Quote:
Originally posted by nc_martialartist:
Easily the most decisive, as well as the most important, battle in the Pacific Theater.
The Japanese Navy was completely decimated by the end of the battle. Virtually all aircraft carriers lay on the bottom of the ocean (one exception being the Shinano, but that one wouldn't last very long either.)
Leyte Gulf is where the Japanese lost the war for good. Without the means to defend themselves by sea, the Japanese were helpless as U.S. ships could travel, unconfronted, through the waters of the Pacific.
And things just went down hill from there for the Japanese.
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The Japanese after Leyte Gulf still had 4 CV's(Amagi, Junyo, Katsuragi, Unryu), 3 CVL's (Hosho, Ryuho, and Shinyo) and 2 CVE's (Kaiyo and Unyo). Also they had the hybrid battleship/carriers Ise and Hyuga although these ships never really could have operated as carriers. They had a couple of battleships left along with 8 heavy cruisers, 9 light cruisers and over 50 destroyers. You are correct in the sense that as a force capable of taking on the combined US, British, Australian and Dutch fleets in the Pacific and Indian Oceans they were essentially finished. This was mainly due to the fact that Japan could no longer consistantly supply these ships with enough oil for them to sortie and they did not have the capability to supply their remaining carriers with planes and pilots capable of conducting carriers operations (again due to lack of fuel in order to train their pilots).