Leyte

This is now Task Force 38 under William F. Halsey.

This is going to be the Battle of Leyte Gulf, and this damn thing is in the way.

This burning thing out here is USS Princeton.

And we're going to see.

But all right.

So so he's again, he's under the command of Ted Sherman.

They're off of Luzon and they're trying to suppress Japanese aviation on the island of Luzon while the invasion of Leyte is about to actually is unfolding.

Um, this is an attack by the Japanese that are launched from Clark and Nichols field.

The U.S.-led invasion of the Philippine island of Leyte triggered the largest naval battle of the Second World War.

By some measures, it was the largest naval battle in history.

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Episode 458, The Battle of Leyte Gulf.

As I told you last week, the Americans quickly won the air and land battles on Leyte, though it would take months to fully secure the island.

But what about the Japanese Navy? I told you last week that what was left of the Japanese combined fleet was ordered to Leyte as soon as it became clear to the Japanese that the Americans intended to land there.

The fleet was divided into three forces.

They're up in, in Michigan.

Um, there was a sailor on board the LST 779, and it was his son's comment at the fudge shop's page that caught the eye of a guy at Navy History and Heritage Command, uh, where he said, "My dad was on an LST", and the Indianapolis passed them, going faster, uh, towards Leyte in the Philippines.

And, uh, as best they could determine, the Indy was about 11 hours ahead of them when it was sunk.

So they got passed about 11 hours before that.

They used primary sources, such as historical accounts, including Antonio Pigafetta's journal, documents from the Spanish Royal Archives, and other navigator journals, archaeological evidence, and official church records, and secondary sources, such as various historical analyzes, previous research studies, historical contextualization, and maps and geographic studies.

The Mojeres panel synthesized these sources to arrive at their conclusion that Limasawa Island in Leyte was the site of the first Easter Mass.

The breathtaking study considered both the reliability of historical accounts and the tangible evidence provided by archaeology.

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There was Luzon in the north, the largest island and home to half the Philippine population.

There was Mindanao in the south, the second largest island, and there was Leyte in the middle.

Why Leyte? Leyte is not the third largest island, as you might expect.

Nearby Samar is the third largest.

Leyte is only the eighth largest.

But Leyte is an obvious choice for an amphibious landing.

It lies on the eastern side of the archipelago, near the middle, Mindanao is just a short distance away to the south, and Samar lies within spitting distance to the north.

Best of all, from an invader's point of view, are the open waters to the east of Leyte, called the Leyte Gulf.

Distribution of these peoples.

All through the central islands, Cebu, Panay, Negros, Leyte, Samar, Bohol, and northern Mindanao are the Visayas, the largest of these peoples.

At the southern extremity of Luzon, in the provinces of Sorsogon and the Camarines, are the Bicols.

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Pigafetta says that they stayed on the island of Jomonjol eight days, but had great difficulty in securing food.

The natives brought them a few coconuts and oranges, palm wine, and a chicken or two, but this was all that could be spared.

So, on the twenty-fifth, the Spaniards sailed again, and near the south end of Leyte, landed on the little island of Limasawa.

Here there was a village where they met two chieftains, whom Pigafetta calls kings, and whose names were Rajah Calambu and Rajah Siagu.

And the Doña Paz was going to be packed.

December 20th was a Sunday, and that day the Doña Paz would be leaving Tacloban and the island of Leyte in the southern part of the country.

This would be the start of a 24-hour-long trip to Manila, the capital of the Philippines, to the north of Leyte.

It's kind of like the Northwest a little bit, if I'm remembering correctly.

You know, you're kind of weaving in between these islands that are all over the place and getting up to Manila.