The Battle of Leyte Gulf 23-26 October 1944 - Hardcover

Cutler, Thomas J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060169494 ISBN 13: 9780060169497

Publisher: Harpercollins, 1994

Synopsis

Furnishes a blow-by-blow account, based on new research, of the greatest naval battle in the history of warfare, a 1944 battle that almost became a disaster for the U.S. Navy, and a sign of impending doom for the Japanese Navy.

About this title

About the Author:

Thomas J. Cutler is a retired lieutenant commander and former gunner's mate second class who served in patrol craft, cruisers, destroyers, and aircraft carriers. His varied assignments included an in-country Vietnam tour, small craft command, and nine years at the U.S. Naval Academy, where he served as Executive Assistant to the Chairman of the Seamanship & Navigation Department and Associate Chairman of the History Department. While at the Academy, he was awarded the William P. Clements Award for Excellence in Education (military teacher of the year).

He is the founder and former Director of the Walbrook Maritime Academy in Baltimore. Currently he is Fleet Professor of Strategy and Policy with the Naval War College and is the Director of Professional Publishing at the U.S. Naval Institute.

Winner of the Alfred Thayer Mahan Award for Naval Literature, the U.S. Naval Institute Press Author of the Year, and the U.S. Maritime Literature Award, his published works include NavCivGuide: A Handbook for Civilians in the U.S. Navy; A Sailor's History of the U.S. Navy [one of the books in the Chief of Naval Operations Reading Program]; The Battle of Leyte Gulf; Brown Water, Black Berets: Coastal & Riverine Warfare in Vietnam; and the 22nd, 23rd (Centennial), and 24th editions of The Bluejacket's Manual. His other works include revisions of Jack Sweetman's The Illustrated History of the U.S. Naval Academy and Dutton's Nautical Navigation. He and his wife, Deborah W. Cutler, are the co-editors of the Dictionary of Naval Terms and the Dictionary of Naval Abbreviations.

His books have been published in various forms, including paperback and audio, and have appeared as main and alternate selections of the History Book Club, Military Book Club, and Book of the Month Club. He has served as a panelist, commentator, and keynote speaker on military and writing topics at many events and for various organizations, including the Naval History and Heritage Command, Smithsonian Institution, the Navy Memorial, U.S. Naval Academy, MacArthur Memorial Foundation, Johns Hopkins University, U.S. Naval Institute, Armed Forces Electronics Communications and Electronics Association, Naval War College, Civitan, and many veterans' organizations. His television appearances include the History Channel's Biography series, A&E's Our Century, Fox News Channel's The O'Reilly Factor, and CBS's 48 Hours.

From Kirkus Reviews:

In this compelling account, retired combat veteran Cutler (Strategy/US Naval Academy; Brown Water, Black Berets, 1988) offers balanced criticism and praise of the American performance in a critical WW II battle. In October 1944, in an attempt to force a battle that would turn the tide of the war, Japanese fleets opposed General MacArthur's amphibious operations on the island of Leyte in the Philippines. Cutler shows how the American Third and Seventh fleets, which were combined to support operations on Leyte, were attacked by Japanese naval forces under Admiral Kurita; with total air superiority and a formidable attacking submarine force for which the Japanese had no counterpart, Cutler argues, the American forces should have had no difficulty achieving victory. Indeed, American air attacks in the Subuyan Sea on October 24, 1944, together with coordinated American submarine attacks, inflicted great damage on Kurita's ships. However, Admiral Ozawa, commanding a separate Japanese fleet from north of Leyte, feinted an all-out attack on American Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet, persuading Halsey that a large Japanese carrier force was attacking and diverting his fleet away from the battle. Cutler argues that if separate Japanese fleets under admirals Shima and Nishimura had been able to merge their fleets with Kurita's and coordinate their attacks, and if Kurita had not broken off the battle when a crucial task force of the Seventh Fleet was nearly exhausted, a major American defeat might have resulted. In the event, uncoordinated Japanese attacks (most notably, the destructive kamikaze attacks that were the first use of suicide fliers against American ships during the war) against an outnumbered American adversary resulted in a battle that was hugely costly on both sides, but that did not stop the American forces from achieving their strategic objectives in the Philippines. A well-researched, carefully reasoned account of the little- studied battle that made ultimate American victory in the Pacific inevitable. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harpercollins
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0060169494
• ISBN 13: 9780060169497
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 343