The Battle of Surigao Strait was one of the four separate actions known collectively as the Battle of Leyte Gulf. As part of their Sho-l' plan the Japanese had sent two detachments under Vice Admiral Nishimura (designated Force 'C' of the 1st Striking Force and the 2nd Striking Force) towards Surigao Strait. Force 'C' included the battleships IJN Fuso and IJN Yamashiro, and a heavy cruiser, while the 2nd Striking Force under Vice Admiral Shima had only three heavy cruisers. Their objective was the American amphibious forces off Samar, which were to be attacked in conjunction with Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita's lst Striking Force, comprising the battleships IJN Yamato, Musashi, Nagato, Kongo and Naruna (Forces 'A' and 'B').

Nishimura entered Surigao Strait just after midnight on 24/25 October 1944. Two destroyers were leading the flagship Yamashiro, the Fuso and the heavy cruiser IJN Mogami in line ahead. The first American attacks by PTboats were brushed aside, but the next line of defence was a group of destroyers, each armed with torpedoes. It was a confused action, but one destroyer's spread of five torpedoes must have hit the Fuso amidships, for she was seen to explode and break into two halves which drifted apart before they sank.

The final line of defence was Rear Admiral Jesse B. Oldendorfs Battle Line of six old battleships, USS Tennessee, West Virginia, Mississippi, Maryland, California and Pennsylvania. Five of them were veterans of Pearl Harbor, but all had been refitted with the latest fire control and radar. Fire was opened by the Tennessee and West Virginia at 20850 m (22,800 yards), followed shortly afterwards by the flagship Mississippi and the Maryland.

For a while the Yamashiro seemed impervious to the hurricane of fire which lashed her as the controlled broadsides rumbled on. She had already been hit by a torpedo but had signaled, 'Yamashiro has one torpedo hit, not handicapped in ability to fight.' Then another destroyer torpedo hit her and slowed her down to 5 kts, and three of her six twin 356-mm ( 14-in) turrets had already been knocked out.

Oldendorf now turned his Battle Line to enable him to cross Nishimura's 'T', the classic battleship manoeuvre. No ship could withstand such a pounding, and eyewitnesses described the Yamashiro as burning like a furnace. She finally rolled over and sank with all hands.

There was nothing left for the battleships to do, for the destroyers and aircraft finished off Shima's 2nd Striking Force, sinking all surving cruisers and destroyers except the Shigure.

Surigao Strait was the last action between battleships, and it is fitting that it should have culminated in traditional battle-line maneuvering. It was also the final return payment for Pearl Harbor, for most of the American ships had been seriously damaged or sunk in December 1941. The irony of it all was that radar had finally given the battleship's big guns greatly enhanced accuracy and destructive power, just as the world's navies had decided to stop building them,