The final result of several long strategic conferences in mid-1944 was the decision to invade the Philippines. This decision was due in no small part to the insistence of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who, having retreated from the Philippines in 1942, vowed to make his return and liberate the islands from Japanese control. Leyte was chosen as the invasion site because it is central to all the Philippine Islands. It supposedly had two or three good airfields from which the Americans could interdict Japanese supply lines, and the garrison on the island was not particularly large. The Japanese knew that the end was near and, thinking mistakenly that the air battle of Formosa had been a big success, decided that Leyte would be the last stand for the Japanese armed forces. Shortly after the landing took place, the Navy made its infamous, 'almost successful' Leyte Gulf attack, and for a short time the Japanese actually held air superiority over Leyte. The problems of U.S. land forces on the heavily jungled island were, however, very small. The Japanese thought for a long time that the Americans would land a division at most; they actually landed four. Consequently, the Japanese reinforcements (which were substantial when they arrived intact) managed to put up a real fight only for half the island. The Japanese 16th Division, however, fought a valiant, if only partially successful delaying action from October.20, 1944 to November 3, 1944. The 16th Division fought the U.S. 1st Cavalry, 24th Infantry, 96th Infantry and 7th Infantry Divisions, each of which was better equipped and somewhat better led.
After the initial U.S. advance across the Leyte Valley, the Americans ran head-on into the Japanese "attack force." The Japanese still believed (incredibly) that the Americans had landed only one division, or two at most. They thus expected that the crack 1st Infantry Division in conjunction with the 102nd Independent Infantry, would push into Leyte Valley and threaten the U.S. presence there. As the Japanese were preparing to attack, the Americans launched an attack of their own. The Japanese, despite their excellent defensive terrain, were hard pressed to hold the American advance into Ormoc Valley. The Americans had problems of their own; after only a few weeks of fighting in the jungles of Leyte, the men of the 24th Division, which had borne the brunt of the physically exhausting jungle fighting, were beginning to show the strain. Supplying troops in the mountains was a difficult task, and was becoming impossible as the American heavy equipment ripped up what few second-class roads there were. Promised American air support was almost non-existent, and the Japanese airfields on Leyte had proven to be useless to the Americans. Then, as the final stroke, the weather itself closed in. For almost two weeks, storms of high intensity rolled over much of the island. Thus, the irregular dates for Game-Turns Twelve and Thirteen. The Japanese held on in well-placed and tenaciously defended coconut log and concrete pillboxes.
By the beginning of December, 1944, the Japanese had realized that their position on Leyte was hopeless. They had only a fraction of the beleaguered island and were overwhelmingly outnumbered. The Americans, however, were somewhat displeased with the success of their operations which had long since fallen behind schedule on Leyte. The successful Japanese defense of Ormoc Valley, and American supply problems, were frustrations to the high command. To remedy the situation and put an end to the Leyte campaign, the Americans elected to land a fresh division behind the Japanese position. This landing took place on December 7, 1944. By the 15th, Ormoc was well in American hands, and by the 2 1st, the Japanese forces on Leyte were either isolated, destroyed or in rout. As a sidelight in the campaign, the Japanese made several ill-fated attempts to recapture the already-useless airfields around Burauen. These actions included such ill-advised operations as the crash landing of loaded transports on the airstrips and the fielding of the remnants of the exhausted 16th Division, which had been hiding in the mountains without supply for over a month. Needless to say, these attempts were futile and costly.