On the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of Leyte Gulf, Thomas J. Cutler, author of the highly praised Brown Water, Black Berets, takes a fresh look at the greatest of all naval battles. Using materials not available to previous authors, 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. To describe the Battle of Leyte Gulf as the "greatest of all naval battles" is no exaggeration. The American, Japanese, and Australian ships engaged in the battle numbered 282, and hundreds more were involved in related peripheral operations. Nearly two hundred thousand men participated, in a geographical area spanning more than a hundred thousand square miles. Dozens of ships were sunk, including some of the largest and most powerful ever built, and thousands of men went to the bottom of the sea with them. Every facet of naval warfare - air, surface, submarine, and amphibious - was involved in this great struggle, and the weapons used included bombs of every type, guns of every caliber, torpedoes, mines, rockets, and even a forerunner of the guided missile. But more than just the number of ships and men involved gave this battle its significance. Its cast of characters included such names as Halsey, Nimitz, MacArthur, and even Roosevelt. It introduced the largest guns ever used in a naval battle and a new Japanese tactic that would eventually kill more American sailors and sink more American ships than any other used in the war. It was the site of the last clash of the dreadnoughts and the first and only time that an American aircraft carrier was sunk by gunfire. It was replete with awe-inspiring heroism, failed intelligence, sapient tactical planning and execution, flawed strategy, brilliant deception, incredible ironies, great controversies, and a plethora of lessons about operations. - Publisher.