Battle of Surigao Strait

2. “Bah. We will do our best.”

29 2 “Bah. We will do our best.” October 22, sailing day for Leyte, dawned with cloudy skies and fleeting squalls. Final refueling had been completed only two hours before, and all obvious combustible materials—other than the volatile unrefined oil itself—were offloaded . Visibility was good with a three-kilometer wind out of the southwest as the great ships of the Kurita fleet began hoisting their anchors at 0745 hours. Since they were anchored in widely separated positions in Brunei Bay, each ship would operate independently as they started to move out, until they were out to sea beyond the reefs. The large fleet putting to sea was an extended and grand sight. The heavy cruisers went first, including Kurita’s flagship, Atago. Then the great dual leviathans Yamato and Musashi and stalwart Nagato moved from the northern zone of the vast anchorage. Vice Admiral Toshio Suzuki’s Second Section, with battleships Kongo and Haruna, sortied last.1 Behind them, Brunei Bay was not yet empty: Vice Admiral Nishimura’s Third Section, with Yamashiro and Fuso, remained at anchor. At this point, the destinies of Third Section and its parent 1YB effectively diverge; they will rejoin only on October 26. Until then Kurita’s force will appear only in passing as it relates to the subject fleets of this study, the Third Section of Vice Admiral Nishimura and Second Striking Force (2YB) of Vice Admiral Shima, with its two detached elements, The Guard Force and Desdiv 21, operating in or near Leyte. Third Section’s designation derived from the simple fact that Batdiv 2 was the third section of the First Striking Force, with Batdiv 1 and 3 making up the First and Second Sections. Kurita had ordered Nishimura’s departure to be delayed so that the advance of both parts of his divided fleet would be timed to put them in Leyte Gulf at their scheduled hours. At 1000 Nishimura hoisted some flags on Yamashiro’s towering pagoda that set in motion a bevy of activity. Commanding officers were to attend a meeting, and Third Section would sortie at 1500.2 30 · BattleofSurigaoStrait With just seven ships, Nishimura’s “branch force” was modest compared to the armada that departed. His two battleships were quite old and had seen little action during the war, though present at Midway. Since Midway, they had been mainly involved in training operations in the Inland Sea. There had been two moments of trial: Fuso had participated in rescue operations when battleship Mutsu blew up June 8, 1943, and Yamashiro had received a dud-torpedo hit in the port quarter while escorting Junyo on November 8, 1943. Apart from that, till 1944 the two old ships were largely moribund, with limited potential.3 Nonetheless, as far as command of Batdiv 2 was concerned, fifty-nine-yearold Shoji Nishimura “was a good man to get the best out of the old battleships Yamashiro and Fuso” since he was not a complainer and was expert in navigation . He had accumulated considerable experience in night actions since the war began. Born in Akita Prefecture on November 30, 1889, Nishimura had gone on to graduate in July 1911 from Eta Jima academy thirty-ninth class, ranked 21st of 148. Among his classmates were Hiroaki Abe, Kakuji Kakuta, and, interestingly enough, Kiyohide Shima, the present commander of 2YB. At first Nishimura had made navigation his specialty, but from there he went on to the important field of torpedo warfare and convoying operations. During this time, he suffered personal tragedy when two children died as infants in the 1920s, but his steady rise and sea commands continued. He was given command of the destroyer Kiku in the month of his twenty-seventh birthday, and this grew to the prestigious command of Destroyer Division 26 in November 1931. Afterward Nishimura rose even higher to command of larger warships such as Kumano.4 A classic old “sea dog,” Nishimura had spent virtually his whole career at sea, the only hiatus being 1936–1938 when he attended the Naval Staff College as a special student. He did not stay ashore long, and Nishimura even became a flag officer without completing the Naval Staff College. He made use of a special peacetime clause in regulation that allowed a candidate to take the exams without having actually attended all of the classes. A dedicated officer, averse to shore duty, Nishimura returned to sea as soon as possible. He felt the most useful experience was gained...