"Wonderful . . . a rousing dramatization of history's greatest sea battle." -James D. Hornfischer, author of The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors

General Douglas MacArthur's promise to the Filipinos was "I shall return."

But it will take 165,000 troops and 700 ships in the bloody battle of Leyte Gulf to do it.

Among them is the destroyer USS Matthew and her skipper, Commander Mike Donovan, a veteran haunted by earlier battles. What Donovan doesn't know is that a Japanese admiral has laid an ingenious trap in the Leyte Gulf.

But Donovan faces something even deadlier than Japanese battleships: explosives secretly slipped on board by saboteurs, set to detonate at any time.

Now the ship's survival hinges on the ability of Donovan and his men to dismantle a bomb in the midst of the panic...and the chaos of history's greatest naval battle.