The Battle For Leyte Gulf [Illustrated Edition]

The Battle For Leyte Gulf [Illustrated Edition]

Author: C. Vann Woodward

Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing

Published: 2014-08-15

Total Pages: 291

ISBN-13: 1782899111

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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.”


Marines In World War II - Marine Aviation In The Philippines [Illustrated Edition]

Marines In World War II - Marine Aviation In The Philippines [Illustrated Edition]

Author: Major Charles W. Boggs Jr. USMC

Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing

Published: 2014-08-15

Total Pages: 479

ISBN-13: 1782892877

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Contains 58 photos and 10 maps and charts. “The return of Allied forces to the Philippines in the fall of 1944 further throttled Japan’s already tenuous pipe line to the rich resources of Malaya and the Netherlands Indies, and with it the last vestige of her ability to meet the logistical requirements of a continuing war. The Battle for Leyte Gulf marked the end of Japan as a naval power, forcing her to adopt the desperation kamikaze tactic against the United States Fleets. The Philippine victories were primarily Army and Navy operations. Marines, comprising only a fraction of the total forces engaged, played a secondary but significant role in the overall victory. The campaign was important to the Corps in that the Marine aviators, who had battled two years for air control over the Solomons, moved into a new role, their first opportunity to test on a large scale the fundamental Marine doctrine of close air support for ground troops in conventional land operations. This test they passed with credit, and Marine flyers contributed materially to the Philippine victory. Lessons learned and techniques perfected in those campaigns form an important chapter in our present-day close air support doctrines.”-C. B. CATES, GENERAL, U.S. MARINE CORPS, COMMANDANT OF THE MARINE CORPS


At Close Quarters; PT Boats In The United States Navy [Illustrated Edition]

At Close Quarters; PT Boats In The United States Navy [Illustrated Edition]

Author: Captain Robert J. Bulkley Jr.

Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing

Published: 2015-11-06

Total Pages: 796

ISBN-13: 1786252066

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Includes over 110 illustrations charting the history of the US Navy PT Boats. “The destiny of our country has been inextricably interwoven with the sea. This was never more true than in the giant World War II that involved all seas and most of mankind. To fight the sea war we needed many types of ships, large and small, from aircraft carriers and battleships to PT boats. “Small though they were, the PT boats played a key role. Like most naval ships, they could carry out numerous tasks with dispatch and versatility. In narrow waters or in-fighting close to land they could deliver a powerful punch with torpedo or gun. On occasion they could lay mines or drop depth charges. They could speed through reefs and shark infested waters to rescue downed pilots or secretly close the shore to make contacts with coast watchers and guerrilla forces. PT boats were an embodiment of John Paul Jones’ words: “I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast for I intend to go in harm’s way.” “Naval strength must function from shore to shore and on inland waters where the mobility and flexibility provided by ships can be employed to support land operations. PT boats filled an important need in World War II in shallow waters, complementing the achievements of greater ships in greater seas. This need for small, fast, versatile, strongly armed vessels does not wane. In fact it may increase in these troubled times when operations requiring just these capabilities are the most likely of those which may confront us. “The thorough and competent account herein of over-all PT boat operations in World War II, compiled by Captain Robert Bulkley, a distinguished PT boat commander, should therefore prove of wide interest. The widest use of the sea, integrated fully into our national strength, is as important to America in the age of nuclear power and space travel as in those stirring days of the birth of the Republic.”–President John F Kennedy.


Our Jungle Road To Tokyo [Illustrated Edition]

Our Jungle Road To Tokyo [Illustrated Edition]

Author: General Robert L. Eichelberger

Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing

Published: 2015-11-06

Total Pages: 911

ISBN-13: 1786253313

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Includes over 250 illustrations, maps and charts of the fighting in Buna, New Guinea and the Philippines. This is story of General Robert L. Eichelberger, the tough, hard-bitten commander of the US I Corps in the Pacific and then the US Eighth Army. Given the responsibility for the critical Buna front in 1942 by General MacArthur with the words “Bob, I want you to take Buna, or not come back alive”. Under his energetic and dynamic leadership much of New Guinea was retaken and thereafter most of the southern Philippines was liberated. With victory assured, General Eichelberger was given command of American and Allied forces in the Japanese Home Islands. His story provides a rare look at the strategy of General MacArthur, the problems of inter-Allied and inter-service cooperation and the decision making process of America’s high command in World War II. A fine autobiography of one of the heroes of the Pacific War.


Leyte Gulf 1944 (1)

Leyte Gulf 1944 (1)

Author: Mark Stille

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2021-11-23

Total Pages: 97

ISBN-13: 1472842812

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In October 1944, the US prepared to invade the Philippines to cut Japan off from its resource areas in Southeast Asia. This is the first in a two-part study of the October 23-26 Battle of Leyte Gulf, which resulted in a decisive defeat for the Japanese.


United States Army in WWII - the Pacific - Leyte: the Return to the Philippines

United States Army in WWII - the Pacific - Leyte: the Return to the Philippines

Author: M. Hamlin Cannon

Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing

Published: 2014-08-15

Total Pages: 755

ISBN-13: 1782894055

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[Includes 10 tables, 9 charts, 54 maps and 88 illustrations] The landing of the American forces on Leyte on 20 October 1944 brought to fruition the long-cherished desire of General Douglas MacArthur to return to the Philippine Islands and avenge the humiliating reverses suffered in the early days of World War II. The successful conclusion of the campaign separated the Japanese-held Philippine Archipelago into two parts, with a strong American force between them. More important, it completed the severance of the Japanese mainland from the stolen southern empire in the Netherlands Indies from which oil, the lifeblood of modern warfare, had come. The Leyte Campaign, like other campaigns in the Pacific, was waged on the land, in the air, and on and under the sea. In this operation all branches of the American armed forces played significant roles. Therefore, although the emphasis in this volume is placed upon the deeds of the United States Army ground soldier, the endeavors of the aviator, the sailor, the marine and the Filipino guerrilla have been integrated as far as possible into the story in order to make the campaign understandable in its entirety. At the same time, every effort has been made to give the Japanese side of the story.