The YouTube Channel The Intel Report which is basically a spinoff of the far more popular YouTube channel The Operations Room is covering the "Battle" of Leyte Gulf in a series of upcoming videos but first decided to release the video below.
The question is simple. What is the Largest Naval Battle in History and is it the Battle of Leyte Gulf as some contest?
The video makes some conclusions of its own which you can watch the video yourself if you want to hear it but it goes through various criteria, the most favorable towards Leyte Gulf being the largest naval battle of all time being the total displacement (weight of ships) of ships involved (though notably perhaps not even taking direct action/participation in) the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
The Battle of Jutland's 254 ships displaced over 1.6 million tons making it the largest surface naval battle of all time and the largest battle by tonnage of ships engaging in direct combat with the enemy. But the Battle of Leyte Gulf could be considered larger, eclipsing two million tons by counting everyone of the 367 ships in the combat area even if they didn't directly participate in the Battles themselves, including 133 ships, mostly supply vessels on both sides, which didn't fire a single shot in anger or oftentimes even see the enemy.
The next criteria considered is number of ships. At Leyte Gulf 367 ships were present. But in the pre-modern area many large naval battles took place. The Battle of Salamis in 480 BC most famously saw the participation of over 1200 vessels, mostly triremes. Other Battles of the Classical era like the Battle of Cape Econumus and Cape Hermaeum also involved the participation of fleets with almost or over double the number of ships present at Leyte Gulf. However there's also the problem of potential exaggeration, for example at the Battle of Yamen, it was stated over a thousand ships took part but the vast majority were transport vessels and also didn't participate in combat, even in a support role like could be argued at Leyte.
The other metric considered is the amount of Manpower. The Battles of Cape Economus reportedly involved the participation of 290,000 personnel, with the Battle of Salamis potentially having a similar number of participants. Meanwhile in zany China, the Battle of Red Cliffs in 208 AD might've eclipsed both, with around 400,000 personnel and that in turn was over doubled in numbers of participants by the 1363 Naval Battle of Lake Poyang which had an estimated 850,000 participants in the contest between the Han and Ming Dynasties. Leyte Gulf comparatively had about 200,000 participants.
Finally they considered the political and military ramifications of the Battle and how strategic, tactical and politically significant the Battle was. But in that case there are many contenders as well. The Battle of Leyte Gulf might've been the death knell of the Japanese Empire in the Pacific War, dashing not only its hopes for victory but even a prolonged stalemate, but did it have as much significance as Trafalgar, La Hogue, Salamis or Actium etc?
There's also the considertion that Leyte Gulf actually consists of four large Naval Battles, none of which individually would make any top lists for size or scale of naval engagements.
The question is simple. What is the Largest Naval Battle in History and is it the Battle of Leyte Gulf as some contest?
The video makes some conclusions of its own which you can watch the video yourself if you want to hear it but it goes through various criteria, the most favorable towards Leyte Gulf being the largest naval battle of all time being the total displacement (weight of ships) of ships involved (though notably perhaps not even taking direct action/participation in) the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
The Battle of Jutland's 254 ships displaced over 1.6 million tons making it the largest surface naval battle of all time and the largest battle by tonnage of ships engaging in direct combat with the enemy. But the Battle of Leyte Gulf could be considered larger, eclipsing two million tons by counting everyone of the 367 ships in the combat area even if they didn't directly participate in the Battles themselves, including 133 ships, mostly supply vessels on both sides, which didn't fire a single shot in anger or oftentimes even see the enemy.
The next criteria considered is number of ships. At Leyte Gulf 367 ships were present. But in the pre-modern area many large naval battles took place. The Battle of Salamis in 480 BC most famously saw the participation of over 1200 vessels, mostly triremes. Other Battles of the Classical era like the Battle of Cape Econumus and Cape Hermaeum also involved the participation of fleets with almost or over double the number of ships present at Leyte Gulf. However there's also the problem of potential exaggeration, for example at the Battle of Yamen, it was stated over a thousand ships took part but the vast majority were transport vessels and also didn't participate in combat, even in a support role like could be argued at Leyte.
The other metric considered is the amount of Manpower. The Battles of Cape Economus reportedly involved the participation of 290,000 personnel, with the Battle of Salamis potentially having a similar number of participants. Meanwhile in zany China, the Battle of Red Cliffs in 208 AD might've eclipsed both, with around 400,000 personnel and that in turn was over doubled in numbers of participants by the 1363 Naval Battle of Lake Poyang which had an estimated 850,000 participants in the contest between the Han and Ming Dynasties. Leyte Gulf comparatively had about 200,000 participants.
Finally they considered the political and military ramifications of the Battle and how strategic, tactical and politically significant the Battle was. But in that case there are many contenders as well. The Battle of Leyte Gulf might've been the death knell of the Japanese Empire in the Pacific War, dashing not only its hopes for victory but even a prolonged stalemate, but did it have as much significance as Trafalgar, La Hogue, Salamis or Actium etc?
There's also the considertion that Leyte Gulf actually consists of four large Naval Battles, none of which individually would make any top lists for size or scale of naval engagements.
