The Battle of Leyte Gulf
The History and Legacy of World War II's Largest Naval Battle
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Narrated by:
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Colin Fluxman
About this listen
The waters of the Pacific Ocean - stretching deep blue under the tropical sun, or scourged by typhoons - provided World War II's most far-flung battlefield. Two of the world's premier mid-20th century maritime powers, the United States of America and the Empire of Japan, grappled for supremacy across that pelagic expanse. In the process, they forcefully sounded the death knell of battleships and naval gunnery, ushering in the era of the aircraft carrier and the submarine.
As 1944 passed, the US Navy (USN) steadily drove the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) westward, closer to the Japanese home islands and defeat. Nevertheless, the IJN remained aggressive, hoping to launch a devastating attack on the American fleets to improve their nation's bargaining position, or perhaps even reverse the fortunes of war. This, of course, ignored a pair of previous catastrophic failures of similar plans, at Midway and the Battle of the Philippine Sea, otherwise known as the "Great Marianas Turkey Shoot" due to the loss of around 480 Japanese aircraft at a cost of 49 US planes.
The Americans forced the Japanese to abandon their forward base at Truk. At the same time, the USN moved its main fleet base westward, first to Eniwetok. Due to the constraints of the era's technology, plus the necessity to maintain a robust logistics chain across the Pacific's vast spaces, the island-hopping campaign represented a strategic necessity, with only the specific islands taken or bypassed open to debate.
The US aimed to take Ulithi as the new site for a new forward base in early autumn 1944, pushing fleet resupply even closer to Japan's last bastion. From there, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, swayed by the plans and arguments of General Douglas MacArthur, planned to seize a number of islands and then Leyte in the Philippines as a prelude to invasion of Luzon, then Formosa.
Conducting massive air raids on Leyte in September, Admiral William "Bull" Halsey's air groups destroyed 500 Japanese aircraft and 59 ships at a cost of nine aircraft shot down. This prompted Halsey to send an urgent message to Roosevelt, then at the Octagon Conference in Canada with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, claiming a feeble defense of the Philippines.
Trying to take advantage of this intelligence, the Joint Chiefs moved up the timetable for the landings on Leyte to October 20th. The Americans would now bypass several islands such as Yap, to take Leyte and Luzon quickly, though Ulithi and several other islands remained earmarked for conquest.
The USN assembled a massive attack force for Leyte, consisting of Seventh Fleet, charged with the actual amphibious landings, and Third Fleet's Task Force 38, Halsey's powerful strike force centered around 17 aircraft carriers bearing some 1,000 aircraft. The Americans, however, did not realize that a powerful IJN force lurked near Singapore. This armada found itself waiting for the USN to move into the jaws of the trap and, hopefully, suffer a crippling defeat.
The ensuing Battle of Leyte Gulf would consist of a series of coordinated actions over the course of several days in late October, and though some confusion would cause problems for the Americans, the end result was the permanent crippling of the Japanese navy and the taking of Leyte Island, a crucial step in liberating the Philippines as a whole. Cut off from badly needed supplies after the battle, the Japanese lacked the resources necessary to continue fueling their navy, much of which would sit idle for the remainder of the war.
The Battle of Leyte Gulf: The History and Legacy of World War II's Largest Naval Battle analyzes the complex and controversial battle, widely considered the largest naval battle in the history of warfare.
©2016 Charles River Editors (P)2016 Charles River EditorsListeners also enjoyed...
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Story
With The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors and Ship of Ghosts, James D. Hornfischer created essential and enduring narratives about America’s World War II Navy, works of unique immediacy distinguished by rich portraits of ordinary men in extremis and exclusive new information. Now he does the same for the deadliest, most pivotal naval campaign of the Pacific war: Guadalcanal. Neptune’s Inferno is at once the most epic and the most intimate account ever written of the contest for control of the seaways of the Solomon Islands.
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The WWII Pacific Theater Explodes In My Lazy Chair
- By Rum Runner on 03-01-11
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Hell from the Heavens
- The Epic Story of the USS Laffey and World War II's Greatest Kamikaze Attack
- By: John Wukovits
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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On the morning of April 16, 1945, the crewmen of the USS Laffey saw what seemed to be the entire Japanese air force assembled directly above. They were about to become the targets of the largest single-ship kamikaze attack of World War II.
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Compelling story worth the effort
- By David Traill on 08-10-16
By: John Wukovits
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Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942
- By: Ian W. Toll
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 22 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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On the first Sunday in December 1941, an armada of Japanese warplanes appeared suddenly over Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and devastated the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Six months later, in a sea fight north of the tiny atoll of Midway, four Japanese aircraft carriers were sent into the abyss. Pacific Crucible tells the epic tale of these first searing months of the Pacific war, when the U.S. Navy shook off the worst defeat in American military history and seized the strategic initiative.
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Astonishingly good.
- By Mike From Mesa on 09-01-12
By: Ian W. Toll
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Killing the Bismarck
- Destroying the Pride of Hitler's Fleet
- By: Iain Ballantyne
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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In May 1941 the German battleship Bismarck, accompanied by heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, broke out into the Atlantic to attack Allied shipping. The Royal Navy's pursuit and subsequent destruction of the Bismarck was an epic of naval warfare. In this new account of those dramatic events at the height of the Second World War, Iain Ballantyne draws extensively on the graphic eyewitness testimony of veterans to construct a thrilling story, mainly from the point of view of the British battleships, cruisers, and destroyers involved.
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1960 a young boy became awed
- By torpedo alley on 10-02-19
By: Iain Ballantyne
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Morning Star, Midnight Sun
- The Early Guadalcanal-Solomons Campaign of World War II August–October 1942
- By: Jeffrey R. Cox
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 20 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Following the disastrous Java Sea campaign, the Allies went on the offensive in the Pacific in a desperate attempt to halt the Japanese forces that were rampaging across the region. With the conquest of Australia a very real possibility, the stakes were high. Their target: the Japanese-held Soloman Islands, in particular the southern island of Guadalcanal. Hamstrung by arcane pre-war thinking and a bureaucratic mind-set, the US Navy had to adapt on the fly in order to compete with the mighty Imperial Japanese Navy, whose ingenuity had fostered the creation of its Pacific empire.
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Very enjoyable popular history
- By Sheldon Campbell on 08-17-19
By: Jeffrey R. Cox
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Tidal Wave
- From Leyte Gulf to Tokyo Bay
- By: Thomas McKelvey Cleaver
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 13 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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The United States Navy won such overwhelming victories in 1944 that had the Navy faced a different enemy the war would have been over at the conclusion of the Battle of Leyte Gulf. However, in the moment of victory on October 25, 1944, the US Navy found itself confronting an enemy that had been inconceivable until it appeared. The kamikaze, meaning 'divine wind' in Japanese, was something Americans were totally unprepared for; a violation of every belief held in the West.
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Horrible writing
- By DearMrDear on 06-02-18
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Islands of Destiny
- By: John Prados
- Narrated by: Richard Ferrone
- Length: 17 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Acclaimed WWII historian and military intelligence expert John Prados offers a provocative reassessment of the Allies’ battle for the Solomon Islands - a turbulent, dramatic campaign that, he argues, was the true turning point of the Pacific conflict.
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Way too much detail
- By Eric on 01-15-17
By: John Prados
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The Twilight Warriors
- The Deadliest Naval Battle of World War II and the Men Who Fought It
- By: Robert Gandt
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 11 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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April 1945. The end of World War II finally appears to be nearing. The Nazis are collapsing in Europe, and the Americans are vastly overpowering the Japanese in the Pacific. For a group of pilots in their early 20s who were trained during the twilight of the war, the biggest concern is that they'll never actually see real action and will go home without having a chance to face the enemy.
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Excellent Selection: One of the Best in this Genre
- By David on 09-22-11
By: Robert Gandt
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World War II at Sea
- A Global History
- By: Craig L. Symonds
- Narrated by: Eric Martin
- Length: 25 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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World War II at Sea offers a global perspective, focusing on the major engagements and personalities and revealing both their scale and their interconnection: the U-boat attack on Scapa Flow and the Battle of the Atlantic; the "miracle" evacuation from Dunkirk and the pitched battles for control of Norway fjords; Mussolini's Regia Marina - at the start of the war the fourth-largest navy in the world - and the dominance of the Kidö Butai and Japanese naval power in the Pacific; Pearl Harbor then Midway; and much more.
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Outstanding
- By Patrick on 02-14-19
By: Craig L. Symonds
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Miracle at Midway
- By: Gordon W. Prange, Donald M. Goldstein
- Narrated by: Qarie Marshall
- Length: 17 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Six months after Pearl Harbor, the seemingly invincible Imperial Japanese Navy prepared a decisive blow against the United States. After sweeping through Asia and the South Pacific, Japan's military targeted the tiny atoll of Midway, an ideal launching pad for the invasion of Hawaii and beyond. But the United States Navy was waiting for them. Thanks to cutting-edge code-breaking technology, tactical daring, and a huge stroke of luck, the Americans under Admiral Chester W. Nimitz dealt the Japanese navy its first major defeat of the war.
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Greatest Book on Midway Battle
- By WISDOC on 04-12-21
By: Gordon W. Prange, and others
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Pacific Thunder
- The US Navy's Central Pacific Campaign, August 1943–October 1944
- By: Thomas McKelvey Cleaver
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 13 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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On 27 October 1942, four "Long Lance" torpedoes fired by the Japanese destroyers Makigumo and Akigumo exploded in the hull of the aircraft carrier USS Hornet (CV-8). Minutes later, the ship that had launched the Doolitte Raid six months earlier slipped beneath the waves of the Coral Sea 100 miles northeast of the island of Guadalcanal and just north of the Santa Cruz Islands, taking with her 140 of her sailors. With the loss of Hornet, the United States Navy now had one aircraft carrier left in the South Pacific.
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Good for what it is, but not what it claims to be
- By David Maher on 12-18-17
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Shattered Sword
- The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway
- By: Jonathan Parshall, Anthony Tully
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 24 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Many consider the Battle of Midway to have turned the tide of the Pacific War. It is without question one of the most famous battles in history. Now, for the first time since Gordon W. Prange's best-selling Miracle at Midway, Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully offer a new interpretation of this great naval engagement. Shattered Sword makes extensive use of Japanese primary sources. It also corrects the many errors of Mitsuo Fuchida's Midway: The Battle That Doomed Japan It thus forces a major, potentially controversial reevaluation of the great battle.
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Shattered Myths - These authors got it right?
- By Ol'BlueEyes on 05-13-19
By: Jonathan Parshall, and others
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Storm over Leyte
- The Philippine Invasion and the Destruction of the Japanese Navy
- By: John Prados
- Narrated by: Ricard Ferrone
- Length: 16 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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As Allied ships prepared for the invasion of the Philippine island of Leyte, every available warship, submarine, and airplane was placed on alert while Japanese admiral Kurita Takeo stalked Admiral William F. Halsey's unwitting American armada. It was the beginning of the epic Battle of Leyte Gulf - the greatest naval battle in history.
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Startling revelations to a 72 year battle!
- By Chiefkent on 07-31-16
By: John Prados
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Grey Wolves
- The U-Boat War 1939–1945
- By: Philip Kaplan
- Narrated by: A. T. Chandler
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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In the early years of the Second World War, the elite force of German submariners known as the Ubootwaffe came perilously close to perfecting underwater battle tactics and successfully cutting Britain's transatlantic lifeline. To the Allies, these enemy sailors were embarking on a mission of unequivocal evil. Each member of the Ubootwaffe understood that he must take pride in being part of a unique brotherhood. He had to do so because he was setting out on a journey that would test his mental and physical endurance to the very limits, and which he had little chance of surviving.
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Like a Jr High Book Report, Performance Bad Too
- By Bill Sayer on 12-03-15
By: Philip Kaplan
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The Deadly Deep
- The Definitive History of Submarine Warfare
- By: Iain Ballantyne
- Narrated by: Paul Ansdell
- Length: 28 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Iain Ballantyne considers the key episodes of submarine warfare and vividly describes the stories of brave individuals who have risked their lives under the sea, often with fatal consequences. His analysis of underwater conflict begins with Archimedes discovering the principle of buoyancy. This clandestine narrative then moves through the centuries and focuses on prolific characters with deadly motives.
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American Effors Get Short Shift
- By GEORGE on 03-22-19
By: Iain Ballantyne
What listeners say about The Battle of Leyte Gulf
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Amazon Customer
- 02-05-23
No in depth explanation of situation or events.
Just the same surface explanation of events. No insights to strategy, tactics, nor decision making
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