Any attacking force that failed to seal off the battlefield risked being worn down and defeated by attrition as the defenders reinforced themselves. This had almost happened two years earlier at Guadalcanal; the Japanese now attempted to make it a reality on Leyte. Between October 23 and December 11, Fourteenth Area Army sent nine separate convoys to Leyte, originating mainly from Luzon and Cebu, and managed, in spite of intensive American air attacks, to land forty-five thousand troops and ten thousand tons of matériel. The Americans sank an incredible 80 percent of the transport ships, yet
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