Download or read book Tarnished Victory Divided Command In The Pacific And Its Consequences In The Naval Battle For Leyte Gulf written by LCDR James P. Drew and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2014-08-15 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Battle for Leyte Gulf in October 1944 was the largest naval battle of World War II both in terms of the number of ships involved, and the expanse of area the battle covered. The battle was a decisive victory for the Allied Forces, who effectively crushed the might of the Japanese Navy for the remainder of the war. The Joint Chiefs made the decision to keep command in the Pacific divided in the early months of the war. The Joint Chiefs were presented with opportunities to resolve this problematic command structure as the war progressed, but they chose to perpetuate the division. This decision, directly contributed to disunity of effort, differing objectives, poor communication, and tragically, unnecessary loss of life during the Battle off Samar.
Download or read book Tarnished Victory written by James P. Drew and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Battle for Leyte Gulf in October 1944 was the largest naval battle of World War II both in terms of the number of ships involved, and the expanse of area the battle covered. The battle was a decisive victory for the Allied Forces, who effectively crushed the might of the Japanese Navy for the remainder of the war. The Joint Chiefs made the decision to keep command in the Pacific divided in the early months of the war. The Joint Chiefs were presented with opportunities to resolve this problematic command structure as the war progressed, but they chose to perpetuate the division. This decision, directly contributed to disunity of effort, differing objectives, poor communication, and tragically, unnecessary loss of life during the Battle off Samar.
Download or read book The U S Navy and the Rise of Great Power Competition written by James J. Wirtz and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-01-23 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume describes how technological and geo-political trends are rapidly transforming maritime affairs. A mix of original and previously published material, this volume describes how the 21st-century great power competition is changing the face of naval operations in general, and U.S. Navy operations in the Western Pacific in particular. The rise of an assertive China and its new anti-access and area-denial capabilities threaten the aircraft carrier-based maritime dominance of the U.S. Navy. Military and political trends in the Western Pacific and beyond suggest that the world is encountering a pivotal moment when existing weapons, tactics, and operations might be rendered obsolete by techno-strategic change. This volume considers these developments from three perspectives by describing: (1) the techno-strategic setting; (2) the institutional constraints that impede the ability of the U.S. Navy to respond to these changes; and (3) a new approach to naval force planning and strategy to cope with these developments. The volume culminates in a discussion of sophisticated strategies and operational concepts that position the U.S. Navy and its maritime allies and partners to prevail in today’s techno-strategic churn. This book will be of much interest to students of naval policy, strategic studies, Asia-Pacific politics, and International Relations.
Download or read book Halsey At Leyte Gulf Command Decision And Disunity Of Effort written by Lt-Cmd Kent Stephen Coleman and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2014-08-15 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In October 1944, US forces executed amphibious landings on the Japanese-occupied island of Leyte in the central Philippines. Japanese naval forces, severely outnumbered by the US Third and Seventh Fleets, attempted to stop the invasion by attacking US amphibious shipping in Leyte Gulf. Due to the divided US area commands in the Pacific theater during World War II, the Third and Seventh Fleet commanders, Adm. Halsey and Vice Adm. Kinkaid, reported to separate superiors, Adm. Nimitz and Gen. MacArthur, even though both fleets were supporting the operation. Although the Japanese were soundly defeated, one of the Japanese forces, under Vice Adm. Kurita, nearly reached its objective. Many historians have criticized Halsey for ordering his carrier force to close with a Japanese carrier force that was acting as a decoy, thus leaving the US forces in Leyte Gulf unprotected. Although Halsey was effectively decoyed, the divided US naval chain of command amplified problems in communication and coordination between Halsey and Kinkaid. This divided command was more important in determining the course of the battle than the tactical decision made by Halsey and led to an American disunity of effort that nearly allowed Kurita’s mission to succeed.
Download or read book The Last Epic Naval Battle written by David Sears and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2007-07-03 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By October, 1944, Japan's once-mighty naval power was almost extinguished. But in one last desperate bid, the Japanese gathered and combined their forces to defeat the Pacific Fleet of the United States Navy. With more ships engaged than there were even in the gargantuan World War I Battle of Jutland-and 200,000 men fighting on the sea and in the air- the Battle of Leyte Gulf was a hellish cacophony of cannon fire, murderous strafing airplanes, and deadly explosions. Here, in the words of the men who were there, are the dramatic accounts of what really happened at Leyte. Though often overshadowed by other Pacific War engagements, such as Midway or Guadalcanal, the Battle of Leyte Gulf was, and remains, the largest battle in the history of naval warfare.
Download or read book Halsey at Leyte Gulf written by Kent Stephen Coleman and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In October 1944, US forces executed amphibious landings on the Japanese-occupied island of Leyte in the central Philippines. Japanese naval forces, severely outnumbered by the US Third and Seventh Fleets, attempted to stop the invasion by attacking US amphibious shipping in Leyte Gulf. Due to the divided US area commands in the Pacific theater during World War II, the Third and Seventh Fleet commanders, Adm. Halsey and Vice Adm. Kinkaid, reported to separate superiors, Adm. Nimitz and Gen. MacArthur, even though both fleets were supporting the operation. Although the Japanese were soundly defeated, one of the Japanese forces, under Vice Adm. Kurita, nearly reached its objective. Many historians have criticized Halsey for ordering his carrier force to close with a Japanese carrier force that was acting as a decoy, thus leaving the US forces in Leyte Gulf unprotected. Although Halsey was effectively decoyed, the divided US naval chain of command amplified problems in communication and coordination between Halsey and Kinkaid. This divided command was more important in determining the course of the battle than the tactical decision made by Halsey and led to an American disunity of effort that nearly allowed Kurita's mission to succeed.
Download or read book The Battle of Leyte Gulf written by H. P. Willmott and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2005-08-19 with total page 425 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Battle of Leyte Gulf was an extremely unusual battle. It was unusual on five separate counts that are so obvious that they are usually missed. It was unusual in that it was a series of actions, not a single battle. It was unusual as a naval battle in that it was fought over five days; historically, naval battles have seldom spread themselves over more than one or two days. It was unusual in terms of its name. This battle involved a series of related actions subsequently grouped together under the name of just one of these engagements, but in fact none of the actions were fought inside Leyte Gulf.... More importantly, it was unusual in that it was a full-scale fleet action fought after the issue of victory and defeat at sea had been decided, and it was unusual in that it resulted in clear, overwhelming victory and defeat." -- from Chapter One The Battle of Leyte Gulf -- October 22-28, 1944 -- was the greatest naval engagement in history. In fact the battle was four separate actions, none of which were fought in the Gulf itself, and 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.
Download or read book Battle of Leyte Gulf written by Thomas J Cutler and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2014-03-15 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The last great naval battle of World War II, Leyte Gulf also is remembered as the biggest naval battle ever fought anywhere, and this book has been called the best account of it ever written. First published in hardcover on the battle's fiftieth anniversary in 1994 and drawing on materials not previously available, it blends history with human drama to give a real sense of what happened--despite the mammoth scope of the battle. Every facet of naval warfare was involved in the struggle that engaged some two hundred thousand men and 282 American, Japanese, and Australian ships over more than a hundred thousand square miles of sea. That Tom Cutler succeeded at such a difficult task is no surprise. The award-winning author saw combat service aboard many types of ships during his naval career, and as a historian and professor of strategy and policy at the Naval War College, he has studied the battle for many years. Cutler captures the milieu, analyzes the strategy and tactics employed, and re-creates the experiences of the participants--from seaman to admiral, both Japanese and American. It is a story replete with awe-inspiring heroism, failed intelligence, flawed strategy, brilliant deception, great controversies, and a cast of characters with names like Halsey, Nimitz, Ozawa, and MacArthur. Such an exciting and revealing account of the battle is unlikely to be equaled by future writers.
Download or read book The Battle of Leyte Gulf written by Charles River Charles River Editors and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-02-03 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Includes pictures *Includes accounts of the fighting from sailors on both sides *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents 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 American and the Empire of Japan, grappled for supremacy across that pelagic expanse. In the process, they forcefully sounded the knell of battleships and naval gunnery, ushering in the era of the aircraft carrier and the submarine. As 1944 passed, the U.S. 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 U.S. 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 9 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 7th Fleet, charged with the actual amphibious landings, and 3rd 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, Vice Admiral Kurita Takao, 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.
Download or read book The Battle For Leyte Gulf Illustrated Edition written by C. Vann Woodward and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2014-08-15 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Includes 6 charts and 20 photos Pulitzer prize winning author C. Vann Woodward recounts the story of the largest naval battle of all time. “The Battle for Leyte Gulf was the greatest naval battle of the Second World War and the largest engagement ever fought on the high seas. It was composed of four separate yet closely interrelated actions, each of which involved forces comparable in size with those engaged in any previous battle of the Pacific War. The four battles, two of them fought simultaneously, were joined in three different bodies of water separated by as much as 500 miles. Yet all four were fought between dawn of one day and dusk of the next, and all were waged in the repulse of a single, huge Japanese operation. “They were guided by a master plan drawn up in Tokyo two months before our landing and known by the code name Sho Plan. It was a bold and complicated plan calling for reckless sacrifice and the use of cleverly conceived diversion. As an afterthought the suicidal Kamikaze campaign was inaugurated in connection with the plan. Altogether the operation was the most desperate attempted by any naval power during the war-and there were moments, several of them in fact, when it seemed to be approaching dangerously near to success. “Unlike the majority of Pacific naval battles that preceded it, the Battle of Leyte Gulf was not limited to an exchange of air strikes between widely separated carrier forces, although it involved action of that kind. It also included surface and subsurface action between virtually all types of fighting craft from motor torpedo boats to battleships, at ranges varying from point-blank to fifteen miles, with weapons ranging from machine guns to great rifles of 18-inch bore, fired “in anger” by the Japanese for the first time in this battle.”
Download or read book Sho I Versus King II victory at Leyte Gulf written by Charles D. Crowell and published by . This book was released on 1989 with total page 82 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Battle for Leyte Gulf was the greatest naval battle of all time in terms of number of ships involved, losses of ships and aircraft and size of area over which the battle was fought. The American victory effectively marked the end of the Japanese Navy in World War Two. The battle was marked by furious surface, air and submarine action at sea and fierce fighting ashore on Leyte Island by US Army and Marine ground forces. While U.S. Navy dealt devastating losses to the Japanese fleet and claimed a resounding victory, the battle continues to be discussed for the significant operational, tactical and judgmental errors made by commanders of both sides. This study examines the errors made, the reasons for the errors and the effect the errors had toward deciding the outcome of this battle. It investigates the Japanese plan for the battle and the Japanese philosophy toward the war in 1944 and how these issues affected the outcome. It also considers the American chain of command in the Pacific theater and the problems caused by that unique setup. The paper discusses what we have learned, if anything from Leyte Gulf, and if in a similar situation would we make the same mistakes again. Finally the paper evaluates the composite effect of errors on both sides. (EDC).
Download or read book Rising Sun Victorious written by Peter G. Tsouras and published by Tantor eBooks. This book was released on 2011-10-19 with total page 389 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In war, victory can be held hostage to seemingly insignificant incidents–chance events, opportunities seized or cast aside–that can derail the most brilliant military strategies and change the course of history. What if the Japanese had conquered India and driven out the British? What if the strategic link between the United States and Australia had been severed? What if Vice Admiral Nagumo had launched a third attack on Pearl Harbor? What if the U.S. Navy’s gamble at Midway had backfired? Ten leading military historians ask these and other questions in this fascinating book. The war with Japan was rife with difficult choices and battles that could have gone either way. These fact-based alternate scenarios offer intriguing insights into what might have happened in the Pacific during World War II, and what the consequences would have been for America.
Download or read book Triumph in the Pacific The Navy s Struggle Against Japan written by E. B. Potter and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2016-07-26 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here in a single volume is one of the most authoritative, thoroughly documented accounts of the U.S. Navy’s war against Japan. This is the story of the achievements, defeats, and victories of both the American and the Japanese navies as they met and battled in the greatest naval war of all time. This dramatic narrative brings to life both the glorious and the infamous—the decisive encounters at Midway...Guadalcanal...the Philippine Sea...Leyte Gulf...Iwo Jima...Okinawa...and the other points in the Pacific where history was made from 1941 to 1945. The information for TRIUMPH IN THE PACIFIC was gathered by historians at the Naval Academy at Annapolis under the direction of E. B. Potter, the Academy’s Chairman of Naval History, and Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz who, as Commander in Chief Pacific Fleet and Pacific Ocean Areas, was a principal figure in the conflict. The book is marked by authenticity, conciseness, objectivity, and the accuracy of years of painstaking research and preparation.
Download or read book Initiative Saving Initiative at Leyte Gulf written by Kevin M. Carter and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The victory at the Battle of Leyte Gulf was tactically and strategically decisive. Japanese losses: 33 warships. Never again did the Japanese Navy seriously contest an American amphibious landing. American losses: 6 warships. The United States Navy commissioned more ships that week than were lost to combat. As the largest naval battle in history, it was the culmination and proving ground for naval command and control doctrine. Yet because of the fateful and nearly catastrophic decisions made by American leaders, critics have since argued the merits of a centralized system for controlling forces at sea. Evidence refutes these critics. Tracing the intertwined early-20th century history between doctrine and control methods, and then examining the individual actions by those commanders at the battle yield one overarching conclusion: the naval doctrine, known as initiative of the subordinate, was the critical element of command and control that secured a decisive American victory at the Battle of Leyte Gulf."--Abstract.
Download or read book Leyte Gulf written by Mark Stille and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2023-06-08 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating re-examination of the battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval encounter in history and probably the most decisive naval battle of the entire Pacific War, and one that saw the Imperial Japanese Navy eliminated as an effective fighting force and forced to resort to suicide tactics. Leyte was a huge and complex action, actually consisting of four major battles, each of which are broken down in detail in this book, using original sources. The plans of both sides, and how they dictated the events that followed, are also examined critically. So much of the accepted wisdom of the battle has developed from the many myths that surround it, myths that have become more firmly established over time. In this new study, Pacific War expert Mark Stille examines the key aspects of this complex battle with new and insightful analysis and dismantles the myths surrounding the respective actions and overall performances of the two most important commanders in the battle, and the “lost victory” of the Japanese advance into Leyte Gulf that never happened.
Download or read book Incredible Victory written by Walter Lord and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2012-03-06 with total page 429 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The “remarkable” New York Times bestseller about the battle in the Pacific that turned the tide of World War II—from the author of The Miracle of Dunkirk (Los Angeles Times). On the morning of June 4, 1942, doom sailed on Midway. Hoping to put itself within striking distance of Hawaii and California, the Japanese navy planned an ambush that would obliterate the remnants of the American Pacific fleet. On paper, the Americans had no chance of winning. They had fewer ships, slower fighters, and almost no battle experience. But because their codebreakers knew what was coming, the American navy was able to prepare an ambush of its own. Over two days of savage battle, American sailors and pilots broke the spine of the Japanese war machine. The United States prevailed against momentous odds; never again did Japan advance. In stunning detail, Walter Lord, the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Day of Infamy and A Night to Remember, tells the story of one of the greatest upsets in naval history. “Graphic and realistic . . . not an impersonalized account of moves on the chessboard of war, [but] a story of individual people facing crucial problems.” —The New York Times
Download or read book Afternoon of the Rising Sun written by Kenneth I. Friedman and published by Presidio Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 458 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: October 1944: The Batle of Leyte Gulf was the greatest battle in naval history, with over 250 vessels involved, yet its outcome depended on the nerve of a handful of sailors and the opposing commanders. 32 photos. 20 maps.
