Combined Fleet. Navy Air Service. By the time of the battle, Japan had fewer capital ships aircraft carriers and battleships left than the Allied forces had total aircraft carriers in the Pacific, which underscored the disparity in force strength at that point in the war. Navy 's Third and Seventh Fleets. It was the first battle in which Japanese aircraft carried out organized kamikaze attacks, and it was the last naval battle between battleships in history. The Allied campaigns of August to early had driven Japanese forces from many of their island bases in the south and central Pacific Ocean, while isolating many of their other bases most notably in the Solomon Islands , Bismarck Archipelago , Admiralty Islands , New Guinea , Marshall Islands , and Wake Island , and in June , a series of American amphibious landings supported by Fifth Fleet 's Fast Carrier Task Force captured most of the Mariana Islands bypassing Rota.
This offensive breached Japan's strategic inner defense ring and gave the Americans a base from which long-range Boeing B Superfortress bombers could attack the Japanese home islands. The Japanese counterattacked in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. The U. Navy destroyed three Japanese aircraft carriers, damaged other ships, and shot down approximately Japanese aircraft, leaving the Japanese Navy with very little carrier-borne air power and few experienced pilots.
The next logical step was to cut Japan's supply lines to Southeast Asia, depriving them of fuel and other necessities of war, but there were two different plans for doing so. Admiral Ernest J. Army General Douglas MacArthur , wanting to fulfill the promise "I shall return" , championed an invasion of the Philippines. While Formosa could also serve as a base for an invasion of mainland China , which MacArthur felt was unnecessary, it was also estimated that it would require about 12 divisions from the Army and Marines.
Meanwhile, the Australian Army, spread thin by engagements in the Solomon Islands, New Guinea, the Dutch East Indies and various other Pacific islands, would not have been able to spare any troops for such an operation. As a result, an invasion of Formosa, or any operation requiring much larger ground forces than were available in the Pacific in late , would be delayed until the defeat of Germany freed the necessary manpower. A meeting between MacArthur, Nimitz, and President Roosevelt helped confirm the Philippines as a strategic target but did not reach a decision, and the debate continued for two months.
Seventh Fleet at this time contained units of the U. Navy and the Royal Australian Navy. Third Fleet , commanded by Admiral William F. Halsey Jr. A fundamental defect in this plan was there would be no single American naval admiral in overall command. This lack of unity of command , along with failures in communication, was to produce a crisis and very nearly a strategic disaster for the American forces. The American options were apparent to the IJN. The plans were for complex offensive operations committing nearly all available forces to a decisive battle, despite substantially depleting Japan's slender reserves of fuel oil.
