The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors: The Extraordinary World War II Story of the U.S. Navy's Finest Hour

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	• The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors James D. Hornfischer Random House Audio, 2004 average customer review:based on 127 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Learned A Lot That Is New

I'm about two-thirds of the way through the book. Even at this point, I've learned a lot that I hadn't really appreciated before.

First of all, sometime back I read a book about the naval battle of Guadalcanal. In that battle, it seems as if all the Japanese had to do to sink one of our ships was to get just one hit on it. By the time of the Battle Off Samar, American ship building must have radically improved. Even the American ships that went down were hit literally dozens of times before finally succumbing to the inevitable. And lots of other American ships were hit but kept fighting and were still fighting at the end of the war.

Another realization was the awful damage 16-inch naval guns do to the human body when they hit a ship and explode. The mental picture I used to have of WW II naval warfare was antiseptic. Yes, guys died -- but I saw it as ever so much cleaner than the awfulness of land warfare. The author of the book has descriptions of what the results were. Naval guns were far bigger than anything in land warfare. The biggest shell for field artillery was about the size of a football. In the Navy, the plentiful six- and eight-inch guns had shells as big as a five footballs. And the 16" (or 18" for two of the Japanese Navy's "super" battleships") were as big as a garbage can and weighed as much as a Volkswagen. When they exploded, huge chunks of the sides of ships would be opened up like a tuna can even though it was inch-thick steel. The effect on the human body was even more devastating. Guys were literally ripped apart and sometimes whole compartments of guys were ripped apart so badly that one guy couldn't be identified from another. It was, literally, like an explosion in a meat locker. Never again will I think that naval warfare was antiseptic. (This is also something of a warning that if you read the book you're going to get all those descriptions too. If you don't think you can stomach it, then you'll either have to skip over those sections or skip the book.)

The book also follows the survivors of the ships that went down as they bobbed in the water waiting for rescue. Their time in the water was made more troubling by the fact that they were constantly being circled by sharks. It was their "good fortune" to be covered with bunker oil from the sunken ships that apparently acted both as a shark repellent and a sun block. But, unlike every other book I've read or movie I've seen, the whole story of a naval battle isn't over when the shooting stops. And, it isn't easy to spot guys in the water with a whole ocean to look at. It was also interesting how, despite the desperate situation they were all in, they all worked to help the wounded among them first. (Unlike the movie warriors who are all fight, the tenderness displayed to the worse off among them is remarkable.)

This is a great book for anyone wanting to know what World War II naval warfare was really like.

Also, there are a lot of maps that help to follow ship movements.

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The Last Stand of The Tin Can Sailors.

The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors..... this book is a must for anyone interested not just in naval warfare but in naval aviation as well. Mr. Hornfischer does an exceptional job at bringing to the reader a three dimensional account of what was indeed the United States Navy's finest hour. As a US Navy veteran and a current civilian pilot, I was able to interject myself into this most historical naval engagement due to this very detailed and rather accurate account of the Battle off Samar.
The two incidents will stick in my mind for a long time will do so for two reasons, that they happened and how the author was able to describe them. One was Lieutenant Commander Ernest E. Evans on the fantail of the USS Johnston barking orders with his ship all but a burning pile of steel and the other was the Japanese destroyer that sailed past the Johnston's survivors. Powerful stuff. Mr. Hornfischer also gives a chilling description of the brutal demise of the USS Hoel and Samuel B Roberts and demonstrates that the sailors and aviators of Taffy 3 may have been the most gallant in the history of the United States Navy. USS Hoel, Roberts, Johnston and the rest of Taffy 3...God bless them.

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Great book, but...

I enjoyed the book and the heroism of the sailors and airmen who fought the battle has seldom been equaled. However, the whole reason they were in this terrible position to begin with was poor decision making and poor communication from the higher levels, esp Halsey. I found that after a while that fact made the book a bit depressing for me. It seems obvious that such a powerful Japanese fleet should have been given more respect (watched closely, etc.) since Halsey knew it was in the area.

The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors: The Extraordinary World War II Story of the U.S. Navy's Finest Hour

The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors: The Extraordinary World War II Story of the U.S. Navy's Finest Hour

Having served aboard the Hobson(DMS26), the trainng the we underwent, but did not enjoy, is shown by the author why it is so essential.

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An extraordinary well done history

It is often said that teaching and learning in high school is a mile wide and an inch deep. All I ever heard and read in high school about WWII and the naval battles against the Japanese Navy in the Pacific is that the United States won the war! This book capably presents the truth that it was never quite a certainty as the battles unfolded. It is a wonderful thing to have a talented writer and researcher as Hornfischer dedicate his extraordinary talent in presenting this excellent well written definitive history of the US and Japanese naval battles near the Phillipines in October of 1944. This book is very highly recommended as an excellent and thought provoking history as well as a true testimonial to the bravery of U.S Navy personnel in battle.

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