 In October 1944 , Zuikaku was the flagship of Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa 's decoy Northern Force in Operation Shō @-@ Gō 1 , the Japanese counterattack against the Allied landings on Leyte . At this time , the ship had 28 A6M5 Zero fighters , 16 A6M2 Zero fighter @-@ bombers , 7 D4Y reconnaissance aircraft and 15 B6Ns . On the morning of 24 October , she launched 10 fighters , 11 fighter @-@ bombers , 6 torpedo bombers , and 2 reconnaissance aircraft as her contribution to the airstrike intended to attract the attention of the American carriers away from the other task groups that were to destroy the landing forces . This accomplished little else as the Japanese aircraft failed to penetrate past the defending fighters ; the survivors landed at airfields on Luzon . The Americans were preoccupied dealing with the other Japanese naval forces and defending themselves from air attacks and finally found the Northern Force late that afternoon , but Admiral William Halsey , Jr . , commander of Task Force 38 , decided that it was too late in the day to mount an effective strike . He turned all of his ships north to position himself for an attack . 
