Great Job of Telling a Story- Full Circle

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	• The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors James D. Hornfischer Random House Audio, 2004 average customer review:based on 128 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Great Job of Telling a Story- Full Circle

The author starts before the battle, discussing the ships, the officers & men (seems not all the captains & officers who displayed such gallantry were actually all that popular with their men), takes the reader through the battle, and then takes us through the WHOLE story by discussing the survivors in the water battling sharks (and not always winning) and waiting (too long) to be rescued. Hornfischer also ably discusses why the US Navy's, perhaps, most gallant moments of all time (DD and DE's taking on heavy cruisers & battleships!)were essentially supressed for many years in order to cover up Adm. Halsey's screw up. The author also discusses Adm. Kurita in a fair manner- not just as some cardboard cut out figure who screwed up by turning back when victory was at hand. The author shows that thanks to the sacrifices of Taffy 3, and the ability of other "Taffys" to join in on air attacks, Kurita's future success was far from certain. Still, I can't help but conclude that the author ultimately lets Kurita off too easily. Despite the risk of air attacks massing against him, Kurita should have pushed through to try & destroy MacArthur's landing bridgeheads. Its not like Kurita could justify conserving his forces for another, more successful, future opportunity.

Note a mistake by the author. He twice says that the Gambier Bay was the only aircraft carrier sunk by surface fire in WWII, before finally correcting himself by stating that it was the only US carrier so sunk. The author skips over the Germans sinking a British aircraft carrier earlier in the war in Scandanavian waters.

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Exciting Story of WWII in the Pacific

This book really tells me about the value of good intelligence during a military operation. This tells the tale of the soldiers and sailors on board the ships in the action in the South Pacific when America took action to reclaim the Phillippines from the Japanese Empire.

Both sides of this battle suffered from poor information and lost many good men as a result.

I have good knowledge of the World War II action in Europe, but this book opens the story of the war in the Pacific to me. It is truly an "edge of your seat" story.

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Great book

The writing of this book is tremendous. My father was on the St.Lo and slightly injured in the Kamakaze attack on it. Recommend this book to everyone.

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A great piece of historical writing

I heard the author speak on a history channel program and immediately bought a copy of this book. Hornfischer sticks to the facts, while allowing you to live the experience of the sailors aboard the ships. His writing is anything but dry and boring.

It makes you wonder if the United States of today (and our culture of personal comfort) could have won the second world war...and it makes you appreciate, so much more, the generation who fought and died so that we could live in a free America.

The feats performed by the patriots who held off the Japanese, after being left alone and unprotected by what can most charitably be described as a miscommunication by Adm. Halsey, who took Destroyers and Destroyer Escorts into battle against heavy cruisers and battleships - and who held their own, well, this sort of thing might never happen again - our intel and communications are just too good. But it did, and it deserves to be remembered.

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Excellent

Just an Excellent writeup on this under-covered yet critical battle. Highly recommended for any Navy or WWII historian.

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, page 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16

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