Leyte Gulf - Battle of Cape Engano - Animated

the time is 7:10 a.m. on the 25th of October 1944 vice admiral gaburo aawa Paces the bridge aboard the Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft carrier zaku which is steaming south from Japan towards late Gulf and the Philippines aawa waits for reports from the rest of the Japanese Fleet which is carrying out operation shogo 1 the Imperial Japanese Navy's final attempt at turning the tide of the war in the Pacific Theater as part of this plan Japan's last remaining aircraft carriers are to be offered up as bait to draw away Allied Naval forces from their task of protecting general Douglas MacArthur's Invasion Force which is storming the island of late 3 minutes later at 7:13 a.m. a lookout of Baku spots a US Navy Scout aircraft which can only mean that an overwhelming enemy strike will soon be inbound this will be the final battle for Japan's once great aircraft carriers but first a quick word from our sponsor World of Warships a a free-to-play online multiplayer PC game where you can command 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far to the south of the island of Samar unbeknown to aawa his diversion could not have worked better the US third Fleet under the command of Admiral bull had spotted his decoy Force the previous day and raced North to engage what he believes is the main Japanese Fleet in doing so Hy left the San Bernardino Strait unguarded which allowed rear Admiral to K's powerful Center Force to infiltrate the lat Gulf with his mission accomplished the only thing left for vice admiral aa's Northern force is to face H's massive Fleet with Japan's remaining carriers aawa will tell his American interrogators after the war that I expected complete destruction of my fleet but if K's mission was carried out that was all I wished the day before Northern Force launched 75 aircraft the bulk of its offensive punch against third fleet's carriers but did no damage to any American warships today the eight Fleet carriers eight lights carriers six fast battleships six heavy Cruisers nine light Cruisers and 58 destroyers of the US third Fleet are preparing for battle against the one Fleet carrier three light carriers two carrier battleship hybrids three light Cruisers and 10 destroyers of the Japanese Northern Force for task force 38 Commander rear Admiral Mark mitcher and Admiral Hy this is the moment they have been waiting for after aa's Force slipped away after the battle of the Philippine Sea Hy resolves to destroy the Japanese Fleet once and for all when he got the opportunity now he believes he is about to deal the final blow to Japan's Navy aboard the carrier USS Enterprise executive officer Thomas Hamilton drafts the order of the Day writing today may be the biggest in our Navy's history Enterprise will set the pace however Hy and mitcher are unaware that Imperial Japan's carrier force is a mere shadow of its former self as our decoy force is a relatively weak formation of Warships more importantly the four carriers have been stripped of most of their Air Wings which have instead been sent to land bases in the Philippines the Japanese Northern force can only field 117 aircraft almost entirely manned by untrained and untested Pilots they stand no chance against task force 38 which boasts between 600 and 1,000 aircraft piloted by Veterans of the Pacific War aawa believes that this battle is already a forone conclusion having detected the Japanese Fleet at around 1:00 a.m. on the 25th of October Admiral Hy had ordered task force 34 comprising six fast battleships to draw ahead of task force 38 and make haste towards the enemy he intends for task force 38 air strikes to be followed by the heavy fire of task force 34's battleships shortly after 6:00 a.m. Admiral mitcher gave the order to launch Scout aircraft as well as the first strike group of 180 Aircraft although mitcher does not have a precise bearing on the enemy Fleet he wants his aviators to be ready to hit them as soon as they are detected the 60 Hellcat Fighters 65 hell diver bombers and 55 Avenger torpedo aircraft are vectored 50 Mi to the north and circle until 7:13 a.m. when a scout Hellcat fighter reports the position of the Japanese Fleet the northern force is 140 m to the north of the US third Fleet and with perfect flying weather led by Commander Dave mccampbell who scored Nine Kills in a dog fight the previous day the American strike group sets off towards their target the last battle fought between aircraft carriers in the second world war is about to begin commander mccampbell and the American strike group are detected by Ja Japanese radar at 8:17 a.m. and aawa launches whatever Fighters he has left 10 minutes later the 180 US Navy aircraft are spotted on the horizon and 30 Japanese zeros are vectored to intercept the incoming Force the Japanese warships open fire with everything they have including San shikan or beehive anti-aircraft shells which explode amongst the incoming aircraft some American aviators will recall this being the heaviest Flack that have ever encountered even worse than their attack on the super battleships Musashi and Yamato the Japanese combat Air Patrol also pounces on the formation shooting down an Avenger and damaging several other aircraft yet the Fearsome hellcats quickly get to work breaking up the interceptors shooting down almost every single enemy aircraft it is not known how many of the 30 Z survived the encounter but very few are able to limp back to bases in the Philippines with the combat Air Patrol dealt with the dive bombers and torpedo aircraft begin their attack runs on the Japanese warships the first victim is the Destroyer akitsuki which is set upon at 8:37 a.m. a hell diver drops a 1,000 lb bomb which penetrates and explodes directly in the engine room cutting power to the rest of the ship the resulting fires call secondary explosions and akitsuki sinks in less than 10 minutes Avenger torpedo aircraft from vt4 of the USS essic attacked the hybrid carrier battleship eay which carries no aircraft although the American Pilots claimed three hits it is later revealed that all of the Torpedoes missed meanwhile Commander M Campbell directs 12 hell divers to attack the light carrier Cho which narrowly survived destruction at the Battle of the Philippine Sea she is not so lucky this time as the hell divers plant eight bombs across the length of her flight deck Avengers also drop Torpedoes and score two hits on sho's port side the ship's Captain Commander kji Yano Works in vain to save the ship but more hell divers from USS Lexington drop another four bombs into her burning Flight Deck with Cho a burning wreck the order is given to abandon ship she will sink an hour later taking 904 men with her including Commander Yano at this point American Pilots have noticed that the Japanese carriers seem to be devoid of any aircraft more torpedo aircraft from the USS San jinto and Bellow wood move in to attack the light Cruiser tarm which is trying in vain to protect Sho a single torpedo impacts the number two Boiler Room which temporarily leaves the ship Dead in the Water emergency repairs are able to restore propulsion but tarma soon falls behind the rest of the formation and she is eventually forced to limp back towards Japan on her own the light carriers zho is targeted by hell divers from the USS Enterprise despite evasive maneuvers zho is struck by a 500b bomb which jams the rear elevator and knocks out the rudder three more near misses cave in the side of her Hull and zho develops a list but her damage control teams are able to successfully restore steering and fight the fires by 8:55 a.m. the list has been writed and she remains floating twio starboard is aa's Flagship and Japan's last operation Fleet carrier zaku as the last remaining carrier from the attack on Pearl Harbor zaku has survived many close calls and has earned a reputation as a lucky ship this time 40 hell divers and 10 Avengers line up on her determined to finally sends waku to the bottom rear Admiral Teo kaizuka orders the ship to flank speed as she desperately attempts to evade the incoming attackers zaku manages to outmaneuver two Torpedoes while her crew puts up a large blanket of anti-aircraft fire however hell divers plant at least four bombs into the flight deck causing extensive damage to the hangar Bay almost simultaneously a torpedo impacts the port side which knocks out the rudder and shorts the switchboard control the carrier develops a marked list while her speed drops from 24 knots to barely 10 knots as a result of the damage nonetheless her damage control party is able to restore power to the ship and correct the list by 9:00 a.m. saku's reputation as a lucky ship is still intact as the first wave of American aircraft leave the scene however more US Navy aircraft arrived to attack the northern Force at just after 10: a.m. the second wave is much smaller than the first comprising 36 aircraft from the USS Lexington Franklin and Langley after problems coordinating the strike luckily for the Americans this battle is taking place at relatively close range between the two fleets for an aircraft carrier engagement so Admiral Mitch's Pilots quickly find the Japanese Fleet with limited aircraft the second wave mostly concentrates on the light carrier Choda Z hell divers from Lexington and Franklin nose over to attack the carrier and score four direct hits Choda loses power and begins to drift out of formation while the rest of the aircraft attack the winded zho but score no hits the second wave departs as Admiral Asa transfers his flag from zaku to the light Cruiser oyodo to take advantage of its better communication Center meanwhile a full-blown crisis has overtaken Admiral Hy's Flagship the battleship USS New Jersey earlier that morning commander of the US 7th Fleet vice admiral Thomas kingcade had asked Hy if vice admiral Willis Lee's fast battleships were blocking the San Bernardino straight to which Hy replied in the negative confident that he had made the right decision in chasing the enemy carriers at 8:22 a.m. kingcade radio's Admiral Hy fast battleships are urgently needed immediately at latay Gulf over the next hour Kade sends increasingly desperate updates about the plight of task unit Taffy 3 as they grapple with an overwhelming enemy surface Force at 10: a.m. K transmits in the clear with no decryption simply asking where is Lee send Lee JY does not fully grasp the situation and tells King Kate that it is simply too late for him to do anything at Pacific Fleet headquarters in P Harbor commanderin-chief Admiral Chester Nimitz has been monitoring the situation and is also growing concerned he decides to send Hy a message asking where the battleships of task force 34 are located the message reads turkey trots to water where is repeat where is Task Force 34 the world wonders as part of US Navy cryptography the first for and the last three words are intended to serve as a relevant padding to confuse Japanese code Breakers however the message decoder on the USS New Jersey did not delete the padding phrases leading Hy to believe that nimit is reprimanding him a furious Hoy throws his cap on the ground and begins sobbing his chief of staff shakes him by the shoulders and shouts stop it what the hell's the matter with you pull yourself together after calming down Hy orders to task force 34 South to support Taffy 3 but his light escorts will need refueling before they can impact the battle as such King Kate's warships will have to fend for themselves while the heavy surface ships of third Fleet slowly make their way towards the island of Samar in the meantime Admiral Mitch's Fleet carriers will continue to pound the decoy Japanese carrier force a third American strike group of 160 aircraft head for aa's Northern Force at noon at this point aawa is retiring to the north as fast as possible having completed his task of luring the US third Fleet away from late the last remaining 90 Fighters have run out of fuel and are forced to ditch in the ocean because of the damage to the carrier flight decks lagging behind the main formation is the light carrier chioda which is being towed by the cruiser Isuzu when radar detects the incoming third wave Ozawa orders Isuzu back to the main formation to provide anti-aircraft fire leaving chioda behind at 1:15 p.m. the American aircraft spot their targets through the cloud layer strike Commander Theodore Winters ignores the crippled Japanese warships and directs most of the attackers towards zaku which is now making 24 knots again finally her string of luck is at an end almost 100 dive bombers and torpedo aircraft from Lexington and Essex bear down on her at least five bomb hits are scored while the The Avengers launch an anvil attack six Torpedoes slam into her sealing the ship's fate at 12 127 p.m. rear Admiral kaizuka gives the order for all men to assemble on the flight deck before abandoning ship as the carrier lists to Port kaizuka addresses his crew for the final time and each man salutes as the Imperial Navy enen is lowered zaku the last Japanese Fleet carrier will sink 2 and 1/2 hours later with the loss of 842 men including rear Admiral kaizuka seeing that zaku is finished Commander Winters directs the attack aircraft from the Enterprise San jasinto and Franklin against weho which can barely maneuver after the damage suffered earlier in the battle Avengers from enterprises's vt6 hit her with a torpedo directly under the bridge wounding Captain Kuro sugura the onslaught continues for another 10 minutes hell divver score two direct hits with bonds and seven near misses which force the carrier to reduce speed another torpedo strikes the starboard side which further wrecks the hole beneath the water line zho comes to a halt and begins to drift as the pumps are overwhelmed by inrushing seawater around this time Admiral mitcher is informed that task force 38 is now just 60 mi from the nearest enemy warships of Northern forth he orders his carriers to Halt while sending a force of Cruisers and destroyers ahead to engage the remant of the Japanese Fleet in a surface battle the third American strike wave returns to its carriers while Commander winter stays behind to document the results of the attack he watches as the aircraft carrier zaku veteran of the attack on PE Harbor the battle of the Coral Sea the Battle of godal canal and the battle of the Philippine Sea capsizes and sinks the US Navy has finally settled a long-standing score zho continues to list by 2:10 p.m. every sailor has been called to work the pumps in an attempt to save the ship however the fourth wave arrives at just before 3:00 p.m. to finish off the rest of the Japanese carriers this is a smaller attack that targets the stricken weo she stands no chance as hell divers score several more direct hits and Avengers strike the small carrier with two Torpedoes at 3:10 p.m. the wreckage of zho slips beneath the surface taking 2115 men with her the crippled chioda is now the last remaining Japanese aircraft carrier in Northern Force as Winters is returning to base he spots four American Cruisers and 10 destroyers coming over the horizon towards Choda which is dead in the water and without any protection Winters orbits above the doomed light carrier and radio's coordinates to the Cruisers while assuring them that there are no Japanese battleships lurking in the area at 4:25 p.m. the heavy Cruisers witchar and New Orleans open fire from a range of 20,000 yards and are soon joined By the Light Cruisers Santa Fe and mobile Choda quickly takes several hits and returns fire with her eight 1-in anti-aircraft guns but the rounds fall well short within 15 minutes she is a burning wreck as the American destroyers prepare for a torpedo attack but just as the Destroyers are about to launch their Torpedoes at 4:47 p.m. geoda rolls over and sinks survivors are seen in the water but the American warships are refused permission to rescue them as they pursue the rest of the Japanese Fleet of the 1,470 officers and Men aboard chioda there are no known survivers the fifth and final wave of American aircraft overtakes the fourth wave as they head back to base this strike group is composed of 96 aircraft from Essex Lexington Lang L and Enterprise and arise over the remnants of oa's fleeing Northern Force at 5:30 p.m. with no more aircraft carriers left the pilots decide to focus on the converted Battleship carriers EA and hiuga the American aircraft dive in but lack of daylight hampers the bombing of the Japanese vessels despite claiming 37 confirmed hits on the two battleships it is revealed after the war that neither eay nor hiuga were directly struck by American bombs the last wave of US Navy aircraft leave without scoring a single hit but the battle is still not over in fact it is an American submarine that will claim the next victim USS Jala is on her first wartime Patrol when she picks up a nearby contact on radar while surfaced her Skipper Lieutenant Commander Joseph isenhower gives Chase and eventually comes across the wounded light Cruiser tarma which is limping northwards at reduced speed isenhower lines up the shot from 1,000 yards away and fires three bowel Torpedoes but all Miss he then fires a salvo of four Torpedoes from just 800 yards away at this close range it is almost impossible for galow to miss three of the four Torpedoes impacts tarma which breaks in half and sinks all 450 Japanese Sailors aboard are loss other us submarines attempt to ambush as our's Fleet but no more hits are scored meanwhile the advanced formation of American Cruisers and destroyers are continuing their Pursuit as dusk Falls over the battlefield the Japanese Northern force is now Strung Out Over an area of about 45 miles aided by Night fighters from the carrier USS essic the American Cruisers and destroyers discover a group of three Japanese destroyers and one light Cruiser which are picking up survivors from the sunken aircraft carriers the US warships opened fire at 6:52 p.m. surprising the Japanese aboard the Destroyer hat Suzuki Captain shikaka Amano decides to lead an aggressive but fatal charge against the larger American Force to allow the rest of the Japanese vessels to escape hatsuzuki turns towards the Cruisers and Maneuvers as if she is launching Torpedoes although she has no Torpedoes the American formation is forced to temporarily turn away for the next 2 hours hatsuzuki trades fire with the American Force while Captain Amano continues to repeat the torpedo attack maneuver this allows the rest of the Japanese Fleet to get away but hatsuzuki eventually takes multiple hits from American main batteries minutes before 9:00 p.m. the burning Destroyer explodes and sinks taking all but eight of the 280 men aboard with her hatsuki sacrifice finally marks the end of the the Battle of Cape angano the Imperial Japanese Navy has lost four carriers a light Cruiser and two destroyers along with 4,200 men the US Navy has lost only 12 aircraft in what will be the final carrier battle of the second world war the Battle of late Gulf officially comes to an end the following day as American aircraft continue to hunt down the retreating Japanese warships scattered throughout the Philippines the Destroyer noaki is The Last Ship destroyed on the 26th of October bringing an end to one of the largest naval battles in history after 3 days of battle involving 360 vessels the Japanese Navy has lost 28 ships and 13,000 men while the United States has lost seven ships and 3,000 men despite suffering heavy losses especially amongst the ships of Taffy 3 the Allies will maintain their dominance of the Pacific Ocean Japan's last attempt at turning the tide of the war at sea has failed and the Imperial Japanese Navy has ceased to exist as an effective fighting force with its Naval power finally extinguished the Japanese will Now resort to more Desperate Measures including the use of kamikazi Admiral bull Hy's actions during the battle of the late Gulf have been heavily scrutinized specifically his decision to leave the San Bernardino straight undefended in order to chase the Japanese decoy Force Hy is not reprimanded and remains in command of the US third Fleet for the rest of the war some historians such as James Horn Fisher contend that Hy was justified in chasing what he believed to be the main Japanese force but the commander of Taffy 3 rear Admiral Clifton sprag will never forgive Hy the two men later meet in person where Hy tells sprag I want you to know I think he wrote the most glorious page in American Naval History that day the commander of Taffy 3 will forever refer to horsey as the gentleman who failed to keep his appointment that October it will be another two months until Douglas MacArthur's Allied Forces secure late which essentially severs Japan's access to its occupied territories in the Dutch East Indies the capture of late also opens the door for the reconquest of the Philippines and the invasion of okanawa in April of 1945 there the Japanese Navy launches one final attack with the largest warship in the world of the time the Super battleship Yamato it will be the last desperate gasp of the dying Empire download World of Warships for free using the link in the description during registration use the code warships to get exclusive rewards including a bunch of dubloons credits premium account time and a free ship after you complete 15 Bassel thanks so much to our awesome patrons who make these videos possible welcome to all our new patrons this month and a special thanks to our patron of the week Brad who has been a longtime supporter of the channel we're so grateful for your support each week we select our favorite Patron re reactions to shout out and our favorite comment this week is from Alex 13 who says it was really interesting to see that the Japanese Navy's Gambit of drawing the main US Navy Fleet from latay worked and that the Americans thought the Japanese still had the capabilities to cause significant damage with their aircraft carriers if you'd like to join our patreon and get access to exclusive benefits such as Early Access to videos add and sponsor free we would love to have you as part of our community

Channel: The Operations Room

Views: 438,362

Keywords: Time-Lapse, History, Second World War, ww2, Documentary, Aircraft Carrier, Pearl Harbour, aircraft, animated, war, the pacific, us navy, battle off samar, battle of leyte gulf, taffy 3, uss johnston, uss samuel b roberts, cape engano, admiral halsey

Id: MKW3roiX_mo

Length: 25min 33sec (1533 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 24 2023