Lost Evidence: Leyte Gulf (You Tube)
This is a 5-part series which I combining into one review.
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Phase 1 of the fight: battleships launch a pre-invasion bombardment.
3Phase 2: assault craft cross the final yards to the shore.
By noon the men have moved off the beach and beaten the Japanese beach defenses.
MacArthur arrives.
As can be seen from the map, taking the Philippines would cut the Japanese off form the oil in Indonesia and Malaya.
One line of a planned Japanese counter-attack.
Two other groups will attack from a different direction.
A northern force is to draw off part of the U.S. fleet to chase them.
On Luzon, the Japanese plan their kamikaze attacks.
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Day one of the battle.
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Two U.S. subs attack the force that is to the west and sink two heavy cruisers.
The same group is spotted by a U.S. plane and attack planes launch from U.S. carriers. At the same time, Japanese planes are attacking a U.S. carrier. The carrier was sunk.
The U.S. planes attack the Japanese. The Musashi, one of the two super battleships, is sunk with the lost of over 1,000 lives. Meanwhile, the northern Japanese force gets Halsey to chase them. The heavy U.S. ships are sent south to meet the Japanese group coming from that direction. Center force, the group that had been attacked, had gone west, then turned around and came back east, which was not known to the U.S. forces.
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Day 3, the Battle of Surugao Strait.
PT boats attack first, then have to pull back. After that come U.S. destroyers, one of which blew up the Fuso, a Japanese battleship.
Then the Japanese force goes against the U.S. battleships which were ones that had been sunk at Pearl Harbor and fixed. It was time for payback, and the Japanese ship Yamashiro gets blown apart. The Japanese Southern Force attack group is driven off.
The Japanese center force moves in from the north, and only Taffy 3, a small force, is there to try to stop them.
The Japanese force has more ships and bigger ships than the U.S. force. One of their ships is the Yamato.
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One thing the Japanese didn't have, though, was planes, and the U.S. planes attack, trying to buy time for the carriers to escape.
One of the American carriers is hit bad.
Just when Center Force had a clear path to attack the U.S. transports, they heard about the defeat of the Southern Force and then turned around and left.
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