The Battle at Leyte Gulf: The Biggest Naval Battle Ever Broke Japan

James Holmes

14 February 2022

Archived

40 min

PME All levels

BLUF

This article argues that although the WW2 Battle at Leyte Gulf effectively ended the Japanese Navy’s ability to influence the course of the war, lessons shouldn’t be carved in stone but rather be subject to time, technology and warmaking methods.

Summary

This article by James Holmes, writing for the National Interest, makes the following points:

The last great naval battle of World War II that forced the Japanese Navy to take desperate (including kamakazi) actions.
Part of General MacArthur’s island-hopping campaign towards Japan.
Really 4 naval engagements, all won by Australia and the US.
Included 11 RAN vessels.
Control of the Philippines would destroy Japan’s innermost defence perimeter and isolate Japanese controlled, resource-rich, Southeast Asia.
The Philippines would be a base for sea and air assaults against the Ryukyu Islands (including Okinawa) and the Japanese home islands.
The Japanese Navy’s flying corps had just about ceased to exist so its aircraft carriers, with few planes or pilots, were used as a decoy.
Before the battle, fuel shortages forced the Japanese to disperse assets, reducing their combat power.

Issues worth thinking about:

How do you measure the size of a battle?
Tonnage engaged, geographic space covered or firepower?
Was Leyte history’s last ever major fleet engagement
Is major sea combat likely ever again?
If not, why invest in large surface combatants?
Should Navies be reconfigured with swarms of small, lightly armed craft?

Worth noting and remembering the following:

Naval battles come along so seldom that it’s perilous to draw too confident conclusions from them.
We can gain faulty lessons from reviewing battles whose outcomes were far from certain.
Acts of heroism can colour our judgement of events.

Learn more about the implications of the Battle at Leyte Gulf.