How One Battle Saved the Philippines! The Largest Naval Battle in History - Leyte Gulf / RePost

Pea reposted this Veterans Day special (originally from 4 years prior) from MacArthur Landing Memorial Park on Leyte, walking through the 1944 American invasion that liberated the Philippines from Japanese occupation. She visits the actual beaches, climbs the hills, interviews a 85-year-old Filipina survivor of the battle, and then tells the extraordinary story of Taffy 3 — the tiny naval group whose suicidal bravery turned the largest naval battle in history into a stunning American victory.

Pea opens at MacArthur Landing Memorial Park on Red Beach, Leyte, where General Douglas MacArthur delivered his famous "I have returned" line on October 20, 1944 ​

• 200,000 US Sixth Army troops stormed beaches against 85,000 entrenched Japanese defenders
• She notes this is a repost from 4 years ago, timed for Veterans Day / Remembrance Day

She visits several key battle sites on Leyte ​

• White Beach: the US 1st Cavalry Division landed at 10:00 AM with the objective of securing Tacloban Aerodrome
• She goes inside an actual preserved Japanese bunker carved from volcanic rock that held eight soldiers; these bunkers were nearly indestructible unless directly hit, and a common tactic was tossing a hand grenade through the firing slot
• Blue Beach / Hill 120: where the American flag was first raised after two and a half years of Japanese occupation
• Hill 120 had been used by Filipino guerrillas to spy on Japanese troop movements

Filipino guerrilla forces played a significant combat role ​

• Up to 30,000 guerrillas were active toward the end of the war, sometimes organized into combat-ready units fighting alongside Americans
• 3,000 Filipino guerrillas served under MacArthur's command during the Battle of Leyte
• When they ran out of ammunition, guerrillas would hide on cliffs and drop boulders on Japanese soldiers passing below
• Americans reported Filipinos were fierce combatants

Pea climbs Hill 120 and visits the memorial to the 96th Infantry Division ("Dead Eyes") ​

• The division lost 514 killed and 1,500 wounded during the Battle of Leyte

Interview with "Mommy Mila," an 85-year-old Filipina survivor who was 9 years old during the battle ​

• Her family hid in the jungle in a nipa hut in the Corona area
• Her father dug a hole beneath a large tree where the five children hid while the parents stood guard outside
• If the Japanese found Filipinos, they were tied, beaten, maltreated, and some were killed
• She could hear the battle from inside the hole — she describes seeing a bomb fall with a hissing sound followed by an explosion while they were near rice fields
• Their house was destroyed: roof gone, walls gone, but the family wasn't inside at the time
• After liberation, she remembers feeling happy and grateful — "We were free to go wherever" — and specifically grateful the Americans came back to fight the Japanese

The centerpiece story: the Battle off Samar / Leyte Gulf — the largest naval battle in history ​

• Five days after the beach landings, Admiral Bull Halsey's large fleet was supposed to protect the vulnerable beachheads
• The Japanese tricked Halsey into chasing a decoy fleet far to the north, leaving the landing forces protected only by Taffy 3
• Taffy 3 was a tiny support group: a handful of slow escort carriers, destroyers, and destroyer escorts — completely ill-equipped for naval combat
• Japanese Admiral Kurita had a massive fleet assigned to destroy MacArthur's invasion force: four battleships (including the Yamato, the largest ever built), six heavy cruisers, two light cruisers, and 12 destroyers
• The Yamato alone displaced more water than the entire Taffy 3 fleet combined

Captain Ernest E. Evans of the USS Johnston made a legendary decision ​

• Without waiting for orders, he turned his destroyer and single-handedly attacked Kurita's entire fleet
• Size comparison: the Johnston's 5-inch guns would literally bounce off the hulls of the larger ships
• His only real weapon was a few torpedoes — he closed to firing range while dodging 18-inch enemy shells, fired torpedoes at the cruiser Kumano, and blew her bow completely off
• Seeing the Johnston's suicide run, Admiral Sprague ordered the remaining destroyers and escorts to join the attack while the carriers retreated into a rain squall
• Admiral Kurita became convinced the attacking ships couldn't possibly be mere destroyers — they had to be cruisers from a larger fleet
• The Johnston was hit by six shells from the Yamato, wrecking the bridge and crippling engines and rear guns
• Instead of abandoning ship, Evans ordered repairs and attacked again, weaving between enemy ships and damaging several
• American planes joined but were unequipped for anti-ship combat, harassing the enemy with machine guns and depth charges
• The Johnston was finally surrounded by four cruisers and several destroyers and pounded into wreckage; Evans ordered abandon ship and was never seen again

The outcome was extraordinary ​

• The ferocious attacks convinced Kurita he faced a much larger force, and he ordered his entire fleet to retreat
• Despite losing two escort carriers, two destroyers, and a destroyer escort, the US Navy pulled off one of the most unlikely victories in naval history
• The victory secured the forces on Leyte and ensured the liberation of the Philippines

Pea closes with a personal note: if this battle had gone differently, she might never have been born ​

• She frames the video as a thank-you from Filipinos to American veterans: "You may have forgotten, but we remember"

📺 Watch the full video on YouTube

🔔 Subscribe to The Filipina Pea