The battle marked the end of the Imperial Japanese Navy as a major fighting force and secured a foothold for the Allies in the Philippines, setting the stage for Japan's eventual defeat in World War II.
Don A. Farrell is an educator, local historian, and author based on Tinian. He is known for his research and publications on the history of the Mariana Islands with an
The Iowa-class battleships trace their origins back to 1939 and 1940, i.e. before the bombing of Pearl Harbor crippled the U.S. Navy’s older pre-existing battleship fleet.
Battle of Leyte Gulf, (October 23–26, 1944), decisive air and sea battle of World War II that crippled the Japanese Combined Fleet, permitted U.S. invasion of the Philippines, and reinforced the Allies’ control of the Pacific. By autumn 1944 the Japanese had been dislodged from many key outposts in the southwest and central Pacific, and other Japanese-controlled islands had been allowed to wither on the vine. The United States capitalized on the success of its “island hopping” campaign by pouring men and matériel into its newly won bases. The change in territorial control, along with the enormous increase in U.S.