Evening star., 1944-10-31
Historic Victory

niQue on "the Second Battle of the
Philippine Sea" graphically clarifies
the overall picture of that battle
and certifies beyond doubt that it
ended in an American victory of
such far-reaching and decisive di-
mensions that the Tokyo war lords,
whatever their past hopes may have
been, must now see that their doom
is unalterably sealed.
The prelude to the battle came
on October 81 when American sub
marines, sighting major Japanese
naval units moving northward from
the Singapore area, sank two heavy
cruisers and damaged third Then,
two days later, the heavy action
began, with Admiral Halsey dis
posing his Third Fleet to support
Admiral Kinkaid's Seventh Fleet in
the Leyte Gulf area, where General
MacArthur's invasion was, menaced
by two enemy forces, one steaming
from the Sulu Sea into Surigao
Strait and the other from the Sibu-
yam Sea through San Bernardino
Strait southwark down the east
coast of Samar.
BY afternoon on the first day of
the three-day engagement, Admiral
Halsey heard of third enemy force
heading south from Formosa of
Northern Luzon. To meet this threat,
several of his carrier task groups
thereupon turned northward, steam
ing at full speed through the nighx
for devastating October oath dawn
attack in which they sank four
japanese carriers as we'll as other
units. Then, breaking off the pur-
suit, they returned southwark to
give help to Admiral Kinkaid's
Seventh Fleet which during the
night of October 1924 had sunk or
put to fight all enemy ships at
tempting to pass through Surigao
Strait but which was outnumbered
by the foe off Samar. BY darkness
of the oath, however, aided by Third
Fleet planes, Kinkaid had driven
this force back into San Bernardino
Strait, and early in the morning of
the 25th struggling cruiser belong
ing to it was sent to the bottom by
Third Fleet gunf1re.
Thus ended-apart from the pur-
suit action that followed-one of
the most important battles in his
tory. A sketchy review cannot do
justice to it. It's drama involves not
only laundering display of vast
mechanical might but also bravery
and sacrifice beyond the capacity
of any playwright to delineate, and
exciting human factors like the bold
and swift thinking of Halsey when
he quit Kinkaid to intercept the
enemy off Luzon, and of Kinkaid
when he split his fleet to shatter
the two pronged. japanese drive
through the straits. Had either of
these men failed, General Mac
Arthur's campaign to liberate the
Philippines might have met with
terrible disaster. But they did not
fail Instead, at a cost of one light
carrier, two escort carriers, two de-
stroyers, one destroyer escort, an
unrevealed but apparently not great
number of planes and "a few lesser
craft" their Seventh and Third
Fleets. besides destroying probably
hundreds of planes, definitely sunk
"a Japanese vessels, including two
battleships, four carriers and six
heavy cruisers In addition, plus 81
others which escaped in damaged
condition." 13 enemy units were
severely damaged and possibly
sunk, including battleship and
three heavy cruisers.
In his communique describing all
this, Admiral Nimitz resorts to at
least one striking understatement:
He refers to the battle as being
merely zone of the major battles in
World War II in the Pacific" Ac-
tually, its magnitude and .implica-
tions seem every bit as great as
those of Jutland in the First World
War, and in some ways even greater.
AS sea and air victory it is without
parallel in the history of this or any
other nation, and its influence on
the course of events from. now on