Note 17 — Chapter VI · The Japanese Reaction

It is not within the scope of this history to deal with the ensuing battle between the Japanese and American Navies. A full discussion of the “greatest naval battle of the Second World War and the largest engagement ever fought on the high seas” would require a volume. Such a study is being prepared by Samuel Eliot Morison in his series of studies on the U.S. Navy’s part in the war. Two excellent accounts—James Field’s The Japanese at Leyte Gulf, and C. Vann Woodward’s The Battle for Leyte Gulf (New York, 1947)—have already appeared. The present volume attempts to present only those facts needed to understand the effect of the battle on land operations. (Quotation is from Woodward, Battle for Leyte Gulf, p. 1.) ↑