All language subtitles for Combat.Ships.S02E07.Battle.Of.Leyte.Gulf.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-BLOOM_track3_[eng]

This time on Combat Ships...

October 1944.

The greatest
sea battle in history.

Leyte Gulf is a microcosm
of naval warfare.

Anything you want to see,
you can find there.

Battleships, submarines,
kamikazes, everything.

What would have fired
the American crews

was the opportunity for
revenge for Pearl Harbor.

The world's biggest ships...

When one of those giant
battleship shells hit his ship,

his gunnery officer
later wrote that it was like

a puppy being smacked by a truck.

...hundreds of aircraft...

One instant, I was watching an
airplane flying through the air.

The next instant,
it was just an engine.

...in three days
of white-knuckle combat.

The Japanese were fighting
without a tomorrow.

Their orders were,
you're gonna do this or die.

Combat ships.
Fast. Effective.

The mission is pure
James Bond espionage.

Deadly.

Japan is willing to throw
the dice to engage

just about every aspect
of their military force

in a climactic, decisive battle
to stop the United States.

They have
changed the world...

Warships have been key factors
in global history

from the beginning of civilisation
to the present day.

...thanks to clever design,

raw firepower,

and the heroism of their crews.

On October 20th 1944,

US Forces invaded the Philippines.

In one day, over 130,000
American troops

and 200,000 tons of supplies

landed on the island of Leyte.

Two US navy fleets patrolled Leyte
Gulf and the Philippine Sea

to protect the invasion.

We had battleships.
We had aircraft carriers.

The landing force had battleships
for shore bombardment cruisers.

And many, many transports.
Hundreds of transports.

Thousands of landing craft
of all sizes.

You had literally thousands
of ships involved.

They all came to one bay
off the coast of Leyte.

They landed four divisions,
which is quite a large force.

There were only five divisions went
ashore on D-Day in Normandy.

General Douglas MacArthur,

who the Japanese had forced
to evacuate the Philippines

two years before, watched from
the cruiser USS Nashville.

You can imagine
what a moment this was for him.

For years, he had been promising
'I shall return' and now he returns.

And there's that famous photograph
of MacArthur striding ashore,

getting wet up to his knees,

fulfilling his promise to
return to the Philippines.

The Philippines were
a key strategic target for the US.

In mid-1944, the
Americans see victory in the offing.

Their plan is
unconditional surrender.

And their plan is the
occupation of Japan.

And their priorities are to get
the bases and the locations

where they can bring the ultimate
amount of pressure upon Japan.

In the vast Pacific,

the Philippines were
one of the few places

close enough to launch
a direct assault.

They were just as
important to Japan.

By 1944, the
Japanese had recognised

this war was not working out
the way they had scripted it.

But they also knew
that if they lost the Philippines,

they would lose the war.

Because lacking the access to the
oil of the former Dutch East Indies

and the rubber and the tin
of South Asia,

they would not be able to
continue the war.

And so they knew if they lose the
Philippines, they lose the war.

Over 80,000
Japanese troops

were prepared to defend
the islands to the death.

But those forces would be
cut off unless their navy

could force the American
fleets out of Leyte Gulf.

The Japanese admirals
devised a strategy to do it.

They hoped it would
be decisive, and lethal.

It was called 'Sho 1'. Victory 1.

It's going to be
a very complex thing

that involves a number of fleets

moving in different directions

and hoping to arrive simultaneously.

So it's just enormously complex.

The Japanese
activated Sho 1

as soon as they detected
the Americans heading for Leyte.

Four Japanese strike forces sailed
for the invasion beaches.

Two from the north
and two from the south.

Their aim? To catch the Americans
in a pincer movement,

sink the US transport ships,

and isolate the invasion forces.

Strategically, by the time
we reach October of '44,

Japan is willing to throw the dice

to engage just about every
aspect of their military force

in a climactic, decisive battle to
somehow stop the United States.

The greatest threat to the
US invasion came from the two fleets

that made up Center Group, led
by Vice-Admiral Takeo Kurita.

It was the largest force
in the Imperial Navy.

Five battleships, ten cruisers,
and 15 destroyers.

Leading the Center Group
were two mighty battleships.

The largest and most
powerful ships ever built.

The Musashi, and her
sister ship Yamato.

This massive replica of the Yamato

was built for a Japanese museum.

Yamato is
a term that simply means

the fighting spirit of
the Japanese people.

And when fully armed and launched,
it displaced 73,000 tons.

Largest battleship ever built.

And it was a beautiful ship,
beautifully designed.

It had guns of 18.1-inch calibre,

which is larger than any other gun

and could out-range any other gun.

The shells were enormous.
They weighed 2,000lb each.

And they could fire
from 25 miles away.

The surface of the sea

when hit by a shell from Yamato

would have splashed
as high as the Eiffel Tower.

Its destructive power
is beyond words.

Yamato and Musashi

were designed in the late 1930s

to take on the US Navy.

The Japanese navy was
much smaller than the American navy.

Because of that, they needed a ship

larger than
the American battleships.

A ship that would
definitely not be defeated

in individual combat
with the Americans.

Yamato and her
sister ship were built in secret,

away from foreign spies.

As the Japanese
navy kept it so secret,

neither the American navy
nor the British navy

knew about the huge guns.

It's the threat,
it's the image.

It's the whole psychology
of having the biggest,

baddest weapon,
which has all the power.

One officer
wrote of the vast ship...

'There are arrows telling you
which direction is the front

and which is the back,
otherwise you can't tell.

For a couple of days,
I didn't even know

how to get back
to my own quarters.'

At 3,000 tons, just
one of the Yamato's gun turrets

weighed more than a destroyer.

Because of their size, the decks
had to be over 130 feet wide.

This posed a potentially
fatal problem

for both Yamato and Musashi.

They'd be an easy target
from the air.

The Japanese navy
hit upon a simple solution.

To make it hard to be
seen by American airplanes,

they painted their deck black.
That was their camouflage.

Disguised like that, Yamato
was heading to attack

the American navy in Leyte Gulf.

The Japanese
were confident.

Yamato was built to win any battle

with any battleship in the world.

Both its crew and the whole
of the Japanese navy

believed that it had that power.

The US navy knew the
Japanese fleets were on the move,

but not their route
nor their destination.

The invasion of the Philippines
was under serious threat.

Just after midnight
on October 23rd 1944,

the larger of the two
Japanese fleets

that made up Center Group
heading for the Philippines

passed north of
the island of Palawan.

Ahead of the fleet
were two submarines,

USS Dace and USS Darter.

The American crews
couldn't believe their luck.

I think the submarines'
reaction would have been

that of any submariner.
Yippee, you have got the enemy

in a good position to attack them.

And catching enemy combat
units, battleships, unawares

is what every submariner dreams of.

Dace and Darter
were part of

a highly successful American
combat submarine fleet.

Sub commanders were given freedom
to act on their own initiative.

And they were in charge of vessels

that were tailor-made
for the Pacific.

The Americans had produced
a very effective fleet submarine.

It was called that. And as well
as its duty of sinking

Japanese merchants ships,
which it did with great effect,

these submarines were used in
support of the American fleet.

As long-range pickets,

and as ways of inflicting attrition
on an advancing fleet.

This was the task
assigned to subs Dace and Darter

in the waters west of
the Philippines.

At 5.32am on October 23rd,

they attacked Admiral Kurita's
Center Force.

The Battle of Leyte
Gulf had begun.

The submarines charge
ahead on the surface at full speed

to get into a position where they
can dive to make an attack.

And both submarines launch
very successful torpedo attacks

on the Japanese force,

hitting three cruisers,
including Kurita's flagship.

As his cruiser sinks, it sinks so
quickly that he has to swim for it.

He's picked up by a destroyer.

That destroyer then transfers him
to the super battleship Yamato,

where he then takes control
of his fleet again.

Losing three ships, two sunk,
one badly damaged,

before you've even got to grips
with your main enemy force

is not a good start by any
stretch of the imagination.

Despite the
submarine attack,

Admiral Kurita was still
on course for Leyte Gulf.

The Japanese pincer
is taking shape.

But now the Americans
know they're coming.

The sighting reports that
the American submarines send out

allow American aircraft carriers
to launch

three devastating attacks
on Kurita's force.

The American
planes hit them again,

200 miles from Leyte Gulf.

Yamato's
sister ship Musashi

was hit by 17 bombs

and 19 torpedoes.

She lost power,

so her mighty guns were helpless,
locked in position.

Musashi is hit
numerous times by heavy bombs

and eventually capsizes and sinks.

A thousand men
went down with the ship.

It seemed the
mighty Yamato was next.

These are
very heavy attacks.

They disrupt Kurita's fleet.

And the Yamato, this wonderful ship,
super battleship, is damaged.

2,000 tonnes of water
come into the ship.

However, given the size
of the Yamato,

2,000 tonnes of water
is not a big deal.

These warships are designed

to absorb this sort of damage
and continue, as Yamato does.

Kurita was undeterred.

And the US fleet was vulnerable too.

The Japanese launched
their own air attacks

from bases on the Philippines.

Northwest of the islands,
the carrier USS Princeton

was hit by a single bomb
from a Japanese plane.

As the cruiser USS Birmingham
came alongside to fight the fires,

the Princeton blew up,

killing over 600 men.

The battle had only just begun.

By late afternoon of October 24th,

the Japanese Center Group

had lost one battleship
and four heavy cruisers.

Still, Admiral Kurita continued his
relentless push toward Leyte.

His fleet was still dangerous.

But American pilots,
fired up by their success,

overestimated the number of
enemy ships they destroyed.

The officer in charge
of the US Third Fleet,

Admiral 'Bull' Halsey,

was convinced that Kurita's Center
Group was no longer a threat.

Admiral Bill Halsey
was a very confident man.

He had a record of success.
He was known for his aggression.

He was known for one who attacked.
He was very plain spoken.

The Japanese knew
'Bull' Halsey lived up to his name.

He could be reckless.

And they had set up a trap for him.

The US
Third Fleet provided vital cover

for the American forces invading
the Philippines in October 1944.

In charge of the fleet was
Admiral 'Bull' Halsey,

one of the navy's most
experienced officers.

He believed that mistakes had
been made in recent campaigns.

Most notably at the Battle of the
Philippine Sea in June 1944.

He believed that
his friend Raymond Spruance,

who commanded the Battle of the
Philippine Sea the previous June,

had lost a tremendous opportunity to
destroy the Japanese carrier force

by requiring the carriers to
stay near to the beachhead.

He believed that if he had been
turned loose to go get the Japanese,

he could have ended the war right
there in the Philippine Sea.

Halsey didn't want
to make the same mistake again.

He wanted the freedom
to seek and destroy.

When his orders
were written

for the Leyte Gulf operation,
he asked Admiral Nimitz

to put an additional codicil
into the orders

that if the opportunity arises
to attack and destroy

the main Japanese battle fleet, that
would become his highest priority.

Halsey was obsessed

with destroying Japanese
aircraft carriers.

Pearl Harbor had convinced him

that they were the future
of naval combat.

Pearl Harbor also showed that
the battleship was no longer

the primary weapon of navies.

It was going to be
the aircraft carrier.

It had an offensive range that way
exceeded any gun range of ships.

Between 20 and 25 miles
versus having an attack range

of probably between
150 and 200 miles.

That's a big difference.

The aircraft carrier has become
the dominant surface ship

and it is now the queen
of the battle space.

At the heart of Sho 1,

the Japanese plan of attack,
was an ingenious trap.

They knew Admiral Halsey was
obsessed with aircraft carriers.

He just might fall for
a decoy carrier attack.

The decoy plan was that what was
left of the Japanese carrier force

would come down from
the north and show itself

to the American carriers
and the fleet in general.

This would draw Admiral Halsey,

who was known to be a
rather impetuous admiral,

the Japanese studied the psychology
of their opponents, up north.

With the idea that once
we've taken away Halsey

and his protection of the invasion,

and therefore all of these
transports, all of the shipping,

all of the men who are ashore,
that they can be crushed

by a convergence of two
other Japanese fleets.

This is in essence what Sho 1
is designed to create.

Halsey had no idea

that the Japanese
had him in their sights.

He had picked his
Third Fleet carefully.

If he had the opportunity
to attack the Japanese,

he wanted vessels that were
fast enough to reach them.

One of the combat ships
he selected was a battleship,

the USS Alabama.

USS Alabama was designed
to be a fast-attack battleship.

Fast-attack battleships were
necessary to keep up with

the fairly modern US carrier
fleet that had been developed.

Some of the features about
the ship, the obvious one

are the large 16-inch,
45-calibre guns.

These guns were accurate
to a range of 21 miles.

The ship also possessed ten
five-inch, 38-calibre mounts.

This could be used for
both shore bombardment

and anti-aircraft purposes.

The crew of
the Alabama at Leyte Gulf

was a cross-section
of American society.

Men from the city,
men from the country.

Every type of man was
represented aboard the Alabama.

That breed is called the greatest
generation, and for a reason.

They, almost to a man,
signed up to do this.

And it was a very special
time in American history,

and in world history.

The Alabama
had cutting-edge technology,

the very latest in radar.

Radar worked best
if you had a big ship.

Because then you could put your
radar aerials that much higher up.

And that means
you can see a lot further.

The Alabama's
radar system was called SK2.

It was designed especially
for larger ships.

The old SK radar systems

picked up aerial attacks
at about 150 miles away.

The new SK2 could pick up attacks
as far as 250 miles away.

So they had a hundred-mile
advantage with the new system.

A Japanese
long-range fighter

flew at about 300 miles per hour,

so the SK2 gave around 45 minutes

for a ship to prepare for an attack.

The SK2 was so sensitive,

it could detect not just aircraft
but incoming shells.

Four months before Leyte, the
Alabama and her radar system,

made a name for themselves during
the Battle of the Philippine Sea.

It was in this very room
that the first radar technicians

encountered the oncoming
Japanese attack.

They literally saw the
Japanese coming 250 miles away.

The Americans shot down
so many Japanese aircraft,

the battle was nicknamed
'the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot'.

It would have been
a surprise attack,

not unlike that on Pearl Harbor,
and over 500 enemy planes

in that subsequent battle
were destroyed.

We sank several
Japanese aircraft carriers

and we lost no significant
American assets.

In some respects, this was
a triumph of technology.

The Japanese naval air wing
never truly recovered from that day.

And all of that took place
in this room

as the Alabama detected
that oncoming attack.

The crew of the Alabama
were eager to repeat their success.

On the afternoon of October 24th,

four days after the invasion
at Leyte Gulf began,

American aircraft spotted

the Japanese carrier force
heading south.

This was what Bull Halsey
had been waiting for.

So the carriers,
even weak carriers,

even half carriers, were a
draw to the Americans.

In this particular case, of course,
Admiral William F Halsey Jr.

In fact, it was a decoy.

It was meant to lead Halsey north
and away from the Leyte landings.

The Japanese carrier force

was led by Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa.

But his carriers had
hardly any aircraft.

Ozawa was on a suicide mission.

He felt honour-bound
to complete that mission

even though his forces
were very weak.

He had only one fleet carrier,

a couple of small carriers,
light carriers.

So this is not a genuine threat

to the American fleet
off the Philippines.

Halsey, convinced that
he'd earlier successfully destroyed

Kurita's Center Group, sent
the entire Third Fleet,

including the USS Alabama,

to intercept
Ozawa's Northern Force.

So he fell,
for all practical purposes,

into the Japanese trap laid for him.

And he goes off on
a wild goose chase.

At the same time, not
coordinating for the defence

of that invasion group
that's left at Leyte.

His staff knew that
it was the wrong decision.

And it says something
about the man, too,

that his staff is afraid
to tell him point-blank.

General MacArthur's forces
on Leyte were left unprotected.

As Halsey charged north,

Kurita's fleet and
the Southern Force

now approached
the invasion beaches.

Halsey's bravado meant that
the Americans were in danger

of being caught
in the Japanese pincer.

On the morning
of October 24th,

as Admiral Halsey pursued the
Japanese fleet to the north,

American aircraft spotted the
Japanese Southern Force

heading for Leyte Gulf.

It consisted of two squadrons.
18 ships in total.

Battleships, cruisers,
and destroyers.

57-year-old Rear Admiral
Jesse Oldendorf

of the US Seventh Fleet

was given the task
of eliminating them.

Admiral Oldendorf
had a taskforce

with six old battleships.

Five had been badly
damaged at Pearl Harbor.

The West Virginia,
the California,

the Mississippi, the Tennessee,

the Maryland,
and the Pennsylvania.

Their crews were out
to settle a score.

I think what would have
fired the American crews

was the opportunity for
revenge for Pearl Harbor.

This was a surprise attack
before war had been declared.

It broke a number of taboos as far
as the Americans were concerned

about how war should be fought.

And that thirst for revenge
would have motivated the crews.

Admiral Oldendorf's plan

was to use the geography of
the islands to his advantage.

It would get the enemy exactly
where he wanted them.

The Japanese attacked
up through Surigao Strait,

which narrows the approach
to Leyte Gulf like a funnel,

so that Oldendorf could
place his old battleships,

some of them Pearl Harbor survivors,

and his heavy cruisers,
in a line across Surigao Strait.

So the Japanese had no option
but to steam directly into them.

Oldendorf wrote later...

'If the Japanese were suckers
enough to try to come through

the straits, I wasn't going to
give them a chance.'

Oldendorf was
meticulous in his planning.

He placed 39 PT boats on either
side of the approach to the strait,

ready to ambush the Southern
Force as they passed.

28 destroyers would strike
further up the strait

before Oldendorf and
his old battleships

would pick off any survivors.

At midnight on October 24th,

the PT boats fired their torpedoes.

Oldendorf's destroyers
joined in the ambush.

He said...

'It was the kind of naval
battle you dream about.

We had them under crossfire
and were able to hit them

with guns and torpedoes
at the same time.'

About 14 Japanese
warships made it to the strait

where Oldendorf was waiting with
his battleships and cruisers.

They were the last line of
defence before Leyte Gulf.

Oldendorf then deployed
an old naval tactic

first used by wooden battleships,

a strategy known as
'Crossing the T'.

It was what every battleship
was built to do.

This manoeuvre dated back
more than 300 years.

The object was to maximise
broadside firepower

so that crossing element of the T

was getting your broadsides firing

against an advancing enemy who had
very few guns bearing on the target.

The objective
is to get a line of warships

across the top of
an advancing enemy.

All guns are able to brought to bear
in a devastating bombardment.

The enemy can only fire their
guns on the ships at the front.

Their rear guns can
only hit their own ships,

rendering them useless.

Just before 4am,

Oldendorf's fleet of old battleships
and cruisers opened fire.

They unleashed a
massive bombardment.

From eighteen 16-inch guns,
forty-eight 14-inch guns,

twenty-seven 8-inch guns
and forty-three 6-inch guns.

The Japanese sailed into an inferno.

Only a single destroyer
survived to make its way back

and report the disaster that
occurred to the Southern Japanese.

Oldendorf had crossed the T.

And won the last battleship
versus battleship action in history.

But still, the Japanese kept coming.

To the north, Admiral Kurita's
Center Group

now sailed through the San
Bernardino Strait unopposed

and turned south for Leyte Gulf.

Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet,
tasked with defending the strait,

was instead 300 miles away
chasing Ozawa's decoy fleet.

At 6.30am on October 25th,

US aircraft finally spotted the
Japanese Center Group.

Admiral Clifton 'Ziggy' Sprague,
in charge of

four carriers to the north of
Leyte Gulf, was stunned.

When Ziggy Sprague got his
report that morning from a pilot,

'Japanese battleships
and cruisers 20 miles away

and closing at 30 knots',
he said, 'That can't be true.

Recheck that, that can't be right'.
And the pilot flew down and said,

'I just saw the largest
Japanese flag I ever saw

flying on the largest
battleship I've ever seen'.

It was the Yamato.

With three other battleships,
eight cruisers,

and 11 destroyers beside her.

Admiral Sprague was furious.

Where was Halsey?

All Sprague had to take on
Kurita's four battleships,

including Yamato's massive guns,

was a force of escort carriers
known as Taffy 3.

Taffy 3, the escort
carriers and their destroyers,

were almost suicidally brave.

The mismatch between the Japanese
and American forces was huge.

The Japanese were
fighting without a tomorrow.

There was the sense that
so much was at stake.

And for the Japanese, it was.

Their orders were,
you're gonna do this or die.

On the one hand, you
have the super battleship Yamato.

And on the other hand,
you've got the USS Johnston.

The USS Johnston complete
weighed as much as

just one of the gun turrets
on the Yamato.

These are massive differences.

18.1-inch shells going one way

and five-inch shells
going the other.

The Johnston was led by
Lieutenant Commander Ernest Evans.

And he drove his ship straight
at the Japanese battleship,

taking terrible losses, and when one
of those giant battleship shells

hit his ship, his gunnery officer
later wrote that it was like

a puppy being smacked by a truck.

This is really the David
versus Goliath confrontation.

It looks to everyone who watches,
on both sides,

like these Americans are
going to be shunted aside.

The Japanese will go
into Leyte Gulf,

sink the entire invasion fleet,

and really throw the entire
invasion into a cocked hat.

But after
two hours of battle,

it was Admiral Kurita
who decided to retreat.

Reports of Admiral Oldendorf's
victory to the south

and the confusion of the battle

finally made him lose his resolve.

The Sho 1 victory plan
was in tatters.

But Kurita's fleet still survives.

To the north, Admiral Halsey
picked up pleas for help

from the carrier force Taffy 3.

He finally realised he'd been
deliberately lured away from Leyte

by Admiral Ozawa's decoy fleet.

It was extraordinary that
even at that stage of the war,

pretty near the end, that Halsey
could still make a big mistake.

So we must never think that
either code-breaking or radar

or any sort of technology
changes the need.

You've got to have smart admirals
who make the right decisions.

By now, Ozawa's
carriers were in range.

Decoy or not, they were
a tempting target.

At 8am, Halsey's aircraft attacked.

Meanwhile, back at Pearl
Harbor, Admiral Chester Nimitz,

in charge of Pacific naval strategy,

couldn't understand why Halsey
hadn't come to Taffy 3's aid

with a fleet of fast ships
called Task Force 34.

So he sends
a message to Halsey saying,

'Where is Task Force 34?'

That's the message.

But every message
sent in World War II

has padding at the front
and at the back.

Nonsense phrases added
to make it difficult

for the enemy to decode
the message.

But the extra phrases
were mistakenly left on the message.

So when it's delivered to Halsey
on his quarterdeck, it says,

'Where is repeat where is Task
Force 34 all the world wonders.'

And Halsey is furious,
leaves the quarterdeck,

and goes down
to his cabin for an hour.

Halsey wrote later...

'I was stunned as if I had
been struck in the face.

I snatched off my cap,
threw it on the deck,

and shouted something
I am ashamed to remember.'

Halsey thought Nimitz
was embarrassing him

in front of the entire
United States fleet.

Because these messages are
received not just on the flagship,

but on any ship that has a decoding
capability, which is any major ship.

It is an hour
before the angry Halsey

turns his fleet around
and steams south.

If he had done that
initially, they could've gotten back

to San Bernardino Strait to prevent
the Japanese from escaping.

But it's of course too late now.

Admiral Kurita escaped.

However, the Yamato and
the other surviving ships

would be ineffective for
the remainder of the war.

But there was still to be
another historic twist

in the Battle of Leyte Gulf.

On the morning
of October 25th 1944,

six Japanese Zero bombers approached
an American carrier group, Taffy 1.

To the sailors, it looked like
an ordinary bombing run.

But it was
the start of a new tactic.

The fuel-heavy planes were
not just carrying missiles.

They WERE the missiles.

It was the very first
kamikaze attack.

Japanese Admiral Ohnishi
wrote in September...

'We can no longer win

by adhering to conventional
methods of warfare.

The enemy can be stopped
only by crash-diving

on their carrier flight decks

with Zero fighters
carrying 250kg bombs.'

Two of the
six Zeros got through

and hit the escort carriers
Santee and Suwannee.

Both ships survived.

But three hours later, a kamikaze

penetrated the hangar deck of the
carrier St Lo before exploding.

She sank minutes later.

One weapon would succeed in
taking out scores of kamikazes.

It's been called 'the gun
that won World War Two'.

The 5-inch 38-calibre.

One Leyte Gulf survivor
bristles with them.

This is the battleship USS Iowa.

This gun was mounted on

virtually every United
States navy destroyer,

on cruisers and battleships.

It was probably the most-produced
medium-sized gun in the world.

Thousands and thousands
of these guns were built.

The 5-inch
38-calibre's high rate of fire

made it the perfect
anti-aircraft gun.

They were very reliable.

You could fire these guns
as fast as you could load them.

Manually loaded. Fifteen to 20
rounds a minute were typical.

Up to 22 rounds a minute
with a good trained crew.

In the early years
of the Second World War,

the most common type of
5-inch shell exploded on impact.

But these shells weren't effective

against fast-moving,
weaving aircraft.

So military technicians
devised a shell fitted with

what was called a 'proximity fuse',

that exploded close to a target
using the latest radar technology.

Once fired, the proximity fuse
sends out radio waves

searching for a target.

When the shell is close to a target,
the radio waves are reflected back,

triggering a firing circuit
which explodes the shell.

The shell's internal electronics
were designed to withstand

the 14,000 G-force acceleration

as it flew down the gun barrel
at 2,600 feet per second.

These proximity fuses
helped the Pacific Fleet's

life and death fight
against the kamikazes.

Iowa was in
combat in the Philippines.

And was attacked by
a Japanese aircraft.

These guns we're
looking at right now

fired a single proximity fuse shell.

The fire control men
up in the director said

'One instant, I was watching an
airplane flying through the air.

The next instant, it was just an
engine, the airplane was gone.'

One round did that.

By sunset on
October 26th 1944,

the Battle of Leyte Gulf
was effectively over.

The Japanese fleets limped home.

They had lost 26 vessels,
including six heavy cruisers,

four carriers,
and three battleships.

The American navy lost six vessels.

However, the Japanese
Sho 1 plan had almost worked.

The Japanese tried to get
in amongst the invasion fleet.

If they had done that, it would have
been quite a disaster for the US.

And they came remarkably close to
succeeding, when you think about it.

The most powerful fleet had the
super battleships Yamato and Musashi

and managed to get within
20 miles of the beachhead.

The USS Iowa was one
of the last battleships ever built.

The end of the Second World War
marked the end of the battleship.

Leyte Gulf was
their final shot at glory.

Battleships had their
last hurrah in that confrontation.

The oversized battleships, the super
battleships Yamato and Musashi,

that the Japanese believed could
even the battlefield for them

in a confrontation with
the American navy,

they found they could not
stand up to repeated attacks

by carrier-based American airplanes.

So in a way, what we have
in the Battle of Leyte Gulf

is both the last hurrah
of the old battleships

and the demonstration of the
superiority of carrier aircraft

as the dominant weapon of war.

Never again will the
world see such an epic naval battle.

Leyte Gulf is a
microcosm of naval warfare.

Anything you want to see,
you can find there.

You can find battleships,
you can find submarines,

you can find kamikazes,

airplanes, everything.

And it's such an intensity of action
over a short period of time.

Leyte Gulf was the final,

decisive defeat of
the Japanese fleet.

Never again would the
Japanese fleet operate as a unit.

The Japanese came so close
to a major victory

that might have put the
Americans back by months.

But they were close
but not successful.

Subtitles by Sky Access Services