• The Battle of Leyte Gulf: The Last Fleet Action

  • Twentieth-Century Battles
  • By: H. P. Willmott
  • Narrated by: Jim Seitz
  • Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
  • 3.9 out of 5 stars (60 ratings)

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The Battle of Leyte Gulf: The Last Fleet Action  By  cover art

The Battle of Leyte Gulf: The Last Fleet Action

By: H. P. Willmott
Narrated by: Jim Seitz
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Publisher's summary

The Battle of Leyte Gulf - October 22-28, 1944 - was the greatest naval engagement in history. In fact the battle was four separate actions, none of which were fought in the Gulf itself, and the result was the destruction of Japanese naval power in the Pacific. This book is a detailed and comprehensive account of the fighting from both sides. It provides the context of the battle, most obviously in terms of Japanese calculations and the search for "a fitting place to die" and "the chance to bloom as flowers of death." Using Japanese material never previously noted in western accounts, H.P. Willmott provides new perspectives on the unfolding of the battle and very deliberately seeks to give readers a proper understanding of the importance of this battle for American naval operations in the following month. This careful interrogation of the accounts of "the last fleet action" is a significant contribution to military history.

Winner, Society for Military history Distinguished Book Award.

©2005 H. P. Willmott (P)2015 Redwood Audiobooks
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

What listeners say about The Battle of Leyte Gulf: The Last Fleet Action

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Analytical history, told with gravitas

Would you consider the audio edition of The Battle of Leyte Gulf: The Last Fleet Action to be better than the print version?

Absolutely, Jim Seitz' voice lends pacing and gravity to the necessarily analytic account of an immensely complex battle.

What does Jim Seitz bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Pacing, interest, and gravity. Willmott paints his picture with facts, showing the mechanics and inevitability of a large, diverse and complex set of actions. The consistent, accurate and never tiring narrative voice of Jim Seitz gives a welcome path through this densely argued account.He takes it out of the academy and brings it home.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, and the deep firm storytelling voice of Jim Seitz provides a stable re-entry point at each listening.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent book!

Excellent reading.

Narrator should have learned the proper pronunciation of Japanese.

Am fluent in Japanese.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Be weary, interesting, but unexpected format

I think the narrator did as well as he could have considering the material.

This book is full of information, but it doesn't appear to have been proof read by anyone with a thesaurus. The author uses the phrases "obviously", "one would", and "en passant" often enough to be distracting. It feels as though he wrote this for himself, not for the reader.

It is not a blow-by-blow telling of the battle, and self proclaims not to be. It is a large picture overview of the battle, the contributing forces, and mindsets of the countries involved.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

If you love Military History, you'll love this!

What did you love best about The Battle of Leyte Gulf: The Last Fleet Action?

The Battle of Leyte Gulf is a fact filled volume detailing not only this particular battle, but Naval and WW2 history as well.

Any additional comments?

I believe the narrator did a fine job sorting out the many facts and figures that fill the beginning of the account. His delivery of the story was similar to that of a college professor dispensing his knowledge and passion about events that shaped this world.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Narrator needs to research pronunciations.

As a student of the Pacific war, I noticed a total lack of attention by the narrator to the proper pronunciations of location names and, in particular, the names of ships of the Imperial Navy that were involved in the various asoects of this battle .

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Love Naval History

Good listening Naval History. Even though some of the names were mispronounced. I knew what the Narrator was talking about.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Slow and boring

The writer or narrator makes it seem as more of a report instead of a book. Great info just boring to listen to if your not wanting to fall asleep.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Would have never believed

Someone could make something as interesting as Leyte Gulf so boring . But they did. Unbearable

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Leyte Gulf - Textbook . . . Boring!

What disappointed you about The Battle of Leyte Gulf: The Last Fleet Action?

This book sounds like a historical textbook of facts and sizes of the many ships in the conflict. This book had little of no characters and was more of a report than any kind of story.

What could H. P. Willmott have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

His writing may have been fully correct in historical account as any textbook should be. The telling of the book had zero story and felt like he took no liberty to add enjoyment to the actions. There was no personal insight to any of the people who took part in the actions of the Battles throughout the book.Novels like this come alive to the reader when they feel they can relate to those within the story. This book took no license to give the reader any personal accounts of the warriors who no doubt have an infinite number of experiences that would make the book great.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Jim Seitz?

Narrator read account of the book in near mono-tone, but what he was reading gave little room for him to use any license to make story more fun.

Any additional comments?

As with many other accounts of military action, this one stuck straight to the text book figures that put us all to sleep if we were trying to read an encyclopedia for enjoyment.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Bad narrator

good book bad narrator. He speaks in a dull monotone voice and has trouble pronouncing the most of the names of the Japanese ships.

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