The Last Banzai: The Imperial Japanese Navy At Leyte Gulf

In late 1944, Washington decided to liberate the Philippines. The landing of American troops at Leyte Gulf sent the Japanese into planning four naval battles,the greatest of all naval battles: over 300 ships, 1,500 aircraft, and 200,000 men. The struggle involved every facet of naval warfare: surface ships, submarines, aircraft, and amphibious forces, and introduced a new tactic which would eventually kill more American sailors and sink more American ships than any other weapon used during World War 2: the kamikaze airplane. The battle for Okinawa lay just ahead.