The Battle for Leyte Gulf

The Action in Surigao Strait
24-25 October 1944

Oldendorf's Force
Oldendorf's force comprised six elderly battleships, 
four heavy cruisers, four light cruisers, and twenty-eight destroyers.
These ships were disposed in three groups, as follows -


Battle Line
(Rear Admiral Weyler in Mississippi)

Battleships  Mississippi,California, Tennessee,Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia

plus Destroyer Division "X-Ray" (Commander Hubbard) consisting of the following six destroyers -
Claxton,  Cony,  Thorn,  Aulick,  Sigourney,  Welles


Left Flank
(Rear Admiral Oldendorf in Louisville)

Heavy Cruisers: Louisville,  Portland,  Minneapolis

Light Cruisers:  Denver,  Columbia

Nine destroyers organised in three sections,  as follows -

Section 1 (Destroyer Division 111 - Captain Smoot) Newcomb,  Richard P. Leary,  Albert W. Grant

Section 2 (Destroyer Division 112 - Captain Conley) Robinson,  Halford,  Bryant

Section 3 (Commander Boulware)   Heywood L. Edwards,  Bennion,  Leutze

(Destroyer Divisions 111 and 112 were the two divisions of Destroyer Squadron 56 commanded by Captain Smoot)
 

Right Flank
(Rear Admiral Berkey in Phoenix)

Heavy Cruiser:  Shropshire (Australian Navy)

Light Cruisers:  Phoenix,  Boise

Thirteen destroyers organised as follows -

Destroyer Squadron 24 (Captain McManes)

Hutchins, Daly, Bache, Arunta (Australian Navy), Killen, Beale

Picket Patrol  -  Destroyer Squadron 54 (Captain Coward)  -

Destroyer Division 108 (Commander Phillips) Mcdermut,  Monssen,  McNair

 
 
Leyte Gulf - Index

Fletcher Class Destroyers

 The Seventh Fleet battleships - Pearl Harbor's veterans fight again

   US Light Cruisers - The Brooklyn and Cleveland Classes

    The Fast Carrier Force and its Ships

Leyte - Links

 Leyte Gulf - Index


Acknowledgments
Mainsource for the above -
Samuel Eliot Morison "United States Naval Operations in World War II" Volume XII "Leyte"
Thephotograph of USS Tennessee is reproduced, with thanks, from
P.H. Silverstone "Warships of World War II" (Ian Allan, Shepperton, Surrey)