Eighty Years Ago This Week

    The USN won a decisive victory over the IJN in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest sea battle of all time. The Japanese lost four carriers and three battleships including the Musashi , the second of the gigantic Yamato class, the largest ever built. The battle saw the first use of kamikaze suicide attacks by Japanese aircraft. The IJN failed to impede the US landings on the Philippines and the losses it suffered marked the end of its time as a strategic force. 24 Mosquitos of the RAF's 2 Bomber Group attacked the Gestapo headquarters at Aarhus in Denmark in response to a plea from local resistance leaders whose organisations had suffered from German intelligence successes. The attack was one of a number of 2 Group strikes against German security forces and was personally led by the Group commander Air Vice Marshal Basil Embry, whose knowledge of D-Day plans had prevented him leading the attack on Amiens jail, an operation which the BBC persists in falsely presenting as part