Mrstrategy
Banned
what happens if japan wins the Battle of Leyte Gulf?
- Kurita dont withdraw and attacks the shipping in leyte gulf
Most of the troops had already landed by the time Kurita came along. Also, he'd have to contend with ~80 DDs and DDEs.what happens if japan wins the Battle of Leyte Gulf?
- Kurita dont withdraw and attacks the shipping in leyte gulf
Also, he'd have to contend with ~80 DDs and DDEs.
Indeed the chances of the Center Force actually getting within shelling range of the landings is very low.Not to mention Oldendorf's 6 battleships, Taffy 1 & taffy 2, and McCain's TG 38.1 with its 3 fleet and 2 light carriers coming into range ...
Not exactly a free win once past Taffy 3 ....
'Well, only reasonable hope for Japanese to win in the battle of Leyte Gulf (against 4-times numerically superior US forces) is to have one or two of the US navy groups stranded in luckily placed minefield, with may be a couple capital ships too damaged by mines to participate in action and others unable to get into attack range and can be scared off later.
In this case, the battle of Leyte may be extended by 2 weeks at most. Ormoc was absolutely indefensible as the the Japanese naval base in longer term (against aviation and PT boats operating from previously captured small islands) even if larger US ships can be sunk or neutralized. And as soon as Japanese fleet withdraw from Ormoc, their land forces will eventually run out of ammunition.
He has to run into one of the TF 77 carrier groups. His course track goes through the area the carriers more or less had to be in order to provide air cover and have enough sea room to conduct flight operations. The Taffys had to be in the area, it was as close to the beaches as could be managed while providing the freedom of movement necessary to operate.But what if Taffy 3 hadn´t been in Kurita´s path?
As far as I can tell, the USN didn´t realize Kurita was on the way to the anchorage until he ran across Taffy 3.
So what if he doesn´t encounter Taffy 3, and the first notice the USN gets that he is there is when the ships at the anchorage, and their escorts, sight his approaching task force?
Even sinking all the cargo ships won´t make a decisive difference, and sucked this far in, Kurita´s force is far more likely to be completely destroyed before it can escape, but he´d do a lot more damage than historically.