Storm Over Leyte

by John Prados

  CHAPTER 7. “WITH CONFIDENCE IN HEAVENLY GUIDANCE, THE ENTIRE FORCE WILL ATTACK!”

  “It just operated all day long”: Naval Security Group, Albert M. Fishburn Oral History, September 22, 1983, p. 24.

  “Good indications” and “poor”: Joint Intelligence Center Pacific Ocean Area, “Summary of Ultra Traffic, 0000/20—2400/20 Oct 1944,” in JICPOA, “Summary of Ultra Traffic, 11 September–31 December, 1944.” NARA: RG-457, SRMD-007, pt. 1, p. 120.

  “She was a mass of billowing black smoke”: Darter Logbook 0533/23, October 1944, reprinted in Theodore S. Roscoe, Pigboats: The True Story of the Fighting Submariners of World War II. New York: Bantam Books, 1958, p. 339.

  “As you know, the war situation is grave” et seq.: Inoguchi Rikihei and Nakajima Tadashi with Roger Pineau, The Divine Wind: Japan’s Kamikaze Force in World War II. New York: Bantam Books, 2013, quoted pp. 6–9.

  “TALLY HO”: Paul Drury, “A Naval Aviator at Leyte Gulf: October 24, 1944, The Longest Day of My Life,” paper presented at the conference World War II in the Pacific, Arlington, VA, August 11, 1994. Author’s notes.

  “ENEMY ATTACKERS ARE APPROACHING”: Yoshimura, Build the Musashi, quoted p. 159.

  “WE ARE BEING SUBJECTED”: Battle Summary of 1st Diversion Attack Force in Operation SHO, in U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey (Pacific): Naval Analysis Division, Campaigns of the Pacific War (hereafter cited as Campaigns of the Pacific War), reprinted Appendix 89, p. 300.

  “We had expected air attacks”: Koyanagi, “The Battle of Leyte Gulf,” p. 364.

  “Like losing part of myself”: Ugaki Diary, October 24, 1944, translations from Sensoroku, NHC: Records of the Japanese Navy and Related Translations: Leyte Series, box 34, folder: “Diary, VAdm M. Ugaki,” p. 26. The published version of the Ugaki Diary (Goldstein and Dillon, eds., Fading Victory, p. 491) refers to this passage but does not reproduce it.

  “gun-shy”: John Prados, Combined Fleet Decoded: The Secret History of American Intelligence and the Japanese Navy in World War II. New York: Random House, 1995, p. 666.

  “Zelig of sea battle”: Evan Thomas, Sea of Thunder: Four Great Naval Commanders and the Last Great Naval Campaign, 1944–1945. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006, p. 78.

  “an exceedingly intrepid sailor”: Kusaka Ryunosuke, translated extracts from Combined Fleet (Tokyo: Mainichi Shimbun Sha, 1952, pp. 225–46), p. 9. NHC: Records of the Japanese Navy, Leyte Series, box 30, folder: “Senior Officer Comments.”

  “OUR DAMAGES ARE NOT LIGHT”: Ito and Pineau, The End of the Imperial Japanese Navy, quoted p. 108.

  “UNDER THESE CIRCUMSTANCES”: Koyanagi, “The Battle of Leyte Gulf,” quoted p. 365.

  “THEREFORE, HAVE DECIDED”: Ito and Pineau, The End of the Imperial Japanese Navy, quoted p. 108.

  “WITH CONFIDENCE IN HEAVENLY GUIDANCE”: Battle Summary of 1st Diversion Attack Force in Operation SHO, Campaigns of the Pacific War, quoted p. 301.

  “The meaning of that order was”: Toyoda Soemu Interrogation. USSBS, Interrogations of Japanese Officials, vol. 2, p. 317.

  CHAPTER 8. THE FIRST TEAM VERSUS THE RISING SUN

  “In case opportunity . . . is offered or can be created”: Samuel Eliot Morison, History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, vol. 12, Leyte, June 1944–January 1945. Boston: Little, Brown, 1958, quoted p. 58.

  “It preserved my fleet’s integrity”: Halsey and Bryan, Admiral Halsey’s Story, p. 217.

  “We had long since decided”: Special Notes by William F. Halsey, Note (a), p. 175, to “1944: The SHO Plan—The Battle for Leyte Gulf,” Hanson Baldwin, Sea Fights and Ship Wrecks: True Tales of the Seven Seas. Garden City, NY: Hanover House, 1955.

  “Here’s where we’re going”: Halsey and Bryan, quoted ibid.

  “They’re coming through, I know”: Carl Solberg, Decision and Dissent: With Halsey at Leyte Gulf. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1995, quoted p. 125.

  “CENTRAL FORCE HEAVILY DAMAGED”: Halsey and Bryan, quoted p. 217.

  “I think you’re right”: E. B. Potter, Admiral Arleigh Burke: A Biography. New York: Random House, 1990, quoted p. 206.

  “TONIGHT EVERY EFFORT WILL BE MADE”: Southwest Area Fleet Dispatch 250008, October 1944 (Mikawa to Toyoda). NHC: Records of the Japanese Navy, Leyte Series, box 30, folder: “1st Striking Force (2).”

  “Stepchild fleet”: Ito and Pineau, The End of the Imperial Japanese Navy, pp. 116–17.

  Tully dismisses argument on Nishimura versus Shima: Tully, Battle of Surigao Strait, pp. 54–55.

  “Something dignified and inaccessible”: Ibid., pp. 32–33.

  “Something you dream about”: Barrett Tillman, Enterprise: America’s Fightingest Ship and the Men Who Helped Win World War II. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2012, quoted p. 211.

  “Far more than credited”: Tully, Battle of Surigao Strait, pp. 73–74.

  “PROBABLE ENEMY LANDING FORCE IN CONVOY”: Message, Kinkaid to Halsey, 240443, October 1944. FDRL: FDRP: Map Room Files, box 123, folder: “MR 450 (Section 7): Enemy and Foreign Ship Locations, Jan–Oct 1944.”

  “I could clearly see the bursting shells”: James L. Holloway III presentation, “The Battle of Surigao Strait,” author’s notes; James L. Holloway III, interview with the author, August 11, 1994.

  “Waste itself in piecemeal action”: Admiral Shima Kiyohide, interview with John Toland, October 18, 1966. Notes, Toland Papers, FDRL.

  “I AM DESTROYER SHIGURE”: Thomas J. Cutler, The Battle of Leyte Gulf: The Greatest Naval Battle in History: The Dramatic Full Story, 23–26 October 1944. New York: Pocket Books, 1994, quoted p. 227.

  “Up ahead the enemy must be waiting for us”: John Toland, The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire. New York: Bantam, 1971, quoted p. 637.

  “THIS FORCE HAS CONCLUDED ITS ATTACK”: Morison, Leyte, quoted p. 233.

  “It was just like him”: Kusaka Ryunosuke, interview with John Toland, November 18, 1966. Toland Papers, FDRL.

  CHAPTER 9. TALLYHO . . . CARRIERS!

  “FORM LEO”: Solberg, Decision and Dissent, quoted p. 149.

  “Today may be the biggest in our Navy’s history”: Edward P. Stafford, The Big E: The Story of the USS Enterprise. New York: Dell Books, 1964, quoted p. 433.

  “He is considered an ideal fleet commander”: Joint Intelligence Center Pacific Ocean Area, Estimate Section Appreciation, May 29, 1945.

  “I expected complete destruction”: Ozawa Jisaburo Interrogation. USSBS, Interrogations of Japanese Officials, vol. 1, p. 220.

  “I chewed my fingernails down to my elbows”: Halsey and Bryan, Admiral Halsey’s Story, quoted p. 218.

  “All ships were firing everything they had” et seq.: Tillman, Enterprise, quoted p. 217.

  “Awesome”: Marcia Lane, “Gunner in Torpedo Bomber Recalls Battle of Leyte Gulf,” St. Augustine Record, December 25, 2006.

  “Ultra. From CINCPAC,” and “This is Ultra from CINCPAC”: Messages, Nimitz to Halsey, 241937 and 242005, October 1944. FDRL: Map Room Files, box 123, folder: “MR 450 (1) Sec. 7, Foreign and Enemy Ship Locations, Jan–Oct 1944.”

  “IS TF34 GUARDING”: Message, Kinkaid to Halsey, 241914, October 1944. CINCPAC Graybook, p. 2246.

  “FAST BATTLESHIPS ARE URGENTLY NEEDED”: Message, Kinkaid to Halsey, 242239, October 1944. CINCPAC Graybook, ibid.

  “So astonishing I could hardly accept it”: Halsey and Bryan, Admiral Halsey’s Story, quoted p. 220.

  “WHERE IS LEE”: Ibid.

  “WHERE IS REPEAT WHERE IS”: Solberg, Decision and Dissent, quoted p. 153. I have replaced the separators (aka “nulls”) in the message with periods. The other piece of padding in this message, “TURKEY TROTS TO WATER,” was so clearly not part of the actual text that it was deleted in the radio room.

  “Stop it!”: Hal
sey and Bryan, Admiral Halsey’s Story, quoted p. 220.

  “Halsey had no choice”: Solberg, Decision and Dissent, pp. 154–55.

  CHAPTER 10. “CLOSE AND ATTACK ENEMY CARRIERS!”

  “I never heard a negative word”: Thomas, Sea of Thunder, quoted p.175.

  “Gambling philosophy”: Koyanagi Tomiji, interview with John Toland, December 29, 1966. Toland Papers, FDRL.

  “Almost stood on [their] head[s]”: Kusaka Ryunosuke, Translated Extracts from Combined Fleet (Tokyo: Mainichi Shimbun Sha, 1952, pp. 225–46), p. 9. NHC: Records of the Japanese Navy, Leyte Series, box 30, folder: “Senior Officer Comments.”

  “Combustible, Vulnerable, Expendable”: William T. Y’Blood, The Little Giants: U.S. Escort Carriers Against Japan. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1987, p. vii.

  “ENEMY STRENGTH SEVEN SHIPS”: Cruiser Division 7 Detailed Action Report: Leyte (WDC 161005). NHC: Records of the Japanese Navy, box 31, folder: “CruDiv 7.”

  “It was definitely established”: Battle Summary of 1st Diversion Attack Force, Campaigns of the Pacific War, p. 302.

  “We moved to take advantage”: Koyanagi, “The Battle of Leyte Gulf,” p. 367.

  “Actions of the fleet headquarters”: Ugaki Diary, October 25, 1944, p. 492.

  “Instantly”: Koyanagi, “The Battle of Leyte Gulf,” p. 367.

  “CLOSE AND ATTACK ENEMY CARRIERS” and “ATTACK”: Haguro Detailed Action Report no. 5: October 23–26, 1944 (WDC 161747). NHC: Records of the Japanese Navy, Leyte Series, box 32, folder: “Cruiser Division 5.”

  “BY HEAVEN-SENT OPPORTUNITY”: Message, 1st Diversion Attack Force to Combined Fleet, 250700, October 1944. Ito and Pineau, The End of the Imperial Japanese Navy, quoted, p. 128. The time of this message is recorded in the Detailed Action Report of battleship Kongo.

  “In a pursuit the only essential”: Koyanagi, “The Battle of Leyte Gulf,” p. 367.

  “Complete surprise seems to have deprived the Admiral”: Morison, Leyte, p. 250.

  “CRUISER DIVISIONS, ATTACK!”: Cruiser Division 7 Detailed Action Report.

  “Air Plot, tell him to check” et seq.: Clifton A. F. Sprague, “They Had Us on the Ropes,” The American, April 1945, pp. 40–41.

  “They’re shooting at us in Technicolor”: William T. Y’Blood, The Little Giants, quoted p. 160.

  “INTEND ENGAGE TO STARBOARD”: Cruiser Division 7 Detailed Action Report.

  “A broken and sad old man” et seq.: USSBS, Interrogations of Japanese Officials, vol. 2, p. 569.

  “Depressing rapidity”: Sprague, “They Had Us on the Ropes.”

  “ENEMY [BATTLESHIPS] AND CRUISER”: Kinkaid 7:07 a.m. Halsey and Bryan, Admiral Halsey’s Story, quoted p. 219.

  “Buck, what we need is a bugler”: Walter Karig et al., Battle Report: The End of an Empire. New York: Rinehart and Company, 1948, quoted p. 389.

  “Men loved him or hated him”: Thomas, Sea of Thunder, quoted p. 175.

  “MY SITUATION IS CRITICAL”: Kenneth I. Friedman, Afternoon of the Rising Sun: The Battle of Leyte Gulf. Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 2001, quoted p. 301.

  “Hold on a little longer, boys”: Morison, Leyte, quoted pp. 284–85.

  “I had expected to be swimming” et seq.: Sprague, “They Had Us on the Ropes,” p. 116.

  “If we had known the types and number”: Koyanagi, “The Battle of Leyte Gulf,” p. 368.

  “There was no consideration for how to get home”: Kurita Takeo Interrogation. USSBS, Interrogations of Japanese Officials, vol. 1, p. 45.

  “WE ARE DETERMINED TO EXECUTE THE PLANNED PENETRATION”: Message, 1st Diversion Attack Force to Combined Fleet, 251205, October 1944: Ito and Pineau, The End of the Imperial Japanese Navy, quoted p. 131.

  “This cannot be happening”: Nakata, For That One Day, quoted p. 172.

  “REPORT MADE TO THRONE CONCERNING TODAY’S BATTLE”: Navy General Staff, NGS Chief Broadcast Dispatch, 251715, October 1944. Battle Summary of 1st Diversion Attack Force (WDC 161641), p. 33. NHC: Records of the Japanese Navy, Leyte Series, box 30, folder: “1st Striking Force (1).”

  “IF THERE IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO DO SO”: Message, Combined Fleet Dispatch Order No. 374, 251925, October 1944. From excerpts of the same summary battle report as reprinted in Campaigns of the Pacific War, Appendix 89, p. 306.

  CHAPTER 11. SEA FIGHTS AND SHIPWRECKS

  “Japanese forces now have” and “The fact that the United States Navy has suffered”: Contemporary Japan, October–December 1944, vol. 13, nos. 10–12.

  “When you took the Philippines”: Yonai Mitsumasa Interrogation. USSBS, Interrogations of Japanese Officials, vol. 2, p. 330.

  “According to latest information”: Navy Department Communiqué No. 551, October 27, 1944, p. 255. U.S. Navy: Office of Public Information, Navy Department Communiqués 301 to 600, and Pacific Fleet Communiqués, March 6, 1943–May 24, 1945. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1945.

  “Although still subject to revision”: CINCPAC Communiqué No. 168, October 29, 1944, ibid., pp. 255–57.

  “It was clearly no longer possible”: Kase, Journey to the Missouri, p. 95.

  “Decisive” and “did decide”: Morison, Leyte, p. 337.

  “Admiral Kurita’s mission”: Toyoda Soemu Interrogation. USSBS, Interrogations of Japanese Officials, p. 317.

  “I made that blunder out of sheer physical exhaustion”: Hara Tameichi, with Fred Saito and Roger Pineau, Japanese Destroyer Captain. New York: Ballantine Books, 1961, quoted p. 270.

  “Death should not be invited unnecessarily” et seq.: Ito and Pineau, The End of the Imperial Japanese Navy, pp. 140–43, quoted at 141, 142.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  OFFICIAL SOURCES

  AUSTRALIA

  G. Herman Gill, Australia in the War of 1939–1945: Royal Australian Navy, 1942–1945. Canberra: Australian War Memorial, 1968.

  JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF

  Grace Peterson Hayes, The History of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in World War II: The War Against Japan. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute, 1982.

  NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY

  Sharon A. Maneki, The Quiet Heroes of the Southwest Pacific Theater: An Oral History of the Women of CBB and FRUMEL. United States Cryptologic History, Series IV, World War II, volume 7, CCH-S54-96-01. NSA, 1996.

  Ronald H. Spector, ed., Listening to the Enemy: Key Documents on the Role of Communications Intelligence in the War with Japan. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources Inc., 1988.

  UNITED KINGDOM

  The Japanese Air Forces in World War II: The Organization of the Japanese Army and Naval Air Forces, 1945. Crown copyright 1979. (Published New York: Hippocrene Books, n.d. [1979]).

  U.S. AIR FORCE

  Haywood S. Hansell Jr., Strategic Air War Against Japan. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1980.

  Daniel L. Haulman, Hitting Home: The Air Offensive Against Japan. Washington, DC: Air Force History and Museums Division, 1999.

  John F. Kreis, ed. Piercing the Fog: Intelligence and Army Air Forces Operations in World War II. Washington, DC: Air Force History and Museums Program, 1996.

  Maurer Maurer, ed., Combat Squadrons of the Air Force, World War II. Department of the Air Force, 1969.

  U.S. ARMY

  All volumes: Washington, DC: Office of the Chief of Military History, dates specified

  Army in World War II Series: The War in the Pacific.

  Philip A. Crowl, Campaign in the Marianas (1960).

  M. Hamlin Cannon, Leyte: The Return to the Philippines (1953).

  Roy E. Appleman, et al., Okinawa: The Last Battle (1948).

  Army in World War II Series: The Technical Services

  Karl C. Dod, The Corps of Engineers: The War Against Japan. Center of Military History, 1987.

  Supr
eme Commander Allied Powers, Reports of General MacArthur, 2 vols., vol. II-2 in two parts. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office for Department of the Army, 1966.

  Thomas M. Huber, Japan’s Battle of Okinawa. Leavenworth Papers no. 18. Fort Leavenworth: Command and General Staff College, n.d. [1990].

  U.S. NAVY

  Communiqués, 1–300. Office of Public Information, United States Navy, 1945.

  Communiqués, 301–600. Office of Public Information, United States Navy, 1945.

  Navy Records

  Richard W. Bates et al., The Battle for Leyte Gulf, October 1944: Strategic and Tactical Analysis for the Naval War College. Volumes 1, 2, 3, 5, and diagram book. Washington, DC: Bureau of Naval Personnel, 1957.

  Robert L. Buckley Jr., At Close Quarters: PT Boats in the United States Navy. Washington, DC: Naval History Division, 1962.

  Office of Naval Intelligence, Index to All Japanese Naval Vessels (ONI 41-42 I). December 1944 (U.S. Naval Institute Press reprint, 1987).

  John C. Reilly, Operational Experience of Fast Battleships; World War II, Korea, Vietnam. Department of the Navy: Naval Historical Center, 1989.

  Gerald E. Wheeler, Kincaid of the Seventh Fleet: A Biography of Admiral Thomas C. Kincaid, U.S. Navy. Washington, DC: Naval Historical Center, 1995.

  United States Naval Operations in World War II (All volumes are by Samuel Eliot Morison and were published by Little, Brown on the dates indicated.)

  Vol. 8: New Guinea and the Marianas, March 1944–August 1944 (1953).

  Vol. 12: Leyte, June 1944–January 1945 (1958).

  Vol. 13: The Liberation of the Philippines, 1944–1945 (1959).

  Vol. 14: Victory in the Pacific, 1945 (1990).

  U.S. STRATEGIC BOMBING SURVEY

  Campaigns of the Pacific War

  Interrogations of Japanese Officials

  OTHER SOURCES

  John A. Adams, If Mahan Ran the Great Pacific War: An Analysis of World War II Naval Strategy. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008.

  Agawa Hiroyuki, The Reluctant Admiral: Yamamoto and the Imperial Navy (trans. John Bester). Tokyo: Kodansha, 1982.