Pacific · United States and Philippines vs Japan
Battle of Leyte
17 October 1944 – 26 December 1944
MacArthur's return to the Philippines began with four divisions landing on the east coast of Leyte. The Japanese chose to make it the decisive battle and shipped in reinforcements through Ormoc on the west coast, prolonging the fighting through the rain in the central mountains. A landing at Ormoc in December cut the supply line and the island was declared secure on 26 December.
Explore Battle of Leyte on the interactive map · Wikipedia
Day by day
— The gulf mouth
The 6th Ranger Battalion lands on Suluan, Dinagat and Homonhon at the mouth of Leyte Gulf to put out the navigation lights and clear the approach for the invasion fleet. A typhoon delays the Dinagat landing by a day. The Japanese garrison of Leyte is the 16th Division, about 20,000 men, spread across the east coast and the Leyte valley.
— A Company lands
Four divisions of Sixth Army land on the east coast at 10:00 after a three-hour bombardment: X Corps north of Palo, XXIV Corps at Dulag. MacArthur wades ashore at Red Beach in the afternoon and broadcasts that he has returned. Tacloban and its airstrip fall on the 21st.
— Breakneck Ridge
The Leyte valley is cleared and X Corps turns south down Highway 2 towards Ormoc, where the Japanese are landing reinforcements convoy by convoy. The 21st Infantry meets the newly arrived 1st Division on the ridges north of Limon and the fight for Breakneck Ridge goes on for a fortnight in monsoon rain that grounds the aircraft and floods the roads.
— Ormoc
The 77th Division lands at Deposito, five kilometres south of Ormoc, behind the Japanese main body and inside their own supply port. The landing is unopposed on the beach and attacked all day from the air. The day before, Japanese paratroops dropped on the Burauen airfields in a raid that took a week to mop up.
— The port taken
The 77th Division fights into Ormoc and takes the town on the 10th, closing the only harbour by which Leyte could be supplied. Suzuki's army is cut in two, with the divisions in the north out of rations and ammunition. What is left of the Japanese force falls back on Palompon and the hills behind it.
— Organised resistance ends
A battalion of the 77th Division landed at Palompon on Christmas Day and took the last port on the island. MacArthur announces the end of organised resistance on the 26th and hands the mopping up to Eighth Army, which kills another 24,000 men in the mountains over the following months. Some 3,500 Americans and about 49,000 Japanese died on Leyte.
![Filipino volunteers carry supplies into the mountains to reach 1st Cavalry Division troops in the battle of Leyte.From the National Archives via ibiblio.org. Downloaded from [1]](/photos/battle-of-leyte-2.jpg)
