Just as Yamashita feared, Leyte proved a disaster. The epic sea battle that opened the campaign cost the Japanese Navy a third of its surface ships, including four aircraft carriers, three battleships, nine cruisers, and nine destroyers. Of the fifty thousand troops Yamashita sent to Leyte, barely half ever made it to the island as American bombers and submarines obliterated the transports en route. “The waters of the sea around us,” recalled one Japanese officer, “were tinted with blood.”
