The Need for Organisational Resilience - Chapter 4

messages to Kinkaid, who was made to believe that designated parts of his surface fleet – Task Force

34 – would remain in place to block the Surigao Strait. He steamed off north. The Leyte landings were

now at the mercy of Kurita’s Centre force.

Meanwhile, Kurita re-formed his battered ships and proceeded into the Leyte Gulf. To his

surprise, there was no welcome committee for him. Soon after, the first smoke columns appeared on

the horizon. Still in sight were a few destroyers and escort carriers – merchant ships equipped with

flattops – that provided fire support for the invasion of Leyte.

Kurita could not believe his luck. His ships moved in range, opening fire with their massive 18inch

guns at around 19:00 and closing in further. The Americans watched in awe as coloured-splashes

(the Japanese used dyes to mark shell splashes) rose around their ships. In desperation, American

destroyers in the vicinity started charging at the Japanese fleet, launching their torpedoes and

releasing smoke screens. The escort carriers got everything in the air. Their planes did not carry

armour penetrating bombs. Likewise, the 5in guns of nearby destroyers had only very limited impact

on Kurita’s surface fleet. Not long after – despite the poor gunnery skills of the Japanese force − the

first destroyers, most notably the USS Johnston, were sunk. Also, the first US escort carriers began to

be targeted; they started to receive a pounding. The situation for the Americans worsened by the

minute.

Halsey, steaming away from Kurita in pursuit of Ozawa’s carriers, received a message at 21:20:

The whole world wants to know where is Task Force 34. (Rear Adm. C. A. F. Sprague Report to

COMINCH, n.d.) . He had been preoccupied with attacking Ozawa’s fleet of largely empty carriers and

so had to turn back south, yet he would not reach Leyte Gulf until the next morning.

Meanwhile, the ferocity of the American resistance made Kurita believe that he faced a far bigger

enemy. The southern Force had been wiped out, and it was only a matter of time before Ozawa’s

carrier fleet would also meet its end. Enough was enough. Kurita decided to break off the

engagement, leaving behind a largely undefended invasion force.

The avoidance of an impending disaster at Leyte Gulf in 1944 was largely due to Kurita’s decision

to withdraw and desist from pushing further into an undefended invasion zone, packed with transports

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