that could not be sacrificed?Once the Philippines falls, the oil supply will be cut off anyway.The battleship was about to become like a toy with a broken clockwork.So, surrender?This is an inevitable result.In war, however, only the strong will see inevitability.For the weak there is only one path of proud defiance, which is considered admirable in most civilized countries, and noble in Japan. The oil problem complicates the "Number One" battle plan.Due to the losses caused by the submarines, the country's fuel stocks had dropped to such a low point that the fleet could not even be refueled at home.It is for this reason that Vice Admiral Kurita's main fleet--which has two of the world's most powerful new giant battleships, three other battleships, and many cruisers and destroyers--are anchored in Singapore Beyond the ocean, the reason is to depend on the oil in Java and Borneo.Those aircraft carriers that lure the enemy are moored in the domestic waters. Besides, to carry out the huge "No. 1" decoy plan, many actions must be taken to check and coordinate closely with each other, and it must mobilize its fleets that are far apart from each other and communicate only by radio.However, available communications and flight crews were also lacking.Most of the best technicians have died in the Coral Sea, Midway, Saipan and Guadalcanal.All in all, when the Imperial Fleet set out to carry out the "One" battle plan, the ships were scattered for thousands of miles because of the shortage of oil, and the news was not available because of the failure of communication; At the expense of self-sacrifice. On October 20, MacArthur's troops landed on Wright Island.This general walked onto the beach without stepping on the water, and made a speech on the radio: "Philippines, I am back! You all come to help me!...For your country, fight! For your children and grandchildren, fight!... ...Don't be timid and afraid. Everyone must strengthen their arms...In the name of the Lord, fight for the victory of justice as you seek the holy plate!" etc.These impassioned words aroused unseemly laughter among the sailors gathered around the radio. At first the Japanese did not seem prepared to counter the attack.We do not see that their fleet is moving.General Halsey, eager to launch his fleet-destroying sea battle, talked of crossing the archipelago into the South China Sea, driving off enemy ships, and leaving Kincaid to defend the beachhead.Nimitz's stern rebuke dispelled this idea, but it did little to cool Halsey's zeal for whacking the Japanese Navy. It was at this juncture that the human factor came into play.Halsey's record was quite disproportionate to his reputation.On the rear front, he was known as a naval admiral.He had the gallant air of a western movie star.He has led aircraft carrier sorties many times.In the South Pacific, his valiant spirit lifted the morale of the sinking American army and saved the Guadalcanal campaign.Newspapers and the nation adored the brutish hero who was about to fight to the death in the Pacific, quoting curses such as: "The Japs have begun to loosen their teeth, though their tails are still up." As the battle continued, he never participated in a real decisive battle.He missed all his chances, while his junior and old friend Spruance had gone into battle several times and won brilliant naval victories. Halsey's staff wondered whether the enemy would fight a battle for Wright, and risk taking one of two narrow straits from the west: either San Bernardino or Surigao strait.Some people think that the Japanese can just wait for MacArthur to land in Luzon, because they have a strong army and some very large air bases there.Besides, the Imperial Fleet can enter the Bay of Ren Ngak without any hindrance, and MacArthur's troops will be severely hit by land, sea and air force.In consideration of such problems, Nimitz once opposed aggressive advances in the South China Sea, but now Halsey simply transferred the most powerful fleet of his four task forces with five aircraft carriers—— He had nineteen aircraft carriers in all—ordering them to Ulysses, some eight hundred miles away, for general and resupply.On October 23, another task force was ordered to Ulysses, and four more aircraft carriers were removed from the field to remove I. Pug.Henry was deeply apprehensive about the removal of these ships.He recalled the Halsey he saw when he was serving on the destroyer, and he could clearly imagine how this old man was furious on the "New Jersey" because his huge Third Fleet wasted oil for nothing, and he was in the Philippines for 100 years. Slowly patrolling the vast tropical ocean beyond the sea.Only Halsey would have thought of storming west between those islands.into the China Sea.It was the same as when he changed plans and orders at the last minute on a whim.Now, just three days after landing, he had rashly removed half of his aircraft carriers, which, in Pug's view, also fell into this category of action.Halsey's actions are nothing more than two ways: one is to follow one's inclinations, and the other is to act willfully.It is true that the Task Force has been at sea for ten months, and now, according to the very good system established by the Commander of the Service Force of the Pacific Fleet, it is necessary to add fuel and replenish supplies to each warship.The officers and soldiers were tired.The ship needs to enter the port for a period of time.But isn't the most important thing to seize the opportunity to fight?But Halsey looked as though the threat from the sea to Wright had vanished, even though the enemy's whereabouts remained elusive. Pug also hoped that Halsey would make the carriers listen to their commander, Mark.Mitchell went to dispatch, because he is the most commanding Air Force general in the Navy.Now, Halsey was directly issuing orders to those aircraft carriers, and their real boss had become an indifferent passenger on the "Enterprise".It was like asking Pug to pilot the Iowa himself.This situation is terrible!In the past, Spruance asked Mitchell to command his ships to fight in Saipan, but only when he considered giving up the beachhead did he go out himself. Still, the officers and men of the fleet loved Halsey.The sailors liked to say they would go to hell with the Bull, and they hardly thought of Spruance.Pug himself was excited to be sailing again under Halsey's command.Halsey's charisma could make the entire Third Fleet rise to the occasion.This is important.However, in the complicated and confusing battle situation, calm reason is also important.That was the quality that Spruance had proved to be his, and whether Halsey had it too was now to be verified by the Navy for the first time.