Customer Reviews

The Battle for Leyte Gulf: The Incredible Story of World War II's Largest Naval Battle

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Woodward first published this book in 1947 copyright MacMillian. My Old copy is Ballantine with browning pages falling out that cost 35 cents. Woodward was a history professor who served in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations as an Intelligence Officer during WW2. This is a quite servicable account of the battle that is a little short on background, but so far it's the clearest that I have read, if somewhat dated. I don't think a reader who knows the general course of the Pacific war will be disappointed reading it. I would recomend it as a good place to start. As for it's maps even ancient original is aided by having a map of the Philippines and western Pacific available. Leyte is after all a complex action taking place over an enormous area. You will not find much here about controversy. It's a book written primarily to inform a popular audience about a large event in the War that their country had just won, an event that probably was out of common knowledge and which only a minority of even it's participants understood in total.

"Oh Hell, they got away!" - A signalman aboard the U.S.S. Fanshaw Bay after the Japanese battleships and cruisers that had been savaging two American escort carrier divisions during the Battle off Samar (Leyte Gulf) inexplicably broke off contact and retired

In October 1944, troops commanded by General MacArthur invaded the Philippines. Knowing that the loss of these islands would cut their empire in half and render inaccessible to their naval forces the fuel stores of Southeast Asia, the Japanese decided on a last ditch, do-or-die sortie of the Imperial Fleet to destroy the American naval force directly involved with the Philippine invasion, i.e. the Seventh Fleet commanded by Vice Admiral Thomas Kincaid, while luring off the covering naval force, the Third Fleet commanded by Admiral William Halsey. Thus, the Japanese unleashed a three-pronged attack on the American landing sites in Leyte Gulf involving three naval commands: the "A" (Northern) Force under Admiral Ozawa, the #1 Diversion Attack (Central) Force under Admiral Kurita, and the #2 Diversion Attack (Southern) Force under Admiral Shima.

THE BATTLE FOR LEYTE GULF is author C. Vann Woodward's superlative account of the U.S. Navy's repulse of an enemy approaching from the north, west and south. It was, because of poor decision making, faulty communications, and disunited command chains, both a near thing for the Yanks and the ultimate source of defeat for the Japanese. Certainly nearer than the final disproportionate tally of ships lost on both sides would indicate.

The Battle for Leyte Gulf was actually four separately defined and described confrontations over three days: the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea, the Battle of Surigao Strait, the Battle off Cape Engano, and the Battle off Samar. In both tonnage engaged and tonnage sunk, the Battle for Leyte Gulf was the largest naval clash in history. Larger even than World War I's Battle of Jutland.

The preponderance of the American defensive action was destroyers and/or aircraft versus the Japanese carriers, battleships, and cruisers. However, the Battle of Surigao Strait saw the last time in naval warfare that opposing capital ships would fire their heavy guns at each other, and the last time that the venerable "crossing the T" would be accomplished (although, by the time the crossbar fired, there was little remaining of the vertical leg). An era was over.

For the American reader, the most compelling of the four engagements is perhaps the Battle of Samar, during which two divisions of the Seventh Fleet's "jeep'' carriers, unprotected by the battleships and cruisers of the Third Fleet that had scampered north to engage Ozawa's decoy Northern Force, were gallantly and stalwartly defended by their hopelessly outgunned destroyer screen against the attack of the massed battleships and cruisers of Kurita's Central Force. More honor is due the men in those small ships than can possibly be conveyed by mere words.

Woodward's prose and storytelling abilities are thoroughly engaging and the redeeming reasons that I'm awarding five stars instead of (perhaps) a more realistic four as the few battle maps range from being above average to outright wretched, the latter characterized by an appearance as if they were copied (badly) from larger originals and then shrunk in size. A photo section is non-existent. Look up the Wikipedia entry for the battle on the Internet and reader interest in those two aspects of the historical record will be well satisfied.

As the previous reviewer stated this boook is filled with excellent documentaion and would be a great read for WWII buffs and people who may already be somewhat familiar with the battle. I found the writing style dry and difficult to follow at times. This material in the hands of a more interesting writer such as Ian Toll (Six Frigates) would have been spectacular. The maps included on some of the pages were almost impossible to read, too bad because quality maps would have made it infinitley easier to follow what was written on the pages. Not recommended for a casual reader unless you become more familiar with the battle from other sources first.

This is one outstanding legacy to the Naval crews who fought in this great battle. Once the attack began, it was almost relentless till the end. Courageous fighting from the PT Boats, Destroyers, Submarines, Battleships, Cruisers, Large and Jeep Carriers. The Japanese were being beaten so badly that they finally resorted to kamakaze attacks. Each side took a horrible beating, but our Navy prevailed. They even encountered the Japanese Battleship Yamato, which was firing with horrifying accuracy from fifteen miles away! Once the battle begins, the book is terribly difficult to put down.

"The Battle for Leyte Gulf" was my first selection from the new Kindle Lending Library. Even though this book was first published shortly after the end of World War II, it remains one of the best sources on this epic battle. Woodward effectively used after action reports and interrogations of Japanese leaders that were involved in the fight. I thought he presented a pretty balanced view of Halsey's chasing after the Japanese decoy fleet which almost resulted in the destruction of U.S. landing forces. What a great idea the "lending library" is for Amazon Prime members.

This book was actually published in 1947, not 2007 which is when Skyhouse republished this book. It was my error to not read the reviews as I otherwise would have avoided this book based upon its antiquity. I will also admit that if this were 1948, I would have thoroughly enjoyed this book. However, in 2012 I am extremely disappointed.

Despite claims of incorporating information from Japanese sources, very little information from Japanese sources was incorporated into the book although some, if not a great majority, of that can be attributed to insufficient time having elapsed for adequate research regarding damage claims, etc. As a result the wild claims of damage and destruction to the opposing fleets and aircraft that are so laughingly attributed to the enemy are also reported here and rarely corrected to reflect actuality. The author blindly accepts Halsey's excuses regarding Halsey's failures to protect the San Bernardino Strait and the grave danger that his errors placed the troops and transports into. The reality, of course, is that this danger was averted solely due to a combination of heroic actions by everyone in Taffy 3 (not to ignore the contributions from especially Taffy 2), not just the commanding officers as books such as this often portray, and that Admiral Kurita committed even greater errors than Halsey did. Until I discovered that this book was first published 1947 I felt cheated, even at the $0.99 price, but if nothing else it shows how little was actually known nearly three years after these battles were fought.

Since my husband's father was stationed on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific during WWII and was actually in this battle, I thought this book would be a good bet for a birthday gift. That doesn't necessarily mean it would be a good read, though. Good thing that he loves this book; practically read it in one sitting.