The battle of Leyte Gulf is the greatest naval battle ever fought in history.  In all, 282 ships took part in the battle.  More than 350.000 Japanese soldiers died.  Nearly 14,000 US soldiers died, while 48,000 were injured or missing.  The outcome of the battle was a clear cut United States victory.  Here is a chart of the ships lost during the battle:

The USN lost only six ships compared to the 28 ships the IJN lost.  Japan would never be able to recover from such devastating losses.  However, they were not ready to surrender yet.  During this battle a new Japanese weapon was unleashed, the kamikaze.  Throughout the entire war, kamikaze’s would be responsible for five sinkings,  including CVE-63 The USS St. Lo.