Evening star., 1944-11-18
Navy Comuque Describes Historic Sea Bottle in tie Philippines

The teri OF Macy cOntntuniQue
No. 554. detailing the recent
ndpdl action In the Philippines.
Based on reports necessarily In
complete due to the necessity OF
radio silence for certain fleet units
and that the impossibility of having
some officers in attendance at evalu-
alton conferences because of con-
tinuing operations Of fleet units
the following, information Is now
available on the second battle of
the Philippines:
A series of naval engagements and,
In terms of victory, ones which may
turn out to be among the decisive
battles of modern times, were won
by our forces against a three
pronged attack by the Japanese in
an attempt to prevent our landings
in the Philippine Islands.
The fact is known. Progress of
the three-day battle which began
October % was promptly reported to
the American public as far as mill
tary security permitted. 1t is now
possible to give chronological and
diagrammatic review of the second
battle of the Philippines, which left
the United States Fleet in command
Of the eastern approaches to the
Philippines, providing support for
Gen. MacArthur's invading forces
and maintaining without inter-
ruption the sea-borne supply lines
pouring men and munitions into the
combat area.
The Japanese are still wondering
what hit them. 1t is impossible,
therefore, to identify the compo-
sitlon of our naval forces or to de-
scribe the damage-other than
losses-suffered by us in the three
day fight. All damage, however, was
remediable and some of the United
States ships hurt in the fight are
already back on duty.
Losses Suffered.
We lost one light carrier, the
U. S. S. Princeton; two escort car
ciers, the U. S. S. Saint Lo and U. S.
S. Gambler Bay; two destroyers, the
U. S. S. Johnston and U. S. S. Hoel,
and one destroyer escort, the U. S. S.
Samuel B. Roberts, and a few lesser
craft.
Against this, the Japanese def
nitely lost two battleships, four
carriers, six heavy cruisers, two light
cruisers and an undetermined num-
Der of destroyers. These ships were
seen to go down. So severely dam
aged that they may have sunk be-
fore reaching port, and in any event
removed from action for from one
to perhaps six months, were one
japanese battleship, three heavy
cruisers, two light cruisers and seven
destroyers. In addition, damaging
hits were noted on six battleships,
four heavy cruisers, one light cruiser
and 10 destroyers.
The victory not only made possible
the continuing supply of men and
munitions to Gen. Douglas A. Mac
Arthur's successful invasion forces,
but by its magnitude can conserva-
lively be SAID TO have greatly re-
duced future casualties in both men
and water-borne equipment.
Like all battles, this one did not
Just happen. The engagements, in
one of which surface ships slugged
1t out against each other, and in
which the far-ranging carrier-borne
United States aircraft both inter-
cepted and pursued enemy ships
with conspicuous success, were pre-
ceded by series of other actions
which fall into a definite, strategic
pattern when reviewed in order.
Preliminaries to the showdown
battle can be said to have opened
with the landings on Peleliu and
Morotai, southwest of the Philip
pines, on September Is. These land
ings in themselves were preceded by
a two-weeks series of feints and
thrusts, by Vice Admiral Marc A.
Mitschers carrier task force of the
Sd Fleet, which kept the Japanese
forces off balance while whiting