Leyte Gulf - USS Natoma Bay CVE-62

of Samar and headed westward for the strait, which it
entered at 2130. The destroyer Nowaki, left behind to pick
up survivors, was still outside, racing to join Kurita.
The force which on October 24 Halsey had determined to
keep concentrated was now divided four ways. Up north,
DuBose's cruiser-destroyer group was advancing ahead of
Mitscher's carrier groups. From the southbound groups,
Halsey had detached his fastest battleships, the Iowa and
New Jersey, with three cruisers and eight destroyers in a
futile race to outspeed Kurita to the strait. They were too
late by more than three hours. In a final division, cruisers
and destroyers advanced and at 0110 October 26 sank the
Nowaki, the only ship of the Center Force left afloat
outside. The six fast new battleships of the Third Fleet
raced 300 miles north and 300 miles back south without
making contact with the enemy.
After dawn on the 26th, planes from Bogan's and McCain's
carrier groups winged out across the Sibuyan Sea for a final
crack at Kurita. They sank the light cruiser Noshiro and
further damaged the straggling Kumano, thus ending four days
of attacks on the battered Center Force.
LIBERATION OF THE PHILIPPINES
The Battle for Leyte Gulf brought the purely naval war to
an end. With Japan's fleets shattered, there could be no
more stand-up fights at sea. This happy conclusion resulted
partly from speeding up the Philippines timetable. Had the
Leyte invasion taken place on December 20, as originally
scheduled, Ozawa would have had time to train his aviators
enough to give the Americans a real fight. Since Admiral
Halsey was responsible for the speed-up, his strategic
insight more than offset his tactical lapse of October 24.
Now that the Navy had attained its main objective, its
function was to continue to assist the Army and the Army Air
Forces to attain theirs. It was Halsey's cherished design to
join the B-29's in a raid on Tokyo, providing the fighter
cover that could not reach Japan from the Marianas. The plan
had to be abandoned, however, because TF 38 could not be
spared from the Philippines. Monsoon rains turned Leyte into
34 Leyte Gulf