The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors: The Extraordinary World War II Story of the U.S. Navy's Finest Hour FROM THE PUBLISHER
"Told from the point of view of the men who waged this steel-shattering battle, The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors captures Navy pilots attacking enemy battleships with makeshift weapons and sacrificial valor, a veteran commander improvising tactics never taught at Annapolis, and young crews from across America rising to an impossible challenge. It takes us into the heart and mind of an iron-willed, self-made executive officer leading his men through a sea of carnage and two hellish days and nights clinging to survival amid oil, blood, sharks, and madness. And it dramatizes how the overmatched U.S. force, enduring the loss of five gallant ships and nearly a thousand brave men, turned a certain crushing defeat into a momentous victory that would lead to the final surrender of America's ruthless imperial foe." Filled with riveting detail and based on the author's extensive interviews and correspondence with veterans, unpublished eyewitness accounts, declassified documents, and rare Japanese sources, this is war at sea as it has seldom been presented before - an unforgettable narrative that captures the essence of heroism, the power of loyalty, and the way in which the unadorned truth is more stirring than legend itself.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
One of the finest WWII naval action narratives in recent years, this book follows in the footsteps of Flags of Our Fathers, creating a microcosm of the war's American Navy destroyers. Hornfischer, a writer and literary agent in Austin, Tex., covers the battle off Samar, the Philippines, in October 1944, in which a force of American escort carriers and destroyers fought off a Japanese force many times its strength, and the larger battle of Leyte Gulf, the opening of the American liberation of the Philippines, which might have suffered a major setback if the Japanese had attacked the transports. He presents the men who crewed the destroyer Taffy 3, most of whom had never seen salt water before the war but who fought, flew, kept the crippled ship afloat, and doomed ships fighting almost literally to the last shell. Finally, Hornfischer provides a perspective on the Japanese approach to the battle, somewhat (and justifiably) modifying the traditional view of the Japanese Admiral Kurita as a fumbler or even a coward-while exalting American sailors and pilots as they richly deserve. (American admirals don't get off so easily.) Not entirely free of glitches in research, the book still reads like a very good action novel, indicated by its selection as a dual split main selection of the BOMC and History Book Club alternate. (Feb. 3) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
Six months after the Battle of Samar, Adm. William Halsey said to Rear Adm. Clifton Sprague, commander of U.S. naval forces in that engagement, that the latter had written there "the most glorious page in American naval history." In his first historical work, Hornfischer offers an immensely gripping account of the supreme courage and self-sacrifice displayed by the outgunned sailors and airmen of Sprague's Task Force off the Philippine coast in October 1944. With captivating prose and innovative battle maps, Hornfischer deftly creates a clear picture of what has been characterized by some historians as the most complex naval battle in history. The author draws extensively upon interviews with surviving veterans, previously unpublished eyewitness accounts, and official naval documents to record an almost minute-by-minute account of the action that saw Sprague's lightly armed and thinly armored escort carriers and destroyers (Tin Cans) deflect and ultimately turn back the Japanese juggernaut of battleships and cruisers aiming to attack MacArthur's Leyte beachheads. Steeped in the immensely rich details of the men and ships that fought, Hornfischer's work will be welcomed by both general readers and naval enthusiasts. Highly recommended for all public libraries.-Edward Metz, USACGSC Combined Arms Research Lib., Ft. Leavenworth, KS Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
A thrilling narrative of the Battle off Samar, a two-and-a-half-hour melee in which outgunned American sailors fended off a Japanese attack that could have stymied the invasion of the Philippines. In October 1944, with Gen. Douglas MacArthur preparing to assault the Philippine island of Leyte and choke off the Japanese empire, the Imperial Fleet formulated a desperate plan. Aircraft carriers would lure the impulsive Adm. William Halsey away from Leyte Gulf while two battleship groups fell on MacArthur's suddenly vulnerable force, including the ships guarding him. Part of the plan worked to perfection-Halsey dashed off after the decoy force-and on the morning of October 25, the American flotilla Taffy 3 awoke to face overwhelming odds. Their five destroyers and destroyer carriers, or "tin cans," stood against Japan's four fastest battleships (two being the largest on the seas), nine cruisers, and fourteen destroyers, the largest group of surface ships ever put to sea by the Land of the Rising Sun. Realizing that their own vessels were doomed, the unarmored but doughty Americans attacked a foe that enjoyed a 10-to-1 advantage in firepower-sinking or crippling four heavy cruisers, strafing Japanese gunners with air attacks, even bluffing with "dry runs" when ammunition ran out. The tin cans held out long enough for pilots from the two other Taffy groups to turn the tide of battle, but not before sinking and losing nearly 1,000 men (including more than 100 to exhaustion and shark attacks). The Japanese were never able again to mount a serious challenge to the US advance on Tokyo. Relying on interviews with aging, proud survivors of the flotilla, Hornfischer expertly conveys the sensoryexperience of warfare, its deafening roar and sickening stench, to produce a gripping minute-by-minute reconstruction of an engagement awful in cost but awesome in importance. Easily merits pride of place among the flotilla of books appearing in recent years on "the greatest generation." (B&w maps)
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