Talyn
Emissary
...82 years this week and next...
While U.S. commanders were planning to invade the Philippines, Japanese planners, unsure where the next Allied blow would fall, drew up four Sho (Victory) contingency plans.
The intricate Sho-1 plan to counter a Philippines invasion would eventually call for three separate naval surface forces to converge on Leyte Gulf and wipe out the U.S. Seventh Fleet’s invasion armada. The key to the operation was luring away the strong Third Fleet by using a Japanese carrier force as bait.
TF 38 carrier planes strike the Center Force, which is without air cover. The superbattleship Musashi (above, foreground) sinks after being hit by 19 torpedoes and 17 bombs; her sister, the Yamato, is damaged along with two battleships and a heavy cruiser. U.S. forces lose only 18 aircraft.
While U.S. commanders were planning to invade the Philippines, Japanese planners, unsure where the next Allied blow would fall, drew up four Sho (Victory) contingency plans.
The intricate Sho-1 plan to counter a Philippines invasion would eventually call for three separate naval surface forces to converge on Leyte Gulf and wipe out the U.S. Seventh Fleet’s invasion armada. The key to the operation was luring away the strong Third Fleet by using a Japanese carrier force as bait.
TF 38 carrier planes strike the Center Force, which is without air cover. The superbattleship Musashi (above, foreground) sinks after being hit by 19 torpedoes and 17 bombs; her sister, the Yamato, is damaged along with two battleships and a heavy cruiser. U.S. forces lose only 18 aircraft.
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