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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