This country is at war with Germany.

We shall go under the end.

I remember the sheets of plane that came up and almost blinded us for my guns.

Hello and welcome to another episode of the World War Two podcast.

I'm Angus Wallace. The Battle of Leiter Gulf was the largest naval battle of the Second World War.

It actually consisted of four separate actions near the Philippines between the US Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy.

The Japanese plan was to disrupt the American landings on the island of Leiter.

In one respect, the plan was its success.

The Japanese did draw off Horses' third fleet, but ultimately it was a disaster for the Imperial Navy,

which suffered one of the most decisive defeats of the war.

Joining me is Mark Stilly.

Mark was last with us discussing Pearl Harbor in episode 155.

He has a new book available published by Osprey titles Leiter Gulf,

a new history of the world's largest sea battle.

It's lovely to see you again, Mark.

So it's October 1944.

What is the strategic position in the Pacific in the room to the Battle of Leiter Gulf?

By October 1944, the Americans were fully on the offensive,

and they were closing in on objectives in the Western Pacific.

And there was a debate in the American high command between the two theater commanders

that being MacArthur who had the South East Pacific theater and Nimitz with his Central Pacific theater.

And they had different ideas how to conduct this next phase of the offensive in the Pacific.

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