San Pedro Bay is a

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

, at the northwest end of

Leyte Gulf Leyte Gulf, also known simply as the Leyte, is a gulf in the Eastern Visayan region in the Philippines. The bay is part of the Philippine Sea of the Pacific Ocean, and is bounded by two islands; Samar in the north and Leyte in the west. On the ...

. It measures about east to west and north to south. The bay is bounded by two islands, by

Samar Samar ( ) is the third-largest and seventh-most populous island in the Philippines, with a total population of 1,909,537 as of the 2020 census. It is located in the eastern Visayas, which are in the central Philippines. The island is divided in ...

the north and east and by

Leyte Leyte ( ) is an island in the Visayas group of islands in the Philippines. It is eighth-largest and sixth-most populous island in the Philippines, with a total population of 2,626,970 as of 2020 census. Since the accessibility of land has been ...

on the east. It is connected by

San Juanico Strait San Juanico Strait () is a narrow strait in the Eastern Visayan region in the Philippines. It separates the islands of Samar and Leyte and connects Carigara Bay ( Samar Sea) with the San Pedro Bay (Leyte Gulf). It is about long. At its narrowest ...

Carigara Bay Carigara Bay (; ), is a large bay in the northern part of Leyte in the Philippines. The bay is bounded by Leyte (province), Leyte to its western, southern and eastern parts. References

Bays of the Philippines Landforms of Leyte (province) ...

, an arm of the

Samar Sea The Samar Sea is a small sea within the Philippine archipelago, situated between the Bicol Region of Luzon and the Eastern Visayas. It is bordered by the islands of Samar to the east, Leyte to the south, Masbate to the west, and Luzon to the nor ...

. The largest city on the bay is

Tacloban City Tacloban ( ; ), officially the City of Tacloban (; ), is a Cities of the Philippines#Legal classification, highly urbanized city on Leyte island in the Eastern Visayas region of the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, Tacloban has a popu ...

, the capital of the province of

in the

administrative region Administrative divisions (also administrative units, administrative regions, subnational entities, or constituent states, as well as many similar generic terms) are geographical areas into which a particular independent sovereign state is divi ...

Eastern Visayas Eastern Visayas (; ; ; ) is an administrative region in the Philippines, designated as Region VIII. It consists of three main islands: Samar, Leyte, and Biliran. The region has six provinces: Biliran, Leyte, Northern Samar, Samar, Easte ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the bay was part of a large

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

base, the Leyte-Samar Naval Base.

References

Bays of the Philippines Landforms of Leyte (province) Landforms of Samar (province) {{Philippines-geo-stub