Battle of Leyte Gulf

[torpedobait]

Originally Posted by skirich

Battle: Oct 23-26, 1944

Well, for the first time during my lengthy career from 1941, I was able to time a major battle (that I knew about) with the PAC Messages and my location to be part of it.


I happened to be in the Luzon Straights when the message came in about our forces invading the Philippines, I figured this had to be Leyte.
So I quickly looked up the dates and the battle routes and I had 6 days to get to either the South West side of the Leyte Passage, or Park near San Bernadino Straights.


I wanted to hit one of the Jap battle groups coming in from the west.
I originally thought of going for the northern carrier fleet with four juicy carriers, but decided the area was way too wide to search in the time I had, I would probably never find them. I may try anyway, in another save.
Anyway I had two battle groups back to back come into my sights while I parked just south west of Bohol Island. Nice deep spot with lots of places to hide and run behind.


The first battle group was Shimas Heavy Cruiser group. 7 destroyers four cruisers, two where heavy, and various support craft.

Nailed one of the heavies and got out of dodge.


As I was escaping, Nishimuras battle group of four battleships and 9 destroyers came steaming right at me in the mouth of the west straight by Sulu bay. I setup for a quick Vector analysis shot, which BTW is awesome for ships traveling at massive speeds. I was able to get the lead battleship and then get out of dodge.


Both times I used 3 torpedos.
Both were mid-day attacks in crystal clear weather.


Now as I escape, I'm thinking, dang, they are traveling towards the Leyte Straight, a tight, small pinch point. I should chase the group. I can probably knock out one or two more.
Now how the hell do I use the red pencil. Gotta figure that one out.



So thats my story.
Has anyone else been part of this battle?
Interested in stories about attacking San Bernadino straight instead, or maybe the carrier group.

I've been there, both in TMO/RSRD and FOTRSU. Each time I was against the West shore at the South entrance to the passage up to Leyte. In previous versions of FOTRSU I was attacked by multiple DDs before I could get close enough for a decent shot on the Heavy CAs. Didn't matter if I was mid-channel or just off shore.

Interesting that the DDs from the following group also steamed towards me once the first group attacked. Some of them could not make the channel entrance and went aground on the shore between me and them.

One of my torpedo's aimed at a DD passed close to the lead CA, causing it to slow down and zig towards me. That made it an easy target and it went down with a single hit in the forward magazine. After evading the oncoming DDs by diving deep, I came up just ahead of the BBs, both ISO class. We sank one and damaged the other. Again evading by diving deep, the two groups faded away to the North, but within a couple of hours those that survived the battle up closer to Leyte came back down the channel. Easy pickings on the wounded ducks. It was great fun and I look forward to repeating it in my current career. I'll be back in the Leyte Gulf area come October 1944 to see if I've improved any.

Btw, I've never been able to use the Red pencil. I've given up on it, frankly.

[skirich]

Great story.
So you went for the Nishimuras and Shimas battlegroups that went through the Leyte Straights by Mindanao.
Nice.
I'm gonna restart one of my saves and jump up to San Bernadino Straight and see if I can find the Yamato from the central battlegroup.

[Mios 4Me]

Leaving aside the Battle off Samar in the spirit of your discussion, I have twice encountered a northbound CV task group several days beforehand with rather light escorts. I initially assumed it was Ozawa but didn't he come down from Empire waters?

[skirich]

Originally Posted by Mios 4Me

Leaving aside the Battle off Samar in the spirit of your discussion, I have twice encountered a northbound CV task group several days beforehand with rather light escorts. I initially assumed it was Ozawa but didn't he come down from Empire waters?

Ozaka did indeed come from northern waters, and was part of the carrier diversionary group.
Sad that they were willing to sacrafice the group for the chance to send cruisers and battleships up the rear to try and take on the US forces. But they had few aircraft, so why not.

[skirich]

Little ole me vs Yamato Battle Group in San Bernadino during Leyte Battle.

See attachment

[skirich]

Ok that was F-ing epic. I loaded the save before I sunk the previous two BB's in the Leyte Straight and headed north to San Bernadino to get a glimps of the Yamato Battlegroup.

I waited for a while to get the Yamato group close and then I saw all the contacts.

Oh My God. Four BB's Several cruisers and so many DD's and support craft surounding the armada I couldnt count them all.

There was no friggin way I was getting close enough to the BB's to get a shot off without sacrificing the sub.

I thought about swinging around and doing an end around but again the whole armada was completly and closely surrounded. Not to mention the zigzag and speed changes of the battlegroup pretty much eliminated the long distance shots.

To get those BB's I'd need to be real close.

For a moment I thought about going to test depth and wait until they were almost over me and surface for a chance, but as soon as I got close I heard active sonar.

So the initial choice of going for the southern task forces was a good one.

One thing I know about the battle was that our side nailed that Yamato group well with aircraft. So I'm going to go back to my last save, and turn north to see if I can catch the group retreating back to home waters.

If the game is historically accurate the Yamato should be on its way back to Formosa or some other norther port as a safety precaution.

Lets see if thats correct.
Picture of map with group: (sorry I cant figure out how to put up screen shots on subsim yet)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2nekhpz1df...attleGroup.png

[propbeanie]

Is that a "Stock" campaign skirich? Or TMO / RSRDC?