Battle of Leyte - Aftermath

Aftermath

The campaign for Leyte proved the first and most decisive operation in the American reconquest of the Philippines, and it cost American forces a total of 15,584 casualties, of which 3,504 were killed in action. Australian casualties include 30 dead and 64 wounded when a Japanese kamikaze plane crashed into the heavy cruiser HMAS Australia during the gulf battle.

The Japanese lost an estimated 49,000 combat troops in their failed defense of Leyte. Their losses at Leyte were heavy, with the army losing four divisions and several separate combat units, while the navy lost 26 major warships and 46 large transports and hundreds of merchantmen in the campaign. The struggle also reduced Japanese land-based air capability in the Philippines by more than 50%, forcing them to depend on kamikaze pilots. Some 250,000 troops still remained on Luzon, but the loss of air and naval support at Leyte so narrowed Gen. Yamashita's options that he now had to fight a defensive, almost passive, battle of attrition on Luzon, the largest and most important island in the Philippines. In effect, once the decisive battle of Leyte was lost, the Japanese gave up hope of retaining the Philippines, conceding to the Allies in the process a critical bastion from which Japan could be easily cut off from outside resources, and from which the final assaults on the Japanese home islands could be launched.