BOOK REVIEWMacintyre, DonaldLeyte Gulf: Armada in the PacificLondon, Macdonald & Co (publishers) Ltd, 1970$1.901. The book Leyte Gulf: Armada in the Pacific expands on the naval battle that took place between the Imperial Japanese Navy and the United States Navy. In October 1944, the last major battle of World War II took place, a naval engagement between the United States and the Japanese Empire. In the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the Imperial Japanese Navy attempted to destroy the American Pacific Fleet and defeat the American invasion of the Philippines. The result was the largest naval battle in history in Leyte Gulf. 282 warships, 20,000 sailors and airmen fought night and day in a series of naval engagements over a vast ocean area. There have been all types of combat in naval warfare, from carrier strikes to full battleship actions. Leyte was also the first battle of the war in which the Japanese used suicide tactics with kamikaze planes. For Japan, the Battle of Leyte Gulf was a much-needed decisive battle that would stop the American advance across the Pacific. The Japanese Navy's last big gamble led to...