Leyte Archives

For landings to be successful, the attackers had to know a great deal. Only men on the spot could stealthily observe conditions, and they had to be highly trained.

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SEALs: the Birth of the Navy’s ‘Special Warfare’ Force

By Bud Hyland

Today’s Navy SEALs (for Sea, Air, and Land special warfare experts) have a history shrouded in secrecy. Commissioned in 1962, they are the most elite shore-area Special Forces in the world, concentrating on very select and often-clandestine intelligence gathering and precision strike missions. Read more

A U.S. PT boat goes up against a fleet of Japanese ships in the night action called the Battle of Surigao Strait. The Japanese ships were bent on destroying American forces assembled in the Philippines’ Leyte Gulf.

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The Battle of Leyte Gulf: Oldendorf’s Textbook “Crossing the T”

By Donald J. Roberts II & Lawrence C. Schneider

In 1944, following the American victories in the South Pacific of operational commanders General Douglas MacArthur in western New Guinea and Admiral Chester Nimitz in the Marianas, American planners considered the next offensive against Japan’s empire. Read more

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From the Philippines to Borneo: A PT Boat Skipper’s Life

By John Niesel

When the four members of the Japanese surrender delegation climbed aboard the deck of PT-375 on September 8, 1945, the boat’s skipper, Lieutenant Henry “Hank” Blake, directed the men to an open area on the forward deck where the Japanese could be closely watched for any signs of treachery. Read more

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Doughboy White: The Lost Battalion of Leyte

By Nathan N. Prefer

On October 20, 1944, General Douglas MacArthur redeemed his personal pledge to the people of the Philippines. Read more

Robert Taylor’s painting Valor in the Pacific shows Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers of the 499th Bomb Group, 20th Air Force, headed home to bases in the Marianas after dropping their cargoes of death and destruction on Tokyo. Low on fuel, their escort of P-51 Mustang fighters begins to turn away toward bases of their own.

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Prelude to Iwo Jima: The Japanese Assault On B-29 Base On Marianas

By Michael P. Slater

From an altitude of 30,000 feet, the swift Japanese reconnaissance aircraft flew high over Saipan and Tinian, photographing the brisk and extensive engineering effort under way on the American airfields far below. Read more

In this vivid painting by artist Jack Fellows, Douglas A-20 Havoc bombers of the 312th Bombardment Group, U.S. Army Air Forces, attack Clark Field in the Philippines on January 14, 1945. The planes use parafrag bombs against Japanese kamikaze aircraft on the ground at the air base near Manila. This was a follow-up raid to one that had taken place a week earlier, and both were intended to destroy suicide aircraft before they had the chance to damage American ships.

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Kamikazes Caught on the Ground: Raid on Clark Field

By Robert F. McEniry, Lt. Col. USAF (ret.)

General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Allied Commander Southwest Pacific Area, kept his promise to return to the Philippine Islands when his Sixth Army under the command of Lt. Read more

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“This is the Army”: Irving Berlin’s War

By Sheldon Winkler

The most successful and popular patriotic show of World War II and one of the most unique productions in the history of entertainment was Irving Berlin’s This Is the Army, which originally began as a Broadway musical. Read more