Battle off Cape Engaño thumb|Zuikaku and destroyer underway during U.S. carrier plane attacks. The carrier is in the background. In October 1944, she was the flagship of Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa's decoy Northern Force in Operation Shō-Gō 1, the Japanese counterattack to the Allied landings on Leyte. On 24 October, as part of the depleted Third Carrier Division, which had just 108 aircraft across four carriers, she launched aircraft along with the light carriers , , and in an ineffective strike against the U.S. Third Fleet. Several of these aircraft were shot down, and the majority of the surviving aircraft did not return to the carriers, instead landing at Japanese land bases on Luzon. However, some of her aircraft made kamikaze attacks and helped sink the light carrier ; and most of the others were sent to other surviving carriers and air bases, to later sink the escort carrier during the Battle off Samar after again using the new kamikaze tactics.
Battle off Cape Engaño thumb|Zuikaku and destroyer underway during U.S. carrier plane attacks. The carrier is in the background. In October 1944 she was the flagship of Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa's decoy Northern Force in Operation Shō-Gō 1, the Japanese counterattack to the Allied landings on Leyte. On 24 October, as part of the depleted Third Carrier Division, which had just 108 aircraft across four carriers, she launched aircraft along with the light carriers , , and in an ineffective strike against the U.S. Third Fleet. Several of these aircraft were shot down, and the majority of the surviving aircraft did not return to the carriers, instead landing at Japanese land bases on Luzon. However, some of her aircraft made kamikaze attacks and helped sink the light carrier ; and most of the others were sent to other surviving carriers and air bases, to later sink the escort carrier during the Battle off Samar after again using the new kamikaze tactics.