The Kido Butai Vanished at Leyte Gulf in One Afternoon

The Kido Butai vanished on October 25th, 1944, when the last surviving carrier of the fleet that struck Pearl Harbor went down off Cape Engaño, along with three other Imperial Japanese Navy flight decks, in a single afternoon of American carrier air power. This is how it happened — and why Japan sent that fleet out already expecting to lose it. This documentary covers the Battle off Cape Engaño, the northern action of the Battle of Leyte Gulf, fought October 25, 1944. It follows Vice Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa's Northern Force — carriers Zuikaku, Zuiho, Chitose, and Chiyoda — sailing out as bait under the Sho-Go plan to draw Admiral William Halsey's Third Fleet and Task Force 38 away from the Leyte beaches. It traces the attrition from the Battle of the Philippine Sea, the F6F Hellcat and SB2C Helldiver strikes that sank all four carriers, and the near-disaster off Samar the decoy nearly caused. Every figure here comes from after-action reports, squadron loss tables, and official Leyte Gulf records — not the shorthand version most documentaries repeat. Where a number is disputed, we say so. Subscribe for the definitive history of the United States in the Second World War — new documentaries every few days. #WW2 #WorldWarII #PacificWar #USNavy #WWIIHistory #KidoButai #LeyteGulf #CapeEngano #Zuikaku #MilitaryHistory #USAInWW2