Word: kurita
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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...
...Kurita's powerful fleet steamed through Palawan Passage toward the Sibuyan Sea early on the morning of Oct. 23, it was flushed by patrolling U.S. submarines Darter and Dace. The subs attacked. Before they were through, they had crippled heavy cruiser Takao, sunk heavy cruiser Maya and Kurita's flagship, heavy cruiser Atago. Kurita himself had to swim to save his skin. A Japanese destroyer picked him up, and he sailed on, still in command of five battleships, seven heavy cruisers, two light cruisers and eleven destroyers...
...battle? Yours very truly, Bill Frazer." Addressees: Admiral William F. Halsey, in 1944 commander of the U.S. Third Fleet; Vice Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid, commander of the U.S. Seventh Fleet and the Central Philippines Attack Force; and three defeated Japanese sea fighters-Vice Admirals Jisaburo Ozawa, Takeo Kurita and Kiyohide Shima...
Bill Frazer hopes for more letters. A reply from Admiral Kurita would be particularly valuable; he has been criticized for turning back into San Bernardino Strait, north of Samar when he might have dealt a telling blow to a U.S. force inferior in speed and firepower. But Shima offers the schoolboy historian an understandable summing up of Japanese hesitancy at Leyte: "A further defeat meant to Japan no longer incidental losses but loss of life itself...
Blameworthy Bull. The bulk of the Japanese navy was divided into four groups. Two minor groups made up the southern force, which was supposed to steam through Surigao Strait between Leyte and Mindanao. The main striking group was the central force, under Vice Admiral Kurita. which was to steam through San Bernardino Strait north of Leyte between Samar and Luzon. Like two arms of a nutcracker, the two fleets were to converge on Leyte Gulf, wipe out. amphibious and supply craft there, and isolate MacArthur's forces on the island. A third (northern) force under Vice Admiral Ozawa...