Board Thread:Game Updates/@comment-3502824-20171207155334/@comment-33547210-20180129201140

He believed they were armored CVs, not paper tiger CVEs. Although I do believe that one of the IJN cruiser captains correctly identified them iirc. I think historians are a bit hard on Kurita. There was no way the battle was going to end well for the IJN. He could have caused massive casualties among the landing forces, if he hadn't turned back, but it likely would have cost him his fleet. I suspect (but have no proof) he broke contact after realizing what he was actually fighting. Destroying a few CVEs wasn't worth the damage he was taking and the air power that had taken out Musushi in the Sibuyan Sea was still nearby. It's not like destroying the landing force would have done anything but delay the inevitable anyway.