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The Liberation of the Philippines: Luzon, Mindanao, the Visayas 1944-1945 (History of United States Naval Operations in World War II)

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This is volume XIII of Samuel E. Morison's History of United States Naval Operations in WWII, and the eighth of nine on the Pacific theater. In it, Morison relates the recapture of the remainder of the Philippine islands after the Battle of Leyte Gulf in volume XII. Mindoro, Luzon, Mindanao and others are recaptured from the Japanese, who now have practically no navy to speak of. However, the Japanese Kamikazes emerge in force, and quickly prove a daunting hazard to U.S. naval and amphibious forces.

As always, Morison spares no details on the specifics of the amphibious landings. This time, however, the beach assaults have to deal with Kamikazes targeting not only regular surface ships but LSTs as well.

Of special interest in this volume is the typhoon of mid-December, 1944, which damaged Halsey's task force to the tune of three destroyers, eight hundred lives and many aircraft. The same admiral who let Kurita pass unmolested through the San Bernardino Strait on October 25 is now investigated for neglect in allowing his task force to be battered by a typhoon east of the southern Philippines on December 17-18. Morison lists Halsey's "commendable zeal" for supporting the Luzon landings as one of the reasons for the typhoon disaster.

For the serious student who will learn the magnitude of what the USA acomplished thousands of miles from America.This account was the basis for the TV Series "Victory at Sea"I was flying patrols out of Okinawa;VPB 27.PBM`aircraft,when war ended in Aug.1945.No BS in this series.Suitable as a single read.Truly,George Croly

Battles for Mindoro, Lingayen Gulf, Luzon, Manila, Palawan, Zamboanga, Panay, Cebu, Mindanao, Brunei, Tarakan and Balikpapan were dramatic and bloody, but waged more or less at the same moment as Iwo Jima and Okinawa, they were destined to remain in the shadow of those two latter bloodbaths. This old but still very relevant book by admiral Morison is probably the best source on those campaigns.

Admiral Morison's writing is as always very clear and his style very pleasant. The book is easy and interesting to read, even for those (like me) without any military or naval background. There is a lot of information, with the analysis reduced to what is really necessary. I learned a lot from this book and I was quite surprised by the trouble the Japanese gave to Americans in this very advanced stage of war, when the difference in military potentials betwen Japan and USA became overwhelming.

This book begins with the campaign of Mindoro island (12 December 1944 - 10 February 1945), which on the land was extended more by the dense jungle and bad weather than by Japanese resistance - but on the sea it was a different matter. Kamikazes and Japanese fast motor boats made the Mindoro fight a very difficult one for Americans and Japanese fleet made also a surprise sortie against American beachhead - almost the last offensive move of this kind on Japanese side.

The second chapter of the book describes the horrible ordeal of main force of American Pacific fleet, still commanded by admiral Halsey, during the extremely violent "Cobra" hurricane on 18 December 1944, which surprised all allied meteorologists and par consequence also skippers of Americans ships by its sudden birth from a seemingly harmless tropical storm. This tragedy remains one of the worst natural disasters which struck US Navy in all its history.

The Lingayen Gulf landing (9-13 January 1945), which was the opening move in the campaign of Luzon, was not opposed by the Japanese on land, but once again the kamikazes (and also later Japanese submarines and fast motor boats) contested strongly American offensive on the sea. The damage inflicted by the kamikazes was such that all information about it was censored - Americans didn't want the Japanese to realise too fast how succesful were their new tactics. Losses on American side included Rear-Admiral Theodore E. Chandler, who died in particularly atrocious way after a kamikaze hit the bridge of his flagship, heavy cruiser USS "Louisville".

The bloody fight for Luzon, with particularly the very costly (for both sides) urban battle in Manila, is very well described, as are the operations to clear the Manila Bay, with especially the rare (in Pacific war) combination of airborne and naval assault on Corregidor. In the same time Halsey's main force went to the South China Sea to try to locate and destroy the remaining Japanese major surface combattants, especially the battleships "Ise" and "Hiyuga" and cruisers "Ashigara" and "Oyodo". He didn't succeed in this search, but he managed to mount the first attack ever on Japanese bases and shipping in Indochina, sinking in particular a great number of precious tankers.

All other fights are also very interesting, although more one sided, as after Luzon campaign there were no more enough Japanese planes in the Philippines to mount any really dangerous attacks. Still, there were many interesting episodes in those bloody battles, including the penetration of some of American smaller ships into rivers on Mindanao to help advancing army troops. Frequently scrapping their bottoms on the sand and removing obstacles like collapsed bridges, some of those warships went almost to the center of the island...

Submarine operations in the last months of Pacific War are also superficially described, including the extremely rare kind of accident when two US submarines, operating in principle in two different sectors, collided when both submerged - and both skippers were convinced that they were rammed by a Japanse sub... Still, this is the only part of the book which is rather weak. If you want really good information about US submarines operations in Pacific War, THE book to read is Clay Blair's "Silent victory".

The book ends with the description of possible the most unusual US Navy operation of the World War II, the Sino-American Cooperative Organization, a joint effort by US Navy, US Army, US Marine Corps and Chiang Kai-shek's Chinese military intelligence to collect information and conduct sabotages and guerilla atacks in Japanese occupied areas in China.

One of the operations of SACO included a horse riding guerilla group composed of Americans, Chinese and Mongolians, which operated in Inner Mongolia (it also doubled as mobile meteorological station) - this 1st Mongolian Cavalry Squadron, USN was the only cavalry unit of US Navy in its long history... In 1953 a movie with Richard Widmark, called "Destination Gobi", was made about this unusual operation.

Some of SACO guerillas operated also river and coastal junks armed with machine guns and bazookas and occasionally clashed with similar Japanese operated embarkations - in one occasion in August 1945 American sailors boarded a Japanese armed junk with pistols and swords (!) and captured it.

In conclusion I can only warmly recommend this book for all those interested in military or naval history - and for those interested by World War II in the Pacific, this is a very precious and quite unique position. Enjoy!