tlb wrote:So the question is: were the events accurately described, even though the visual footage might not be correct? In other words, is this a correct description of the battle?
The Battle of Leyte Gulf was fought near the Philippines over several days with a number of different engagements. The combined conflict made it the largest naval battle of the Second World War, and by some estimates, the largest naval battle in history.
More than 200,000 naval soldiers, auxiliary personnel, and officers were involved in the conflict between October 23d and 26th of 1944. The forces were mostly American and Australian on the Allied side against Imperial Japanese on the Axis side.
The naval battle was to support the amphibious invasion of Leyte in an effort to force the Japanese from the Philippine Archipelago. Doing so would begin to isolate the Japanese Empire from much of the oil and raw materials fueling their war efforts.
The battle is historically considered to have been divided into four separate fights: The Battle of Sibuyan Sea, the Battle of Surigao Strait, the Battle off Cape Engaño, and the Battle of Samar.
Paramount among the battles was the engagement at Surigao Strait, where the US Seventh Fleet Support Force almost wholly destroyed Japan's "Southern Force." It would be the last battleship battle in history as the Japanese force, which included two battleships, attempted to run the gauntlet through a trap set by the Americans.
The American force, including six battleships, awaited and managed to "cross the T" over the ragged Japanese line, completing the classic naval maneuver for the last time ever...
I wish people in these presentation would not use phrases like "for the last time ever"; as we will never be able to verify that, except possibly in a negative sense. Another one of their clips is called something like "The Last Great Tank Battle in History" and while I might hope that is true, again we will not know unless we see it disproved.
That's a reasonable enough brief overview of the fight. Mind you, it glosses over quite a bit. Like by the time the Japanese force got its 'T' crossed it was more a disorganized gaggle, and not a proper battle line, and by that point consisted of only a single battleship, one heavy cruiser, and and one destroyer.
And walked into the combined firepower of 6 US Battleships, 4 heavy cruisers (one Australian), 4 light cruisers. And that was after running the gauntlet of destroyers and PT boats. (There were 28 destroyers and 39 PT boats -- but I can't quickly verify how many DDs were back screening the battle line; though I know quite a few, as well as all the PT boats, had been deployed further up the Strait and has forced the Japanese to run a gauntlet of torpedoes before even reaching gun range of the battle line.
Of course even
before the battle the entire Japanese "Southern Force", consisted of only 2 elderly battleships (commissioned in 1915 and 1917 respectively), a treaty era heavy cruiser, and four modern destroyers. And then the battleship Fuso, and three of the destroyers didn't survive the even aforementioned swarm of US PT boats and destroyers.
Incidentally the US Battleships involved were also of the WWI era; though thanks to construction slowdowns after the Armistice the last couple weren't actually commissioned until 1921.
So the last battleship on battleship fight of WWII was a 6 on 1 mobbing involving updated ships of the last war. (Though there were a number of additional engagements that
almost happened during the remaining year or so of the war. In one case only being avoided because Admiral Lee, when offered the chance to take the US fast battleships up against one of the final one way missions of the Japanese navy, basically said 'no, don't bother calling off the carriers -- there's no need to go slug it out with them just to prove some kind of point')
