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The Battle of Leyte Gulf ,
The Last Fleet Action

Written by H.P. Willmott

Series: Twentieth-Century Battles
Distribution: worldwide
Publication date: 07/29/2005
Format: cloth 272 pages, 10 b&w photos, 9 maps, bibliog., index, 14 append., 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
ISBN: 0-253-34528-6
ISBN-13: 978-0-253-34528-8

Details

The Battle of Leyte Gulf was an extremely unusual battle. It was unusual in five ways that are so obvious they are often overlooked: 1. it was a series of actions, not a single battle; 2. it was fought over five days (historically, naval battles have seldom spread themselves over more than one or two days); 3. its name refers to a series of related actions subsequently grouped together, none of which were fought inside Leyte Gulf; 4. it was a full-scale fleet action fought after the issue of victory and defeat at sea had been decided; and finally, it resulted in clear, overwhelming victory and defeat.

The Battle of Leyte Gulf—October 22–28, 1944— was the greatest naval engagement in history. The result was the destruction of Japanese naval power in the Pacific. This book is a detailed and comprehensive account of the fighting from both sides. It provides the context of the battle, most obviously in terms of Japanese calculations and the search for "a fitting place to die" and "the chance to bloom as flowers of death." Using Japanese material never previously noted in western accounts, H.P. Willmott provides new perspectives on the unfolding of the battle and very deliberately seeks to give readers a proper understanding of the importance of this battle for American naval operations in the following month. This careful interrogation of the accounts of "the last fleet action" is a significant contribution to military history.

About the Author

H. P. Willmott has written extensively on warfare in general and the Second World War in particular. Among his books are Empires in the Balance; The Barrier and the Javelin; The Great Crusade (a military reinterpretation of the Second World War); Grave of a Dozen Schemes: British Naval Planning and the War against Japan, 1943–1945; and When Men Lost Faith in Reason: Reflections on Warfare in the Twentieth Century. He is a native of Engelfield Green, Egham, Surrey.

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