The War in the Pacific: Leyte: The Return to the Philippines Hardcover – January 1, 1978

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  William S. Grass

  5 out of 5 stars

  Macarthur's first stop in returning to the Philippines

  Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2013

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  Leyte: The Return to the Philippines (published 1954), is the work of H. Hamlin Cannon, and a publication of the Office of the Chief of Military History (OCMH). It is one of the many volumes-known as the "green books"-published by the OCMH on the history of the U.S. Army in WW2, and one of eleven dedicated to the Pacific theater. In this volume, Cannon describes the U.S. invasion of the Philippine island of Leyte, which was the starting point for retaking the Philippines in their entirety, and the fulfillment of General MacArthur's pledge to return to those islands, after being defeated in 1942.

  Cannon starts the book with a discussion of how the strategic plan evolved that finally resulted in the decision to start the Philippine invasion on the island of Leyte in October, 1944. The suggestion of Admiral Halsey, that the invasion schedule be speeded up a month due to the perceived weakness of the Japanese defense, found receptive ears with MacArthur. MacArthur would thereafter brook no suggestion of a delay, even after his engineers correctly pointed out that due to the presence of poor soil, excessive rainfall and other unfavorable features, Leyte would prove inferior for building reliable airfields or serving as a large logistical base for invading the remainder of the Philippine Islands. It was this inadequacy of Leyte to support sufficient land-based air forces that was to have serious repercussions during the fight for that island. It meant that U.S. air supremacy, so common in the Pacific battles by late 1944, would not be established in time to prevent sizeable Japanese reinforcements from reaching Leyte.

  Operational details such as orders of battle, chain of command, extensive, thorough and detailed maps, and where a particular unit was located at given time are consistently presented in Cannon's book. These features are characteristic of the green books in general, which make them invaluable to researchers, despite their early dates of publication. Although the tone of the book is just-the-facts, Cannon does digress briefly with anecdotes concerning individual soldiers or officers who distinguished themselves and were highly decorated, often posthumously. Cannon also includes sections on logistics, airfield and road construction, civil affairs and management of refugees, all issues which are less exciting than the combat, but crucial nevertheless. Japanese command structure, orders of battle and plans are covered as well. Any reader interested in the common Japanese soldier's perspective on the Leyte fighting can read in John Toland's "The Rising Sun" about the fighting on Breakneck Ridge, a key action of the Leyte campaign.

  It may be helpful to readers to note that the Leyte invasion included the 1st Cavalry Division. This division retained the traditional organization and nomenclature of a cavalry formation, where regiments are called cavalries, battalions are called squadrons and companies are called troops. Further, the 1st Cav also kept its 4-regiment, or "square" structure, at a time when infantry divisions had been changed into 3-regiment, or "triangular" structures. This also allowed the 1st Cav to retain the brigade level of organization between division and regiment.

  The most interesting thing I observed in the book was the action of the 1st battalion, 34th Regiment of the 24th Infantry Division, which fought alone as a detached unit in the mountainous action of Kilay Ridge. Even at that stage of the war, characterized by vast U.S. superiority in manpower and material, this battalion demonstrated that American forces were still capable of rapid movement and projecting decisive force, under conditions of privation unusual to U.S. troops.

  The casual reader of the Pacific War can pass on Cannon's Leyte: The Return to the Philippines. Just about everything in it is covered elsewhere in a more condensed, perhaps a more interesting way. For the serious Pacific War enthusiast, however, this and the other green book volumes are worth the effort.

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