Customer Reviews

Leyte: June 1944 - Jan 1945 - Volume 12 (History of the United States Naval Operations in World War Two)

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

 

 

Morison was the official historian of the USN during WWII. He experienced the action as it was happening and therefore brings a unique perspective to the acccount. It is presented in a highly readable manner and is exhaustive in detail. Well worth the time and expense.

The best book in the "Naval Operations of WWII" series. If you are a combat veteran (Army or Navy, any war), it will make the hair stand up on the back of your neck.

LEYTE is the story of what many consider to be the greatest naval battle of all time and it is also a tale which focuses on some of the most famous personalities of World War II such as MacArthur, Nimitz, Halsey, Stillwell, Arnold and Lemay.

Morison had a small but capable staff assisting him in his research efforts for this book as well as the other volumes in the series. One of his staff members actually sailed up to Leyte in Vice Admiral Wilkinson's flagship. In 1950 Morison himself visited Japan and discussed the Battle for Leyte Gulf with leading Japanese participants.

LEYTE is one of the most important studies in the HISTORY OF UNITED STATES NAVAL OPERATIONS IN WORLD WAR II.

This is volume XII of Samuel E. Morison's History of United States Naval Operations in WWII, and the seventh of nine on the Pacific theater. In it, Morison recounts the merging of Macarthur's southern Pacific drive up from New Guinea with Nimitz's central Pacific thrust coming from the Marianas by way of the Marshalls and Gilberts. The confluence of these two pincers results in the amphibious assault on Leyte (MacArthur's famous return) and the attempt by the Japanese navy to intervene in that operation which resulted in what is known to history as the Battle of Leyte Gulf.

Morison displays his customary delight over amphibious operations in his description of the Leyte beach assaults. He even compares the sounds of the different naval guns pounding the beach to the different instruments of an orchestra.

The Japanese attempt to intervene consists of three parts: First, the southern force, which makes a suicidal attempt to enter Leyte Gulf via the Surigao Strait the night of October 24-25, 1944. Second, the central force, which passes through the central Philippines and debouches undetected from the San Bernardino Strait off Samar on the morning of October 25. Third, the northern force which consists of carriers ostensibly coming south to menace U.S. ships east of Luzon, but really to lure Halsey into uncovering the eastern approach to Leyte Gulf for the benefit of the central force. The southern force is pounded into oblivion by combined attacks from waiting PT boats, destroyers and an old-fashioned battle line of several cruisers and battleships. The northern force draws Halsey north and is decimated, but accomplishes its mission in causing the uncovering of the route of approach of the central force.

The collision of the central force of battleships and cruisers, commanded by Admiral Kurita, and the U.S. escort carrier groups known as Taffies, presents the central drama of this volume. The Taffies are caught by surprise and spring into action even though outnumbered, outgunned and out-armored. It is one of the few times American forces have to fight this way during WWII. Other rare examples are Guadalcanal and the Battle of the Bulge. Here U.S. forces acquit themselves gallantly, but unlike almost all other operations in the war, it is without the air of inevitable victory hanging over the engagement. It is desperate battle against long odds, with the outcome anything but certain.

Morison spreads the blame around for the surprise off Samar. Unlike many later assessments, Halsey only gets partial blame. Morison says that "Even the stationing of one destroyer off San Bernardino Strait to give warning would have helped the escort carriers." It is unclear whether this hypothetical destroyer should have come from Halsey's group, or one of the Taffies.

As with all the books in Morison's series anyone looking for only rather dry historical facts will be disappointed. Although there are countless dates, times, numbers, etc., there are real people and their stories. For an "Official History" this is a very entertaining book to read as are the rest in his monumental work.

A terrific well written, exciting account.
Colorful first hand stories set within hard facts.

This is a very important and very good book on the whole Leyte campaign, which included the greatest naval battle (also named after the island of Leyte) in world history - at least until now. Many previous volumes of admiral Morison's great opus are real jewels (Rising sun in the Pacific, Guadalcanal, Breaking the Bismarck's barrier) but this one is at least as good as them. As one of the other reviewers already stated, this is THE book which gives a clear and precise picture of what happened in all this campaign.

The book opens with the heated debate amongst American military leader where to attack after the campaign of Marianas is completed. The discussions started even before the Marianas operation was started, in March 1944 and continued until July. MacArthur wanted that begining in October 1944 all resources USA had in Pacific be concentrated on liberating the Philippines, with the island of Leyte being the first target. General Marshall and Admirals King and Nimitz were initially in favor of bypassing Philippines entirely and going immediately towards Formosa, which move would completely cut Japanese mainland from oil supplies and possibly allow to launch an invasion of Ryukius (especially Okinawa) in early 1945 and the attack on Kyushu in June 1945. Later, an even more daring plan was made, in which both Formosa and Ryukius were to be bypassed and the next stage of war was to attack Kyushu already in the autumn of 1944! The decision had to be made by Roosevelt himself, who in July 1944 sided with MacArthur. Leyte operation was to be launched on 20 October 1944.

Before that it was necessary to seize some of Japanese controlled islands close enough to Leyte to provide air cover (once airfields were ready) and advanced logistical bases. This was the reason behind invasions of Morotai (Maluku Islands) and Peleliu (Palau Islands), both launched the same day, 15 September 1944. The extremely bloody, costly and difficult battle of Peleliu, which lasted from 15 September to 25 November 1944 (!) is described in great detail.

The next chapter is probably one of the most surprising and interesting in the whole Morison's history, as for the first (and only!) time we can feel author's embarassement in trying to present as a victory an operation which allowed in fact the Japanese to give to the Americans possibly the last "bloody nose" in the whole war! Just before the invasion of Leyte was to begin, Admiral Halsey took his fast Task Forces (large aircraft carriers and their screen) for an attack of Japanese airfields on Formosa and Okinawa, to "thin the herds" of enemy airplanes susceptible to counter-attack. Those raids, which started on 10 October 1944, produced initially good results, before the Japanese unleashed a devastating counter-strike, which forced Halsey to operate a very difficult fighting retreat. The great air battle of Formosa and Okinawa between 10 and 20 October 1944 left Americans seriously shaken by the fighting capacities and material potential of an enemy which they considered until now as being on the ropes after Marianas campaign. And that was even BEFORE the first kamikazes appeared...

Leyte invasion itself and Japanese air raids against the invading forces are described in a very precise and interesting way, but we enter the REAL thing only when the Japanese launched their naval counter-attack. Japanese battle plan was incredibly risky and included completely unexpected elements - and because of an enormous error made by admiral Halsey it mostly worked! Successive fights, which together are called "Battle of Leyte" are described here in a very pleasant and in the same time very precise and clear way:

- Battle in Palawan Passage (23 October); Japanese heavy cruisers "Atago" and "Maya" sunk, heavy cruiser "Takao" crippled; American submarine USS "Darter" sunk
- Japanese air attack against Halsey aircraft carriers (morning of 24 October); American light carrier USS "Princeton" sunk, light cruiser USS "Birmingham" crippled
- Air Battle in Sibuyan Sea (all of the day hours 24 October); Japanese super-battleship "Musashi" sunk, heavy cruiser "Myoko" crippled
- Battle of Surigao Strait (night of 24-25 October); Japanese battleships "Fuso" and "Yamashiro", heavy cruiser "Mogami" and 3 destroyers sunk, heavy cruiser "Nachi" crippled
- Battle of Samar (morning of 25 October - with the FIRST appearance of kamikazes); Japanese heavy cruisers "Chokai", "Chikuma" and "Suzuya" sunk, heavy cruiser "Kumano" crippled; American escort carriers USS "Gambier Bay" and USS "St.Lo", 2 destroyers and 1 destroyer-escort sunk, escort carriers USS "Kalinin Bay", USS "Santee" and USS "Suwannee" crippled
- Battle of Cap Engano (25-26 October); the LAST carrier battle in history - until now...; Japanese big carrier "Zuikaku", light carriers "Zuiho", "Chitose" and "Chiyoda" and 1 destroyer sunk
- American pursuit and mop up operations (25-27 October); Japanese light cruisers "Abukuma", "Kinu", "Noshiro" and "Tama" and 5 destroyers sunk, heavy cruiser "Aoba" crippled

There never was a more incredible, more tragic and more surprising naval fight in the whole World War II - and there never was a bigger naval battle in the whole human history, if we consider the number of ships, planes and crew members engaged...

But then, once this battle was over, next weeks provided some of even more interesting developments, as unexpectedly the Japanese, notwithstanding their defeat in the great battle described above, seized for a time the air supremacy over the Philippines in November and made the Americans pay dearly for every yard of the island of Leyte. Even more incredible, in the narrow seas around Leyte where US Navy would not risk engaging major surface combattants (battleships and cruisers), Japanese destroyers scored again some points in night battles! Those things are little known and I must say that I discovered them only by reading this book. Ultimately Leyte was not secured before February 1945, at a very high price for Americans.

But November 1944 crisis finally passed and at Christmas general MacArthur was ready to the next step - the attack against Luzon, the main island of the Philippines. This operation, launched in January 1945, is the topic of the next book of this monumental history.

Bottom line, "Leyte June 1944-January 1945" by Admiral Morison is a great book and a must for anybody interested in Pacific War. To buy, read and keep!