Word: gulf
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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LOOKING back upon a moment of history, NATIONAL AFFAIRS recalls the Battle for Leyte Gulf, which flamed into the headlines 15 years ago this week. It was the Japanese Empire's last stand. Never had a sea battle's stakes been so high, never so many warships involved, never such fierce fighting over such a vast expanse of trackless ocean. It was in fact four great battles, waged with every known naval weapon, majestic in its sweep, but complex and even controversial in its detail. Both the sense of sweep and the drama of detail...
...greatest battle in the history of naval warfare, which destroyed the Japanese fleet and swept clear the sea roads to the Philippines and Tokyo, raged across 500,000 square miles of churned and bloodied Western Pacific Ocean 15 years ago this week. This was the Battle for Leyte Gulf, which pitted the U.S. fleets supporting General Douglas MacArthur's landings on the island of Leyte against all the naval might that the crumbling Japanese Empire could salvage for a desperate last stand...
Against U.S. landings on Leyte, the Japanese had prepared a plan known as SHO-1, aimed at bringing "general decisive battle." SHO1 called for a pincers movement against the U.S. landing forces in Leyte Gulf. The strongest Japanese force, under Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita, was to steam through the Sibuyan Sea, debouch through San Bernardino Strait (see maps) and head south to Leyte Gulf. Two smaller forces, operating independently under Vice Admirals Shoï Nishimura and Kiyohide Shima, were to come through Surigao Strait, move north and close the pincers with Kurita. Meanwhile, a fleet under canny old Vice Admiral...
...within nine minutes after the U.S. cruiser Denver fired the first shot in the bombardment that prepared the way for MacArthur's amphibious attack, the Japanese naval command radioed: SHO1 OPERATION ALERT. Next morning came the order: EXECUTE. The Japanese fleets began converging on Leyte Gulf and the four mighty engagements that lay ahead...
...hours he had been getting urgent queries as to his whereabouts, desperate requests for help off Samar. At 1055 Halsey gave in to the pressure, ordered a large part of his force to turn back south -and went with them. By the time he got back to Leyte Gulf, the great battle was over. With it died the Japanese navy and any chance that it could protect Japan's island lifeline...