The Battle for Leyte Gulf: The Incredible Story of World War II's Largest Naval Battle Paperback – November 17, 2007

If you like History, specifically WW2 War In The Pacific History, this book is a must read. Great insight into the Battle of Leyte Gulf from both sides points of view.

Extremely accurate, sometimes overwhelming detail. Bravery of US Navy sailors and officers truly inspiring. Best read with an accompanying YouTube video.

Enjoyable account of the great sprawling Battle of Leyte Gulf which was really three or four running battles in different locales around the Leyte Gulf area. The "Fog of War" definitely applies with this great battle with all the mishaps in communications and poor command structures and decisions on both sides. Victory was in the grasp of both sides on numerous occasions. It could have gone either way. The Americans were just luckier perhaps. A Japanese victory would not have changed the outcome of the war. The Imperial Navy was definitely in decline and getting desperate. The foolish rivalry between the Japanese Navy and Army continued to interfere with proper coordination of efforts to jointly support each other for a common cause towards victory. If Admiral Kurita had attacked the Leyte Gulf, all the Japanese battleships would probably have been smashed there. The U.S. death toll at Leyte would have been enormous but the Imperial Navy would probably have been wiped out there. Despite all the "what ifs," this book tells you what happened at Leyte Gulf in a very readable and informative history.

Lots of detail and well researched as far as I can tell. I was in the navy so the authors account probably is more easily understood by me on a couple of levels. Even so, the scale of this series of engagements is huge and the average reader will have a hard time keeping things straight in their minds as it unfolds. There are some diagrams of the battle and they help a bit but it would have been better for me if they were divided into smaller pieces so I could print them out and arrange them for a clearer understanding.The author undoubtedly knows the story as the back of his hand, but for the rest of us trying to keep the scores of names, unit designators and locations straight is a challenge, and after a while I gave up caring about taking away a solid understanding and settled for getting the gist of the thing. So I may not be able to fault his facts I sure fault the story telling. Reminded me of a dense college text.

I found this book to be fascinating, although at times difficult to keep track of exactly where the various navy groups were operating. More maps would have been useful to keep the whole enormous battle zone in perspective. I did, however, come away with a great understanding of not only the battle itself but also the leaders on both sides who were involved. While hindsight obviously helps to determine who was or was not at fault, it can often shade the on-screen perspectives of the combatants. Woodward avoids this tendency by creating a balanced account as seen from both sides of the battle. What results is a good understanding of how the battles are clouded by the "fog of war". I found this book to an extremely valuable description of a real time conflict that created understanding of all of the combatants, not from the side of the right side of the causes, but for the lack of communication throughout the battle, as well as for the thousands of sailors on both sides who lost their lives.

I had known about the battle, but didn't realize it's significance, or the punctuation mark it put on the end of the Japanese navy. Anyone who reads about the first battle of the Phillipean Sea and Midway, should be sure to follow up with this.

This book is a treat. There is only one problem---the publisher of this edition neglected to print the maps properly. And the darn book does not have an index. Very annoying that the production of this important book was done with little care. The history contained in the book is a great read. The author writes like a god. Thrilling story.

I loved this book. It is rich in detail from the first movements by the Japanese and Americans toward the Gulf to the final Japanese retreat and the frantic pursuit by the Americans. I had read other works on the battle, but somehow Vann Woodward has captured something the others had missed; the sheer scope of the conflict. Leyte Gulf was no Midway, in which only seven carriers were engaged, nor even a Guadalcanal with its nightly fire-fights between relatively small squadrons of surface-ships. This battle unfolded over thousands of miles, involved hundreds of vessels, thousands of aircraft and tens of thousands of human souls.Vann Woodward's research allows him to present the Japanese Plan and its Order-of-Battle in remarkable detail. Once establishing the plan, he systematically discusses its gradual unravelling under fire. He examines the weaknesses of the American's command structure. So many ships, so much ocean, so many tactical possibilities; yet our principal commanders could not communicate directly. Perhaps more than any other treatment of the battle, Vann Woodward captures the significant impact of U.S. submarines in both intelligence gathering and combat, and the full scope of that mad scramble between Japanese battleships and cruisers and the American Jeep carriers and their destroyers just north of the Gulf. Vann Woodward, unlike other authors, gives the Americans full credit for their remarkable victory off Cape Engano; often overlooked in favor of the near disaster at Leyte itself.Finally, he evaluates the relative performances of the principal admirals; Halsey, who struggled to the point of obsession to achieve a concentration of force and ended up with his fleet scattered over a thousand miles of ocean, and Kurita, who had blasted his way to within two hours of his goal only to retreat in confusion. The Battle for Leyte Gulf is an epic work.