Battle of Surigao Strait: Decisive Swarming Victory
One of the battles of the Leyte Gulf campaign, which would have been a major engagement but was dwarfed by the overall Leyte operation, was the Battle of Surigao Strait, the last battleship-to-battleship gun duel in history. A Japanese force under Admiral Nishimura, consisting of two battleships, a cruiser, and several destroyers, attempted to advance through Surigao Strait. The Americans were aware they were coming, and prepared a swarming ambush.
This battle may have some relevance to modern situations, such as a major modern naval force in the Persian Gulf. While the 39 PT boats do not appear to have done significant damage to Nishimura's force, they distracted it and broke up its formation. While individual modern speedboats, even prepared to make suicide attacks with explosive payloads, may not have that much effect against a carrier battle group, they cannot be ignored. Potentially, they could help force a surface group into the range of quietly submerged submarines, or into the range of massed antiship missiles on shore or ships.
RADM Jesse Oldendorf arranged the PT boats as the first swarm, followed by destroyer squadrons prepared for torpedo attack. A line of battleships capped the T of the strait, with additional cruisers and destroyers screening their rear.
In the early hours of 25 October 1944, 39 PT boats attacked in swarms. The exact damage they did is unknown, but they clearly distracted Nishimura's force from more deadly forces.
The next set of swarms were three destroyer squadrons, making squadron-sized torpedo attacks starting at 0300, and continuing for over 30 minutes. The inflicted damage included causing the battleship Fuso to break in half but not sink. Finally, six US battleships completed the destruction. Nishimura went down with his flagship. Most of the US battleships had effective fire control radar but the Japanese did not, more evidence of the value of sensors in swarm tactics.
Read more about this topic: Swarming (military), The Evolution of Modern Swarming
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—Unknown. Joshua Fit De Battle of Jericho (l. 1–3)
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—Federico García Lorca (1898–1936)
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—Georges Bataille (1897–1962)
“The vines of her arms
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—Edward Weston (1886–1958)