ANOTHER BATTLE OF LEYTE GULF ORDER OF BATTLE [JAPANESE]

[ghappy1000]

What if the Japanese order of battle for Leyte Gulf was like this ?
Northern force is otl plus Shima's force, centre force consists of cruiser divisions 4, 5 and 7, battleship div 3 and destroyer squardon 2, southern force consists of otl Nishimura's force plus cruiser division 16, destroyer division 21 , Kiso ,Musashi and Nagato and Yamato and destroyer squardon 10 are to sink the taffy groups and the transports and escorts ? The Yamato force would be the main force with the three other forces being decoys.

 

[Cymraeg]

What if the Japanese order of battle for Leyte Gulf was like this ?
Northern force is otl plus Shima's force, centre force consists of cruiser divisions 4, 5 and 7, battleship div 3 and destroyer squardon 2, southern force consists of otl Nishimura's force plus cruiser division 16, destroyer division 21 , Kiso ,Musashi and Nagato and Yamato and destroyer squardon 10 are to sink the taffy groups and the transports and escorts ? The Yamato force would be the main force with the three other forces being decoys.

Erm, wrong place for this?

 

[ghappy1000]

move this to post 1900 please

 

[HMS Warspite]

What if the Japanese order of battle for Leyte Gulf was like this ?
Northern force is otl plus Shima's force, centre force consists of cruiser divisions 4, 5 and 7, battleship div 3 and destroyer squardon 2, southern force consists of otl Nishimura's force plus cruiser division 16, destroyer division 21 , Kiso ,Musashi and Nagato and Yamato and destroyer squardon 10 are to sink the taffy groups and the transports and escorts ? The Yamato force would be the main force with the three other forces being decoys.

You suggest more scattering of forces, while the IJN previously had learned it the hard way, that was a recept for dissaster on more than one occasion. No IJN Admiral would do such a thing, especially after the dissaster of a few months earlier in the Battle in the Philippines Sea, where for the last time three different IJN Carriergroups operated against a more unified opponent.

The whole idea of the defence of the Philippines was to form a more or less unified strong force, to overpower the US forces, scatterd in a wide area, while using the now almost teethless carriers as decoys, to draw away the USN main force of Halsey.

 

[ghappy1000]

You suggest more scattering of forces, while the IJN previously had learned it the hard way, that was a recept for dissaster on more than one occasion. No IJN Admiral would do such a thing, especially after the dissaster of a few months earlier in the Battle in the Philippines Sea, where for the last time three different IJN Carriergroups operated against a more unified opponent.

The whole idea of the defence of the Philippines was to form a more or less unified strong force, to overpower the US forces, scatterd in a wide area, while using the now almost teethless carriers as decoys, to draw away the USN main force of Halsey.

I mean that the Yamato escorted by a destroyer squardon would sink the transports and taffy groups, the others are to keep the US navy from coming to their rescue. In this scenario, Halsey could detach an Iowa and two South Dakotas to Oldendorff's force .

 

[HMS Warspite]

I mean that the Yamato escorted by a destroyer squardon would sink the transports and taffy groups, the others are to keep the US navy from coming to their rescue. In this scenario, Halsey could detach an Iowa and two South Dakotas to Oldendorff's force .

That is not how a naval fight is supposed to be fought, as the best way to do that is to concentrate all available forces on a single target, or don't go on a mission at all. The Japanese as mentioned had learned it the hard way that scattering a potentially strong force into several much weaker ones is suicide and not to be repeated at any time, so no Yamato solo mission is logical, no matter how you want to see it. It is the entire IJN Battleline, as in the OTL, or no line at all. No compromises. The Japanese were not stupid and not yet suicidal (that they would be a littlebit later, after the Philippines were lost), nor were they Americans, playing the USN game.

Besides that, a single Battleship with a destroyer Squadron (likely to consist of a light cruiser with several DD's) is insufficient to sink both the CVE TG's and the Transport Groups on their own, simply as there were too many targets and too few pieces of ammunition to do that kind of thing. You are talking about at least 100 targets to sink, with just about a Dozen or so attackers. Even if every shot fired scored a hit, it would be too few to sink all targets. Normally some 4% of shots fired, both shellfire and torpedoes, are the average of scoring hits, while you need to score more than a single hit on the average target to destroy it as a fighting unit.