Military Model Scene

Title: Philippines Naval Campaign 1944-45
Author: Mark Still
Publisher: Osprey
ISBN: 978-1-4728-5699-9

The Battles After Leyte Gulf, number 399 in the Campaign series from Osprey. A 96-page soft cover book, with illustrations by Adam Tooby.
The Battle of Leyte Gulf, a significant victory for the US Navy, was not in itself the end of the fight to retake the Philippines. This tells the story of the state of both sides after that battle, and what happened next. After an introduction to set the scene, and a chronology of events, there is a comparison of both the US and Japanese Commanders in the region, their respective forces and Orders of Battle, along with their opposing plans. This is all followed by the events of 10 different elements of the campaign. These vary from the operations of the American TF 38, the series of Japanese TA reinforcement convoys from Manilla down to Leyte., landings at Ormoc, Mindoro and the invasion of Luzon and Halsey's naval rampage in the South China Sea. All rounded off with a neat Aftermath and Analysis segment.
There is a lot of interesting material in this one, with the increased use of the Kamikaze aircraft, although this drained Japanese resources even more, for only limited tactical success. The threat of the major IJN naval units which had survived the Battle of Leyte Gulf remained a potential threat which impacted US decisions, even though they had actually been withdrawn due to lack of fuel and munitions. As we would expect, there are a lot of archive photos, including the late war IJN landing ships, and artwork that feature not only battlescenes but also plenty of maps which illustrate the different elements of the campaign to liberate the Philippines.
Thanks to Osprey for the review copy.

Robin