The Sho Go 1 plan (Victory plan) of the japanese navy leaded by admiral Toyoda was made to react to an eventual american invasion of the Philippines. The plan was that the combined fleet would leave its anchoring area in the Lingga rade (island between Singapore and Sumatra) and would form two groups that would appear into the Leyte Gulf (October 25th) coming from North and South after passing throught the Philippine archipelago. In the Gulf the two groups have for goal the destruction of the troop transports and to isolate the troops on the ground. A third group from the Ryu-Kyu will reenforce the 2nd group. Finally the carrier fleet anchored near Japan will come down toward the Philippines to decoy the american carriers and so remove some of the covering ships. All these ships meeting will yield the biggest sea battle in the world.
October 18th the alert is given to: Kurita commanding the 1st fleet with 5 battleships (of which the two giants Yamato and Musashi, the Nagato, the Kongo and the Haruna), 12 cruisers and 15 destroyers; Nishimura commanding the 2nd fleet with 2 battleships, 1 cruiser and 4 destroyers; vice-admiral Shima in the Ryu-Kyu with 3 cruisers and 4 destroyers -he will join Nishimura; and Ozawa with the carrier fleet (4 carriers have trained pilots like the Zuikaku), 2 carrier-battleships (Ise and Hyuga), 3 cruisers, 9destroyers and 112 aircrafts (80 of which are fighters). After refueling (October 20th) Kurita and Nishimura leave Brunei toward the San Bernadino strait (North between Samar and Luzon) and the Surigao strait (South between Leyte and Mindanao) respectively.
The Americans have for the landing the 7th fleet under the orders of Kinkaid and the 3rd fleet under the orders of Halsey. The 7th fleet has to cover the landing and is divided in four groups (one of which is only battleships -the heavy artillery); in all 6 battleships, 14 escort carriers, 8 cruisers and 40 destroyers. Halsey will cover it all with his 3 groups forming the 3rd fleet and each composed of 2 heavy carriers, 2 light carriers, 2 battleships, 3 cruisers and 10 destroyers. In summary the Japaneses have 68 ships and 112 airplanes that they send against the 225 american ships and 1500 aircrafts. Also the Sho Go 1 plan has nothing planned after the destruction of the decoy group but if these ships are not used now Toyoda will soon be out of gas for any of his carriers and out of ammunition for any of his ships: so he has to move and he does it a 11h10 on October 18th.
In the night of October 24th 1944 two american submarines, the Darter (frigate captain McClintock) and the Dace (frigate captain Claggett) spot the 1st japanese fleet and sink the 2 cruisers Maya and Atago (admiral ship) while damaging the Takao. After their attack they warn the american fleet. Kinkaid thus send 2 battleships to block the San Bernadino strait and let the 3rd fleet near it. October 24th from 10h26 to 13h50 the airplanes of the 3rd fleet are sent in 4 raids -259 flights- against the ships of Kurita. Nishimura is also spotted but his smaller group is less a threat. Kurita is forced to retreat since all his ships are damaged (the cruiser Myoko has to leave the formation) and the giant battleship Musashi (72 800 tons -the brother of the Yamato) has just sunk after being hit by 19 torpedoes and 15 bombs. During these attacks the japanese planes, of which the pilots are not able to fight against the american ones, go against the 3rd fleet and even disable the light carrier Princeton (later sunk with torpedoes). Halsey thinks that Kurita is withdrawing and he just has spotted the group of Ozawa North and so he go to meet them while creating the Task Force 34 (4 battleships, 6 cruisers amd 14 destroyers) to be prepared for ship-to-ship battles. But Kurita turn back again, continuing is mission and so he gets to the San Bernadino strait; also a misunderstanding between Kinkaid and Halsey makes the former thinks that the 2 battleships stayed to guard the exit of the strait but in truth they joined back the group and so the exit is free. In fact the major mission of Halsey is to destroy a big part of the japanese fleet and so he wants to intercept the group of Ozawa and he thinks that the group of Kurita is too damaged to continue.
Thus Kurita appears before the american transports on October 25th in the morning (4h12) but the strategie planned can't be used since the 2nd fleet of Nishimura and Shima has been destroyed during the night by the battleships of Kinkaid: with many traps laid by Kinkaid (with its 6 old battleships and 8 cruisers under the orders of counter-admiral Oldendorf) in the Surigao strait where Nishimura lost the battleship Fuso, the admiral-ship Yamashiro and all the squadron except the Mogami and the destroyer Shigure. At first from 23h to 3h 30 fast patrol boats launch small attacks against Nishimura but none of the 34 torpedoes launched hit. Few time after the japanese group is found in line under the crossed enemy fire of the destroyers: the battleship Fuso sinks along with 3 destroyers. Then while entering the Leyte Gulf Nishimura finds himself under the fire of the 6 battleships of Kinkaid which sink the battleship Yamashiro around 4h20. To end the traps Shima who was following Nishimura 50km behind comes in the strait, understand the situation and retreat but during the his retreat he is attacked by the fast patrol boats and the airplanes as soon as the sun is up. Thus of the 19 ships that entered the strait 2 only exit it: the battleship Mogami and the old destroyer Shigure; 39 Americans died in there.
Even with all their problems, Kurita is in good position near the coast of Samar with in front of him the 16 escort carriers of counter-admiral Sprague protected by only 21 destroyers and so at 6h58 he fires the first salvo at a range of 27km. The american airplanes try to stop his battleships and cruisers while the destroyers are putting smoke screens so that the escort carriers can attack the japanese ships with their canons and torpedoes. With these means and some airplane reenforcement, the Americans sink 3 cruisers: the Chikuma, the Chokai and the Suzuya and damage the Kumano.
For their part the Japaneses sink 3 destroyers (Hoel, Samuel B. Roberts and Johnston) and 2 escort carriers: the Gambier Bay which sinks after 3h of pounding and then the Saint-Lo which sinks hit by a Kamikaze. But when the Japaneses are just beginning to have fun, they turn back, go South in the Gulf and after 3h Kurita leaves the Gulf going North. Without communications since his admiral-ship was sunken, Kurita doesn't know what happened to the other groups and he thinks that they have been caught by the Task Force 38 (more powerful than his group). So the attack ends on October 25th around noon when Kurita gathers together his ships and leaves. In the following days the Kamikazes make more and more attacks and 6 escort carriers are hit (of which the Saint-Lo sinks).
While Kurita is attacking the transports, Halsey is way up North where he send his planes (527 attacks in 6 waves) against the group of Ozawa who at the end of the day will have only 29 aircrafts left. The first wave sinks the carrier Chitose and disable for good the Zuikaku. At the second wave the Chiyoda takes on fire. Around noon the 3rd wave sinks the Zuikaku. The 4th wave sinks the carrier Zuiho. Halsey is living the best glorious moments of his life with the Cape Engano Battle. But at 8h48 he sends one of his group to help Kinkaid and around 11h he sends the Task Force 34 also to help Kinkaid. In the afternoon Halsey with his reduce fleet sinks the Chiyoda with canon salvos along with 2 destroyers. To end the day the submarine Jallao sinks the cruiser Tama and the destroyer Nowaki sinks in the San Bernadino strait when spotted by american ships.
Thus in that battle Ozawa lost 4 carriers, of which the Zuikaku was the last survivor of the Pearl Harbor attack, and 2 destroyers. The end of that sea battle marks the end of the imperial japanese navy. 26 japanese ships have been sunken: 3 battleships, 4 carriers, 10 cruisers and 9 destroyers; against 6 american ships, 5 of which were under the orders of Sprague in the Leyte Gulf (2 escort carriers and 3 destroyers). The japanese ships still floating are no more a threat to the american navy which is too powerful: they take refuge at Singapore where they will wait for the end.
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