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Alerted by the submarines' contact reports, Bull Halsey ordered his carriers to launch air strikes against Kurita'and opened the Battle of Sibuyan Sea on Oct. 24. In all, Halsey's planes made 259 sorties, sinking battleship Musashi, putting heavy cruiser Myoko out of action and damaging several others. (Halsey's carrier Princeton was fatally wounded by a land-based Japanese Judy, the only one of scores of Philippine-based planes to score.) As the battle went against him, Kurita reversed course, as if retiring, then turned back toward San Bernardino Strait. By now he was seven hours behind schedule—and the Japanese plan had been thrown completely out of whack.
But there was a real Japanese plus in the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea: Halsey mistook Kurita's original reversal of course for genuine retirement, believed the overenthusiastic damage reports of his carrier pilots, and decided Kurita was out of the fighting. Meanwhile, Halsey had discovered the approach from the north of Admiral Ozawa—thanks to Decoy Ozawa's zealous efforts to get himself found. Jap carriers? They were Halsey's meat. With a blurry and misunderstood message to Seventh Fleet, he ordered his entire Third Fleet to head north after Ozawa—leaving San Bernardino Strait wide open for Kurita.
Battle of Surigao Strait
Despite the upset of the Japanese timetable, the southern forces under Nishimura and Shima sailed right on. Nishimura had two battleships, a heavy cruiser and four destroyers; Shima, behind him, had two heavy cruisers, a light cruiser and four destroyers. Awaiting them at the far end of Surigao Strait was a much stronger Seventh Fleet force under Rear Admiral Jesse B. Oldendorf. Alerted by PT-boat reports, Oldendorf was ready.
On the night of Oct. 24, Nishimura tried to run Oldendorf's gantlet, suffered six murderous destroyer attacks, steamed on toward Oldendorf's battle line with only battleship Yamashiro, heavy cruiser Mogami and destroyer Shigure still in action. Oldendorf had achieved the naval commander's dream: with his battle line he had capped the T of Nishimura's little column. At 0419 Yamashiro went down, taking Admiral Nishimura with her. Mogami got away but was sunk in the pursuit that came later, leaving Shigure the only ship afloat of Nishimura's force.
Admiral Shima followed in Nishimura's wake, fired torpedoes at an island which he thought to be a ship, and fled without coming under fire—colliding with crippled Mogami in the process. Relentlessly pursued by U.S. air and sea forces, Shima got home with only one heavy cruiser and two destroyers.
The Battle of Surigao Strait was the last time the historic battle line formation was to be used in naval warfare, and Naval Historian Samuel Eliot Morison writes its epitaph: "One can imagine the ghosts of all great admirals from Raleigh to Jellicoe standing at attention as Battle Line went into oblivion."
Battle off Samar