Retribution_ The Battle for Japan, 1944-45 - Max Hastings [383]
255. “The smaller building erupted” USAMHI Newman Papers Box 2.
256. “Regard publicity set-up as excellent” USNA RG496 Box 849 Entry 184.
257. “The simple truth about war” Fraser, op. cit., p. 82.
258. “long before noon” Edmund Love, The Hourglass, Infantry Journal Press 1950, p. 216. 129
259. “You were wet” LC Norman interview.
’’Forget it,” said the colonel” AI Takahashi.
260. “Filipino labour…performed manual labour” Craven and Cate, op. cit., Vol. V, p. 373.
261. “Empty casings jingled down” USAMHI George Morrissey diary, Newman Papers Box 6.
262. “It is foolish to land” USNA RG337 Box 58, “Lessons of Leyte.”
263. “it is essential that all units” ibid.
CHAPTER SIX • “FLOWERS OF DEATH”: LEYTE GULF
264. “Whether the plan is adequate” Ugaki diaries, op. cit., p. 442, 13.8.44.
265. “to engage the full might” ibid., p. 460.
266. “gigantic castles of steel” Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis, Odhams 1923, Vol. I, p. 83.
267. “Why can’t our people” Masanori Ito with Roger Pineau, The End of the Imperial Japanese Navy, Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1962, p. 125.
268. “It’s competitive all the way” NHC Oral History interviews Box 20.
269. “Let’s get this over with” A. J. Galantin, Take Her Deep!, Algonquin 1997, p. 173.
270. “It was a beautiful day” LC Goodman interview.
271. “Our captain was a” AI Ebisawa.
272. “a Jap sailor yelled” NHC Oral History Narratives Box 32 Tropp file.
273. “absolutely beautiful” USNA RG38 Box 4.
274. “Who can read the heart” Ugaki diaries, op. cit., 6.11.44.
275. “The dive-bombers are not hitting” USNA Lamade report, op. cit., 23.2.45.
276. “Too many targets were attacked” Gerald Thomas, op. cit., p. 71.
277. “Lucky I wouldn’t let you go” AI Takahashi.
278. “General situation: enemy aircraft” USNA RG200 Box 59.
279. “Lt. Tokichi Ishii, forty-four-year-old” LHA POW Report 10IR648–52.
280. “we rode the mast” NHC, Howard Sauer, Battleship Gunner, unpublished MS 1994.
281. “The Japanese Vice-Admiral Ugaki” Ugaki diaries, op. cit., p. 574.
282. “Never give a sucker” NHC Oral History Narratives Box 24 Oldendorf file.
283. “more like a petty officer” LHA POW Reports 106R638.
284. “All forces will resume the attack” Ito, op. cit., p. 133.
285. “If a man has a nervous wife” William Halsey and Joseph Bryan Halsey, Admiral Halsey’s Story, McGraw-Hill 1947, p. xi.
286. “he was always sure” Quoted Wilmott, p. 248.
287. “It was not my job to protect” Halsey and Halsey, op. cit., p. 219.
288. “With the conviction that Center Force” NHC Box 6 Carney file, p. 11.
I am indebted in this chapter for some significant reflections offered by Richard Frank in a presentation at the Nimitz Museum of the Pacific War, Fredericksburg, Texas: “Halsey’s Great Decision at Leyte Gulf.” Frank argues that Kinkaid was substantially more culpable than most historians suggest, and Halsey less so, for the surprise inflicted on Taffy 3. While revising Retribution for publication, I was also able to consult the most recent book on Leyte Gulf, Sea of Thunder by Evan Thomas (Simon & Schuster 2006), though it did not cause me significantly to change my own conclusions.
289. “the morning sun” Jernigan, op. cit., p. 126.
290. “Halsey’s job” John T. Mason, The Pacific War Remembered, Naval Institute Press, p. 274.
291. “Our captain announced” NHC Oral Histories.
292. “We went up on the flightdeck” NHC Oral Histories Box 34 RF Whitehead file.
293. “about the same as driving” NHC Oral Histories Box 17 William Kirkland file.
294. “I told the crew” NHC Oral History Collection Box 12 Hathaway file.
295. “Buck, what we need is a bugler” ibid.
296. “As we cleared each other” NHC Oral History Interviews Box 13.
297. “We were weaving back and forth” NHC Box 12 Hagen file.
298. “It takes a lot to go in there” NHC Oral Histories Box 34 RF Whitehead file.
299. “This process lasted” ibid., Box 33 Vieweg file.
300. “At the end of two hours” ibid., Box 34.
301. “Japan was showing signs not only” Ito, op. cit., p. 111.
302. “my mind was extremely fatigued