Battle of Surigao Strait

Twentieth-Century Battles

By: Anthony P. Tully

Narrated by: Gary Roelofs

Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

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 U.S. Navy action reports, to create a new and more detailed description of the action. In several respects, Tully's narrative differs radically from the received versions and represents an important historical corrective.

The book is published by the Indiana University Press.

©2009 Anthony B. Tully (P)2014 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"This book is worth buying by serious students of the Pacific War." ( The Journal of Naval History)

"The skillful incorporation of personal testimony from those involved is what really elevates this work above run-of-the-mill naval history and turns it into something special." ( Warship)

Good book, bad audio book

The book is quite good. The narration often feels like parts, especially the names of places and people were poorly spliced in after the fact. This can be quite jarring, like having a book narrated by a speak and spell, it really spoiled my enjoyment of the audio book. The story was good and the narrator was also decent when his words were not being poorly spliced together.

A warrior's story corrected.

The book puts perspective not shown before that explains many misconceptions about this battle, its whys and some what's.

Highly recommended.

Well research work spoiled by narration!

Where does Battle of Surigao Strait rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I would rate this book as average among the many WWII naval books I have read. It is more an academic work than a book one would read for pleasure.

Would you recommend Battle of Surigao Strait to your friends? Why or why not?

I would only recommend this book to someone who had a strong interest in naval history and was comfortable reading a very factual, detailed, and analytical text. I would recommend it in book form as the narrator for this production is the worse I have ever experienced in all the Audible books I have listen to!

What didn’t you like about Gary Roelofs’s performance?

Roelofs is the worse narrator I have ever experienced in all my years of listening to Audible books. He sounds as if he is reading words, not sentences or a story. He must have been uncomfortable with the Japanese names as you notice a pause before he pronounces each name. It seems as if he mispronounced "Leyte Gulf" and they had to go back in an redo the pronunciation. He also does not know how to say military time as he calls 2000 "two thousand" instead of "20 hundred." If it were not for the fact that I had an interest in the battle, I would have stopped listening to this book before the end of the first chapter!

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No. Too detailed and academic. Plus the narration is so poor it makes listening painful.

Ba-a-a-a-a-d narration!

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Book has many pieces of data I haven't heard before. Very interesting.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Yes! Unfortunately, Mr. Roelofs is NOT qualified to narrate this book. Pronunciations are execrable - forecastle instead of foc'sl, for instance - and names and places are awful. Would it be too much to find pronunciation of important geographic names? Or how to read a compass heading? Or "naval time" conventions?

Was Battle of Surigao Strait worth the listening time?

Barely, but the narration almost makes the answer to this question "NO".

Crossing the T

Excellent book. Detailed history of battle and what let to engagement. Reader is very good.

subject never taught

factual and very well presented topic. I enjoyed his insights.
great audio book.
informative listen.

Great Book Despite Narration

Tully is one of the best authors writing about the Pacific War. The narration at 1.0 speed is almost unbearable. The solution for me was to play it at 1.3 speed. Once I did that the book became way more enjoyable.

Long needed update to the Surigao Strait narrative

This book is not for the faint of heart. I would highly suggest having a familiarity with the battle before starting. It is however a first rate book in regards to his research and thoroughness.

Should have "Listened" to the reviews instead.

I really was looking forward to this book but less than a 1/2 hour into it and I'm ready to scream! The narration is HORRIBLE!!!
I often give them some run time and things even out but I can't see this happening with this guy. (I imagined it would be the same for the Audio of my truck's navigation system if it wasn't muted....)

without doubt, a good story

reader of the audiiobook really butchered many pronunciations of names and places, nearly to the point of losing continuity if the story. it helped me to have already known correct pronunciations, but I feel a casual listener of history would be put off. in addition, the reader sometimes loses track of punctuation, giving distorted view of authors meaning. while the reader has good clarity of voice quality, it seems at times as if he's not able to give correct emphasis, where needed, and the flow of his reading can seem as if his comprehension of the story is mechanical, as if coming from a remedial reading class. mispronunciation of some words only adds to the feeling that he's not reading from a position of understanding, only word by word