The Battle of Leyte Gulf: The History and Legacy of World War II's Largest Naval Battle

The waters of the Pacific Ocean - stretching deep blue under the tropical sun, or scourged by typhoons - provided World War II's most far-flung battlefield. Two of the world's premier mid 20th century maritime powers, the United States of American and the Empire of Japan, grappled for supremacy across that pelagic expanse. In the process, they forcefully sounded the knell of battleships and naval gunnery, ushering in the era of the aircraft carrier and the submarine.

As 1944 passed, the U.S...