I have been looking forward to this Gray report for October 25.
Having read extensively the thousands and thousands of words and watched the hours of TV programs describing the various aspects of the Battle of Leyte Gulf, I see the author summarizes it all in short one paragraph. There is no hint of the heroism that resulted in the turning back of Admiral Kurita or of the criticism of Admiral Halsey. There is no hint that the Japaneese Navy was forevermore gone
I first learned about Leyte Gulf around 1979 when I first read Herman Wouk's fictionalized account in "War and Remembrance." He places one of his characters semi-prominently in the battle, but otherwise he accurately describes the action. One aside gives the reader an idea of how Wouk (who served in a minesweeper at the time) regarded the battle:"The vision of Sprague's three destroyers - the Johnston, the Hoel, and the Heermann - charging out of the smoke and the rain straight toward the main batteries of Kurita's battleships and cruisers, can endure as a picture of the way Americans fight when they don't have superiority. Our schoolchildren should know about that incident, and our enemies should ponder it."
23 posted on 10/24/2014, 5:44:58 PM by Homer_J_Simpson