The liberation of the Philippines : Luzon, Mindanao, the Visayas, 1944-1945 / by Samuel Eliot Morison
Title
The liberation of the Philippines : Luzon, Mindanao, the Visayas, 1944-1945 / by Samuel Eliot Morison
Subject
World War, 1939-45--Naval operations--Philippines.
Description
Volume XIII of the series History of United States Naval Operations in World War II [Note: two other volumes have Philippine material: Vol. III, "Rising Sun in the Pacific," which covers the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Philippines, including Bataan and Corregidor; and Vol. XII which is on the Battle of Leyte Gulf and operations related to the Leyte landings].
Commissioned by the US Navy, this volume (one of 15) is not an official history in the sense that the writer, a professional and noted historian even before World War II, was not subject to any checking or editing by naval officials, as the US Army histories were. Morison was in many of the key battles to observe, first hand, the action he would be writing about.
This volume covers US Navy operations in the Philippines after the Battle of Leyte (which is covered in Vol. XII): mainly the landings on Mindoro, Lingayen Gulf, Corregidor, Mindanao and the Visayas islands. The volume covers both the operations of the 3rd Fleet under Adm. William F. Halsey (the fast carrier striking force), which provided aerial cover and destroyed Japanese positions on the ground, and the 7th Fleet under Adm. Thomas C. Kincaid, which carried out the actual landing operations. Morison discusses the Kamikaze threat (first experienced at Leyte) particularly in Mindoro and Lingayen, the December 1944 typhoon (which cost Halsey several destroyers and men lost). The Battle of Manila is covered briefly.
The work is readable, with many personal insights regarding the admirals. There is however little mention of US Navy assistance to Filipino guerrillas; the focus is on the larger fleet operations and army-navy cooperation.
Commissioned by the US Navy, this volume (one of 15) is not an official history in the sense that the writer, a professional and noted historian even before World War II, was not subject to any checking or editing by naval officials, as the US Army histories were. Morison was in many of the key battles to observe, first hand, the action he would be writing about.
This volume covers US Navy operations in the Philippines after the Battle of Leyte (which is covered in Vol. XII): mainly the landings on Mindoro, Lingayen Gulf, Corregidor, Mindanao and the Visayas islands. The volume covers both the operations of the 3rd Fleet under Adm. William F. Halsey (the fast carrier striking force), which provided aerial cover and destroyed Japanese positions on the ground, and the 7th Fleet under Adm. Thomas C. Kincaid, which carried out the actual landing operations. Morison discusses the Kamikaze threat (first experienced at Leyte) particularly in Mindoro and Lingayen, the December 1944 typhoon (which cost Halsey several destroyers and men lost). The Battle of Manila is covered briefly.
The work is readable, with many personal insights regarding the admirals. There is however little mention of US Navy assistance to Filipino guerrillas; the focus is on the larger fleet operations and army-navy cooperation.
Creator
Morison, Samuel Eliot
Publisher
Boston : Little, Brown and Co., 1959
Date
1959
Format
23 x 16 cm.
Type
Hardbound
Call Number
D 779 .P5 M8 1959
Accession Number
13997
Pagination
xxx, 338 p.
Illustration
ill., maps
Files
Collection
Citation
Morison, Samuel Eliot, “The liberation of the Philippines : Luzon, Mindanao, the Visayas, 1944-1945 / by Samuel Eliot Morison,” FHL-Roderick Hall, accessed October 12, 2026, https://fhl.omeka.net/items/show/484.