Word: gulf
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...American power came back to the Philippines today over the glass-smooth, grass-green waters of Leyte Gulf under a tropical sun coming through an ominous haze lit by yellow flashes and the blasting of guns," that message began. "It was virtually perfect weather for the landings...
...slept well, eaten a hearty breakfast. Now with his corncob pipe he pointed over the glassy, green waters of Leyte (rhymes with 8-A) Gulf, where rode the greatest fleet ever assembled in the South west Pacific. Around him were hundreds of transports, shepherded by an Australian squadron and MacArthur's own Seventh Fleet, reinforced with jeep carriers from Admiral Chester Nimitz' vast armada of seagoing airdromes. On the horizon loomed the majestic battleships of Admiral Wil liam F. Halsey's Third Fleet - some of them ghosts from the graveyard of Pearl Harbor. Beyond the horizon steamed...
Sentinels Silenced. Even then, the landings in force could not be made with the shattering surprise characteristic of other amphibious assaults in the Pacific. Surprise had to be sacrificed, because Leyte Gulf was guarded by three sentinel islands. On A-minus-three,* company combat teams from an Army Ranger battalion landed from light, fast assault craft on Homonhon, Dinagat and Suluan. Jap communications were hamstrung but not completely destroyed. Tokyo got some kind of word that something was afoot, but apparently could not make up its mind that this was it. Field Marshal Count Juichi Terauchi, once the butcher...
After the Rangers had landed, minesweepers set about clearing the gulf for the 600-ship assault fleet then on the way. For two days and three nights they coolly quartered the gulf, watched for the assault that did not come. Experts in underwater demolition probed among the coralheads for mines; some of them swam for miles to the glistening white beaches, where they found more obstacles to destroy...
Meanwhile, the combined naval attack forces, under suave, bushy-browed Vice Admiral Thomas Cassin Kinkaid, were on their way. For a while it was a toss-up whether A-day would have to be postponed; a minor typhoon was whirling through the gulf. It died out and gave no trouble...