The story of the Battle of Samar and the sacrifice of the USS Samuel B. Roberts documents how the destroyer and its small unit confronted formidable Japanese forces to secure the region for MacArthur's transports inside Leyte Gulf, in an account that also describes the harrowing three days endured in the sea by the ship's survivors.

Surigao Strait in the Philippine Islands was the scene of a major battleship duel during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Because the battle was fought at night and had few survivors on the Japanese side, the events of that naval engagement have been passed down in garbled accounts. Anthony P. Tully pulls together all of the existing documentary material, including newly discovered accounts and a careful analysis of US Navy action reports, to create a new...