The Last Stand of the Tin Can Soldiers: The Extraordinary World War II Story of the Us Navy’s Finest Hour

I read this after reading two books about Midway, and then after reading Hornfischer's book about Guadalcanal. This book follows on naturally from those two events.In general I've found all the books I've read about the Pacific war to be gripping reading. They're more exciting than most crime novels, whilst having the benefit of being educational.This book doesn't get into the action straight away, but instead it begins by giving you the background to the construction of US ships, and the lives of some of their personnel. This is done quite well, but some might find that gives the book a slow start.Once battle begins the book is hard to put down. It's action all the way. The bravery and sacrifice of the US sailors shines though. The Japanese sailors, it appears, have begun to show more compassion to injured combatants by this time. You don't hear much about their side of the story.I'd highly recommend this book, but first I'd suggest you read books about the preceding battles of Midway and Guadalcanal.One reviewer questions the accuracy of some parts of the book, as much of it is based on memories of perhaps a single sailor. Another comment suggests the author has little input from the Japanese side. I'd tend to agree that these might be a fair comments, but for most people that won't detract from the book.It's good that there are books like this around. The men who fought these battle were a breed apart, and their names and deeds deserve to live on in our memories.

Battle of Samar, fought on 25 October 1944 between Taffy 3, a small American task force commanded by Rear-Admiral Clifton A.F.("Ziggy") Sprague and the Center Force, the main body of Japanese Imperial Fleet commanded by Vice-Admiral Takeo Kurita, was a relatively short but incredibly intense, dramatic and bloody naval fight. In this book James D. Hornfischer describes this unbelievable battle with great detail and clarity, producing the most complete and the best account on this topic until now. I read this book with real pleasure and although already quite familiar with this archi-famous battle, I still learned a lot. I recommend it absolutely to anybody who is interested in naval history or military history in general and for anybody studying the Second World War in Pacific, this is a must!If you are not yet familiar with this battle, here are some general facts, which should help understand the topic, without spoiling the pleasure of reading. Between 23 and 26 October 1944 US Navy and Japanese Imperial Fleet fought in the waters around the Philippines four major battles and a number of smaller engagements which together are known as Battle of Leyte Gulf - it is generally considered as the greatest naval battle ever fought (with the battle of Jutland in 1916 being the only one coming close to it in number of ships and sailors engaged). For the needs of this battle, the outnumbered and outgunned Japanese conceived a desperate but very clever plan, setting a trap for American commanders (Admiral William Halsey for 3rd Fleet and Admiral Thomas Kinkaid of 7th Fleet).Because of a lack of centralised command of American forces and of a big mistake made by Halsey, Japanese plan worked - and as result the main force of Imperial Navy managed to approach the Leyte Gulf where an almost defenceless American invasion fleet was anchored! And although the troops and many supplies have already been disembarked (the invasion began on 20 October), the transports were still full of weapons, vehicles, munitions, fuel, food, materiel, etc., all of which was vital to fend off Japanese counterattacks and continue the fight during following weeks. The loss of this fleet and its cargo would have been a major damage to American war effort and would give the Japanese some breathing time to better prepare the defense of their homeland and its neighbouring islands (like Iwo-Jima and Okinawa).However, between the invasion fleet and the Center Force stood one last little force - the Taffy 3. To better realise the disparity between the combattants, here are the details of their respective strenghts:CENTER FORCE (Kurita): one super-battleship ("Yamato"), one battleship ("Nagato"), two battle-cruisers ("Kongo", "Haruna"), six modern, very strongly armed heavy cruisers ("Chôkai", "Haguro", "Kumano", "Suzuya", "Chikuma", "Tone"), two brand new light cruisers ("Yahagi", "Noshiro") and eleven modern big destroyers.TAFFY 3 (Sprague): six escort carriers (converted merchant vessels "Fanshaw Bay", "St. Lo", "White Plains", "Kalinin Bay", "Kitkun Bay", "Gambier Bay"), three modern big destroyers ("Hoel", "Heermann", "Johnston") and four destroyer escorts, slower and smaller ships with 50% of weapons of "real" destroyers, destined mainly for antisubmarine missions ("Dennis", "John C. Butler", "Raymond", "Samuel B. Roberts").In principle, the whole American force should have been blown out of water in a matter of minutes - however the heroism of crews of those weakly armed vulnerable ships combined with the very poor performance of Japanese commander, unexpected absence of Japanese aviation and some other factors made this fight into someting completely different than anybody could expect. The battle cost both sides dearly...The courage of men who charged with their unprotected destroyers (aptly nicknamed "tin cans" for the vulnerability of their hulls) against the exceptionnaly powerful and well armored Japanese cruisers (the veteran "Chokai" alone had as much fire power as ALL American ships combined - and she was not even the most powerful of Japanese cruisers!) simply defies imagination. Much praised must be also the crews of "Avenger" torpedo bombers which first went to attack battleships and heavy cruisers with depth charges or rockets, as those planes were supposed to perform this day anti-submarine patrols or ground support missions - and as they were taking off already under heavy enemy fire there was absolutely no time to arm them with torpedoes. As for the performance of the pilots of aging "Wildcat" fighters, there is simply no words to qualify it. "Yamato" was the biggest and the most powerful warship in the history before the nuclear carrier USS "Enterprise" was commissioned in 1961 - and American fighter pilots took off from the escort carriers and went to strafe her, for want of other weapons, with 0.50 cal. machine guns!This was a day of great heroism, but it was the valiant crew of destroyer USS "Johnston" who performed the most outstanding acts of valor. Commander Ernst E. Evans, skipper of this gallant ship, earned for his work of the day the Medal of Honor, the American equivalent of Victoria Cross - it was one of the few occasions in WWII when an American Indian was awarded this decoration (Evans was part Cherokee and part Creek).Incredible as it may seem, the second stage of the battle was even more dramatic, with the first appearance of Japanese "kamikaze" immediately after the naval phase of the battle ended. A young Japanese pilot, Lieutenant Yukio Seki, achieved at this occasion (at the expense of his life) an exceptionnal success, which encouraged Japanese high command to develop this particular method of attack and ultimately send to their deaths about 4200 suicide pilots.This very complete, detailed and very well written book describes really well this incredible and unique battle, which was possibly the proudest moment in the whole history of US Navy.

An incredible war at sea story - very exciting! After the first few sections this book is hard to put down, you wonder what on earth is going to happen next. Amazingly brave tactics by the wee American boats sacrificing themselves to protect their carriers from the Japanese giants trying to regain superiority in the region.

James Hornfischer has put together a set of eye-witness accounts of the naval battle known as The battle off Samar in which a large Japanese battleforce surprised an American task group of escort carriers and their escorts and came off worse in the ensuing action. His handling of the descriptions of this incredible battle is masterfully done and one feels part of the action as the heavily outnumbered task group fights for its life against impossible odds. We are introduced to some of the men who are to be in the thick of the fighting, especially those who man the destroyers who bear the brunt of the action. Fighting monster battleships some 35 times their weight and suffering terrible damage and injuries the men of these ships met their fate in their almost suicidal 'death ride' to save the carriers they were screening. Hornfischer describes the harrowing scenes as the ships are literally torn apart by shellfire with almost too much realism; leaving one with a sense of sheer disbelief that men can endure such horrors. This is a really good read that is hard to put down as the task force faces almost certain annihilation. The ending, if you don't know it, is beyond belief.Well illustrated and well written with good insights into how this 'shouldn't have happened' battle came about.

Amazing story. And it is well written.