The waters around the Phillipines would be the site of the largest naval battle of the war, as the Japanese desperately strove to turn back the American invasion of Leyte. Their operational plan was, as usual, very complicated, involving the movement of forces scattered in bases both in Japan and Borneo. Basically, Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa's depleted Mobile Force, it's carriers practically denuded of aircraft, would come down from Japan in an attempt to draw US naval might northward, away from Leyte. Simultaneously, two battleship groups who had been training in Singapore and Borneo would cruise northward separately and attempt to reach the Leyte landing beaches through the northern (San Bernardino Strait) and southern (Surigao Strait) approaches to the island. In this way the Japanese hoped to bring into play the one largely undamaged asset still at their disposal; the formidable guns of the Navy's battleships.
Legend:
= Battle
#1 = Ambush in the Palawan Passage, October 23, 1944
#2 = Battle of Sibuyan Sea, October 24, 1944
#3 = Battle of Surigao Strait, October 24-25, 1944
#4 = Battle off Samar, October 25, 1944
#5 = Battle of Cape Engano, October 25, 1944
#6 = Battle of Ormoc Bay, November 11, 1944
