Battle of Leyte Gulf - October 1944

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Battle of Leyte Gulf - October 1944
While the Battle of Leyte Gulf was a predominantly a US battle, the Australians were also involved in the battle and the landings at Leyte. Well documented however not well known.

Content selection taken from the following site:
60th Anniversary of the Battle of Leyte Gulf, October 1944

It is thought that about 900 Australians served in the Battle of Leyte Gulf from 23-26 October. About 2000 other Australians (mostly sailors) took part in the landings at Leyte from 20-24 October. Overall – about 3500 members of the RAN would have served in the principle naval actions of the campaign with other escorting convoys. Small numbers of RAAF and Army personnel also took part. It is difficult to ascertain the number of Australian casualties during the liberation of the Philippines however, estimates indicate that up to 100 men were killed during this operation. Those men who made the ultimate sacrifice at Leyte Gulf have no other grave than the sea. They are honoured on the Plymouth Naval Memorial in Devon, England

The liberation of the Philippines by Allied forces, under the command of General Douglas MacArthur, began on 20 October 1944, nearly three years after Japanese forces invaded. The Allied invasion fleet consisted of over 400 American and Australian vessels. The frigate HMAS Warrego and motor launch HDML1074, were part of a hydrographic survey group that plotted the approaches to the landing beaches. The three Australian LSIs (Landing Ships, Infantry) HMA Ships Kanimbla, Manoora and Westralia were part of the force that transported and landed troops, and the cruisers HMA Ships Australia and Shropshire and destroyers HMA Ships Warramunga and Arunta were part of the escort fleet.

In the early morning of 21 October, Shropshire and Australia engaged a Japanese dive-bomber flying low between them. Australia was the first Allied warship to suffer a kamikaze (suicide) aircraft attack. The ship’s commanding officer, Captain E F V Dechaineux, was killed as well as 29 others and Commodore J A Collins, commander of the Australian Squadron, on board the Australia, was badly wounded. Escorted by Warramunga, Australia departed for the Palau islands where the wounded were landed for hospital treatment, and the ships then made passage Espiritu Santo for Australia to undergo extensive repairs. Shropshire and Arunta remained in the battle area and provided fire support of troops and conducted patrols to protect the transport ships. They were then deployed as part of Task Force 77 to meet a Japanese fleet making for Leyte.

For Australians, the most notable of these engagements was the Battle of Surigao Strait, involving Shropshire and Arunta. Just after midnight on 25 October, the Allies detected one of the Japanese task forces of battleships, cruisers and destroyers in the Sulu Sea. The Allies were well prepared for a possible attempt by Japanese forces to push through the southern end of the Surigao Strait into Leyte Gulf. The Bombardment and Fire Support Group and the Close Covering Group of Task Force 77 along with 30 PT boats, were deployed to the southern end of the Surigao Strait and prepared for battle. The ensuing confrontation turned out to be the last great naval line-battle in history.
Fought in darkness, with conditions clear and calm, the Allies attacked with torpedoes, sinking one battleship and putting three destroyers out of action. Arunta, under Commander A. E. Buchanan, and Shropshire, under Captain C. A. G. Nichols, were intrinsic to the attack on the battleship Yamashiro, carrying the Japanese task force commander, Vice-Admiral Nishimura. After surviving a torpedo attack by Arunta, Yamashiro suffered 10 minutes of devastating broadside fire from Shropshire. As Captain Nichols reported:
A very high rate of fire was attained in rapid salvos, as many as eight broadsides in two minutes being fired. This rate exceeds anything they (the Shropshire’s gunnery) have ever attained before and reflects great credit on the turret crews.
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