USS Princetown hit
24th October 1944: In a day of continuous action the Japanese naval forces suffer devastating losses - but one Japanese bomber gets through ...
In what some regard as the largest Naval engagement in history, certainly in World War II, the US 3rd and 7th Fleets clashed with the Imperial Japanese Navy off the Philippines between the 23rd and 26th October in the Battle of the Leyte Gulf. The Japanese Navy massed in strength, attacking from several directions to try to halt American landings on the Philippines.
Leyte Gulf consisted of a series of engagements, each one of which would be considered a significant naval battle. The 24th October saw the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea, during which US planes bombed and sunk the Musashi, one of the largest battleships ever built.
US carrier based planes were largely successful in preventing the Japanese planes getting through to their own ships. However, it would only took one plane to get through the screen to cause serious damage.
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