Clayton K. S. Chun - Leyte 1944: Return to the Philippines

This electronic edition published in 2015 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

First published in Great Britain in 2015 by Osprey Publishing,

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ISBN: 978-1-4728-0690-1

PDF e-book ISBN: 978-1-4728-0691-8

e-Pub ISBN: 978-1-4728-0692-5

Editorial by Ilios Publishing Ltd, Oxford, UK (www.iliospublishing.com)

Maps by Bounford.com

3D birds-eye views by The Black Spot

Battlescene illustrations by Giuseppe Rava

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ARTISTS NOTE

Readers may care to note that the original paintings from which the color plates in this book were prepared are available for private sale. The Publishers retain all reproduction copyright whatsoever. The artist can be contacted via the following website: www.g-rava.it

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The approach to Leyte, JulyOctober 1944.

LIST OF ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I want to thank Mr. Marcus Cowper from Ilios Publishing for getting this project off the ground, and Nikolai Bogdanovic for editing this work. Additionally, Giuseppe Rava created great artwork that significantly contributes to the telling of the story of Leyte. My hat is off to him for this superb effort. My colleagues in the U.S. Army War Colleges Department of Distance Education deserve a great thank you for the support given to me throughout this effort and for their encouragement. Finally, I could not have completed this project without my family; their sacrifice allowed me to finish my research and writing.

CONTENTS

ORIGINS OF THE CAMPAIGN

In early 1942 the Japanese had rolled to victory throughout Asia and the Pacific. The United States, Australia, Great Britain, the Netherlands, China, and other powers feared that Japan would sweep away any opposition in their quest for expansion. At the time, the chance of mounting a major campaign against Tokyo seemed remote. However, by the summer of 1944 the strategic picture had changed in favor of the Allied Powers in all theaters. American and British forces had landed in Normandy. Italy was no longer wholly under Fascist control. The Soviet Union continued to push the Germans west. Moreover, Japan had suffered several major defeats.

Americans had put the Japanese on the strategic defensive. On March 24, 1942 the AmericanBritish Combined Chiefs of Staff (CCS) had agreed to allow Washington to determine Pacific war strategy. With this mandate, Washington responded. The US Navy (USN) had decimated the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) carrier forces at Midway in early June 1942. American submarines initiated a successful campaign against Japanese merchant ships. Army and Marine Corps forces had gone on the offensive at Guadalcanal, New Guinea, the Marshalls, and the Gilbert Islands. Japan was bogged down in China, which forced Tokyo to employ thousands of troops to pacify the country. By 1944, Washington was about to penetrate areas directly affecting Japans survival. The Allies had successfully challenged the Japanese on the peripheral areas of their empire, but were now getting closer to Tokyo. Soon, the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) would establish B-29 bomber bases that would deliver destruction directly over Honshu and Kyushu. Ground forces readied to strike in the Central Pacific and push north.