20/10/2025
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The date is 18 October 1944 at 0400 hours. The U.S. Navy 7th Fleet Battleships USS Pennsylvania and USS Tennessee, and Heavy Cruisers USS Louisville and USS Minneapolis, among other ships, are preparing their naval guns for what was one of the largest naval bombardments of the Pacific War.
The scale of it is massive, trailing only behind the titanic naval barrage at the Battle of Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
As the clock winds down, the war drums grow louder. At 0600-0700 hours, the 25-mile line of 6 battleships, 8 heavy and light cruisers, and over 30 destroyers opened fire and pounded the 20-mile coastal strip from Dulag to San Jose with 1000 lbs to 2700 lbs shells.
In Morisonโs own words, it is โthe greatest naval bombardment ever seen in the Southwest Pacific.โ Over 10,000 tons of shells will be fired throughout the course of the barrage.
โSo, how did we get here?โ A curious person might ask. Well, in my opinion, the preparatory actions leading to this are by no means the most insane. Not during its time and especially not compared to what has been conceived in recent military history.
Even then, it was still chefโs kiss. By that, my main parameter is that the preliminary actions taken were by the book. From the mine-sweeping ops to the covert insertion of U.S. Army Rangers into islands surrounding the Leyte Gulf.
As oversimplified as this is, the above-mentioned actions paved the way for such a masterclass of combined arms warfare.
The U.S. 7th Fleetโs bombardment lasted for 2 days. On October 20, the blazing beaches of Palo, Dulag, and Tacloban were stormed by the U.S. Sixth Army under General Krueger alongside allied Filipino, Australian, and Mexican forces, supported by naval gunfire and air assets.
The fragmented and battered Imperial Japanese forcesโtheir morale down the bin, were simply out-gunned and out-maneuvered. They were nable to mount an effective defense.
By the afternoon, General MacArthur waded ashore, declaring, โPeople of the Philippines, I have returned.โ
Thatโs the quick and digestible run-down. Some might nitpick that General MacArthur had many blunders. To that I agree. His ego allowed him to underestimate the Japanese. Even then, Iโd still confidently say that he is a liberator. As the Supreme Commander of the South-West Pacific Theater of Operations, he delivered on his promise to retake the Philippines.
It is all that matters; he stayed on the job. Iโd bet my remaining pocket money that even his most raging critics would fold under pressure if they had to shoulder the same weight as him.
This might not be the most interesting topic, but hey, likely none of us would be here if not for those glorious and awe-inspiring battleships of the U.S. 7th Fleet.
Props to the goated 3rd Fleet though. The Battle of Leyte, the largest naval battle in human history, was just on a different league of the insane.
๐จ: Lei Shiastine Mendigoren
