The Third Fleet had actually suffered two cruisers damaged.
The first American troops—a scouting force—landed on October 17th on Dinegat and Suluan islands, across the gulf from Leyte. Minesweepers swept the gulf and frogmen poked about the shoreline. Bombardment ships pounded the beaches, and carrier planes blasted enemy airfields. Ships of the attack landing forces entered Leyte Gulf during the night of October 19th, and next morning troops went ashore on four beaches on the west side of Leyte Gulf and on both sides of Panoan Strait, to the south.
PTs were rushed up from New Guinea, 1,200 miles away. Forty-five of the boats, under the tactical command of Lieut. Commander Robert Leeson, made the trip on their own power with a stop-over for rest of a sort in Palau and a refueling at sea, so as to arrive with enough gas to start patrols immediately. They arrived in the combat zone on the morning of October 21st, and began prowling that same night.
Times were lively in Surigao Strait, and the PTs had good hunting, but nothing compared to what was coming.
Since a series of stinging setbacks from America’s carrier planes during operations in the Central Pacific, the main body of the Japanese fleet—still a formidable host—had held back from fighting American ships in strength. Landings in the Philippines were too much to put up with, however—too close to the beloved homeland; His Imperial Japanese Majesty’s ships had to fight now, no matter how desperate the situation—or rather because the situation was so desperate.
The Japanese executed a plan long held in readiness for just this event—the Sho plan, or Plan of Victory, as it was hopefully called, though the Japanese navy’s chief of staff more realistically called it “Our last line of home defense.”
The stage was set for the greatest naval battle of all time, the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
The naval lineup on the eve of battle—greatly simplified, perhaps oversimplified—was as follows:
U. S. Navy
Seventh Fleet, under Vice-Admiral Thomas Kincaid:
This slow but powerful force included six over-age battleships, 18 small, slow escort carriers, five heavy cruisers, six light cruisers, 86 destroyers, 25 destroyer escorts, 11 frigates, and the usual gunboats, supply train and landing craft for an amphibious operation—plus all the PTs on the scene, the 45 veterans of the New Guinea blockade. Mission of the Seventh Fleet was close support of the Sixth Army landing force.
Third Fleet, under Admiral William Halsey:
This fast and mighty force had six new fast battleships, 16 fast carriers, six heavy cruisers, nine light cruisers and 58 destroyers. Mission of the Third Fleet was to prowl the waters north of the landings on the lookout for a chance to destroy once and for all the main Japanese battle fleet, especially its remaining carriers.