A Call to Colors: A Novel of the Leyte Gulf

“Wonderful . . . a rousing dramatization of history’s greatest sea battle.”
–James D. Hornfischer, author of The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors


“I shall return” is General Douglas MacArthur’s promise to the Filipinos. 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 savage battles. What Donovan doesn’t know is that Vice Admiral Takao Kurita of Japan has laid an ingenious trap as the Matthew heads for the treacherous waters of Leyte Gulf. But Donovan faces something even deadlier than Kurita’s battleships: Explosives secretly slipped on board American ships by saboteurs are set to detonate at any time. Now the Matthew’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.

“Gobbell’s sea tales . . . will have you looking up your nearest Navy recruiter.”
–W.E.B. Griffin

“[John Gobbell is] a first-rate storyteller.”
–Stephen Coonts