Editing Cruiser (section)

===Leyte Gulf===

The Imperial Japanese Navy's last major operation was the Battle of Leyte Gulf, an attempt to dislodge the American invasion of the Philippines in October 1944. The two actions at this battle in which cruisers played a significant role were the [[Battle off Samar]] and the Battle of Surigao Strait.

'''Battle of Surigao Strait'''<br />
The Battle of Surigao Strait was fought on the night of 24–25 October, a few hours before the Battle off Samar. The Japanese had a small battleship group composed of {{ship|Japanese battleship|Fusō||2}} and {{ship|Japanese battleship|Yamashiro||2}}, one heavy cruiser, and four destroyers. They were followed at a considerable distance by another small force of two heavy cruisers, a small light cruiser, and four destroyers. Their goal was to head north through [[Surigao Strait]] and attack the invasion fleet off [[Leyte]]. The Allied force, known as the 7th Fleet Support Force, guarding the strait was overwhelming. It included six battleships (all but one previously damaged in 1941 at Pearl Harbor), four heavy cruisers (one Australian), four light cruisers, and 28 destroyers, plus a force of 39 PT boats. The only advantage to the Japanese was that most of the Allied battleships and cruisers were loaded mainly with high explosive shells, although a significant number of armor-piercing shells were also loaded. The lead Japanese force evaded the PT boats' torpedoes, but were hit hard by the destroyers' torpedoes, losing a battleship. Then they encountered the battleship and cruiser guns. Only one destroyer survived. The engagement is notable for being one of only two occasions in which battleships fired on battleships in the Pacific Theater, the other being the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. Due to the starting arrangement of the opposing forces, the Allied force was in a "[[crossing the T]]" position, so this was the last battle in which this occurred, but it was not a planned maneuver. The following Japanese cruiser force had several problems, including a light cruiser damaged by a PT boat and two heavy cruisers colliding, one of which fell behind and was sunk by air attack the next day.<ref name=MorXII-1>Morison vol. XII</ref> An American veteran of Surigao Strait, {{USS|Phoenix|CL-46|6}}, was transferred to Argentina in 1951 as {{ship|ARA|General Belgrano||2}}, becoming most famous for being sunk by {{HMS|Conqueror|S48|6}} in the [[Falklands War]] on 2 May 1982. She was the first ship sunk by a nuclear submarine outside of accidents, and only the second ship sunk by a submarine since World War II.<ref>Kemp, p. 68</ref>

'''Battle off Samar'''<br />
At the Battle off Samar, a Japanese battleship group moving towards the invasion fleet off Leyte engaged a minuscule American force known as "Taffy 3" (formally Task Unit 77.4.3), composed of six escort carriers with about 28 aircraft each, three destroyers, and four destroyer escorts. The biggest guns in the American force were [[5"/38 caliber gun|{{convert|5|in|abbr=on|0}}/38 caliber guns]], while the Japanese had {{convert|14|in|abbr=on|0}}, {{convert|16|in|abbr=on|0}}, and {{convert|18.1|in|abbr=on|0}} guns. Aircraft from six additional escort carriers also participated for a total of around 330 US aircraft, a mix of [[F6F Hellcat]] fighters and [[TBF Avenger]] torpedo bombers. The Japanese had four battleships including ''Yamato'', six heavy cruisers, two small light cruisers, and 11 destroyers. The Japanese force had earlier been driven off by air attack, losing ''Yamato''{{'}}s sister {{ship|Japanese battleship|Musashi||2}}. Admiral [[William Halsey Jr.|Halsey]] then decided to use his Third Fleet carrier force to attack the Japanese carrier group, located well to the north of Samar, which was actually a decoy group with few aircraft. The Japanese were desperately short of aircraft and pilots at this point in the war, and Leyte Gulf was the first battle in which ''[[kamikaze]]'' attacks were used. Due to a tragedy of errors, Halsey took the American battleship force with him, leaving [[San Bernardino Strait]] guarded only by the small Seventh Fleet escort carrier force. The battle commenced at dawn on 25 October 1944, shortly after the Battle of Surigao Strait. In the engagement that followed, the Americans exhibited uncanny torpedo accuracy, blowing the bows off several Japanese heavy cruisers. The escort carriers' aircraft also performed very well, attacking with machine guns after their carriers ran out of bombs and torpedoes. The unexpected level of damage, and maneuvering to avoid the torpedoes and air attacks, disorganized the Japanese and caused them to think they faced at least part of the Third Fleet's main force. They had also learned of the defeat a few hours before at Surigao Strait, and did not hear that Halsey's force was busy destroying the decoy fleet. Convinced that the rest of the Third Fleet would arrive soon if it hadn't already, the Japanese withdrew, eventually losing three heavy cruisers sunk with three damaged to air and torpedo attacks. The Americans lost two escort carriers, two destroyers, and one destroyer escort sunk, with three escort carriers, one destroyer, and two destroyer escorts damaged, thus losing over one-third of their engaged force sunk with nearly all the remainder damaged.<ref name=MorXII-1/>