Battle of the Sibuyan Sea
(October 24, 1944)

Once Kurita's force made it into the Sibuyan Sea, west of Leyte, the fun really began. American carrier aircraft pounded the group of warships most of the day on the 24th. What little Japanese air cover there was over the squadron was driven off almost instantaneously by the superior American airpower. Most of their attacks were directed at the hapless Musashi, which succumbed to her wounds late in the afternoon after absorbing a staggering amount of punishment (twenty torpedoes, seventeen bombs, and eighteen near misses). Several other vessels received damage as well. Kurita briefly turned his force around to the west to get out of American air range, but then returned to an eastward heading. As luck would have it, the American fast battleship force that might have met him in the San Bernardino Strait that night had been moved northward with Halsey's carrier forces as he sought to attack Ozawa's bait force. By dawn Kurita would be off the beaches of Samar, with no one the wiser as to his whereabouts.

Battle of the Sibuyan SeaJapanAllied
Starting Forces x2
x2
x7
x2
x15
 x260 (approx.)
Losses x1 sunk (Musashi)
x1 damaged (Yamato)
x1 damaged (Nagato)
x1 damaged (Tone)
x3 damaged (Fujinami, Kiyoshimo, Uranami)
 Essentially zero.

Back to the Leyte Campaign Map Page