'The Last Stand Of The Tin Can Sailors' by James D. Hornfisc
Apr 16, 2021 11:58:21 GMT 8
Karl Welteke and chadhill like this
Post by beirutvet on Apr 16, 2021 11:58:21 GMT 8
"The Last Stand Of The Tin Can Sailors' The Extraordinary World Was II Story of the U.S. Navy's Finest Hour. By James D Hornfischer
I could talk about this book all day long and still feel like I did not do it justice. And not just because it is well written, I have read 3 of his books and this is the most well written of them I have found. No, I can't do it proper justice for as the sub-tittle states, it is the U.S. Navy's finest hour.
This book covers the portion of the Battle of Leyte Gulf known as the 'Battle Off Samar'. It is a story of dedication, perseverance and bravery the likes of which are found but once in a generation. And made more spectacular for its concentration in this battle. It chronicles the tale of a small task unit called Taffy 3 consisting of 6 small escort carriers (CVE), 3 destroyers (DD)and four destroyer escorts (DE).
Through a political reshuffling of commands born out of MacArthur's egotistical desire to control and take credit for all he could, the navy was split into two separate fleets, the Third fleet and the Seventh fleet. so selfishly were they controlled that they were not even allowed to communicate directly with each other. Instead communication from one fleet to the other had to go through MacArthur's HQ before being routed to the other fleet, a process that added many hours to the time of transmission to the arrival of the message. This was a large but not the only contributing factor that lead this small task unit, armed with nothing larger than torpedoes and 5" guns, to be thrust into going toe to toe with the Imperial Japanese Navy sporting 4 battleships, 4 heavy cruisers, 2 light cruisers and 11 destroyers. The 11 destroyers alone would have been enough to completely annihilate Taffy 3. And go toe to toe they did!
The book starts at the christening of the USS Johnston commanded by Commander Ernest E Evans who will posthumously be awarded the Medal of Honor, and many of her crew who help tell the tale of battle.
Among them is the gunnery officer Robert Hagen, who in a previous engagement off Saipan spied through his aiming device, a Japanese officer on the beach waving his sword trying to rally his men. Upon seeing this Lt. Hagen thought "Why not", slewed all five 5" guns on his new target, closed the firing key and all guns fired at once obliterating his target. He then heard his Captain call up to him "Mr. Hagen, that was very good shooting, but in the future, try not to waste so much ammunition on one individual".
During the first tortuous minutes of this engagement off Samar, when the odds of victory, or even survival were non-existent, the captain of the USS Samuel B. Roberts, a destroyer escort that will be sunk that same day got on the intercom. Captain Copeland told his crew, "A large Japanese fleet has been contacted. They are fifteen miles away and headed in our direction. They are believed to have 4 battleships, eight cruisers and a number of destroyers. This will be a fight against overwhelming odds from which survival cannot be expected. We will do what damage we can."
Aboard the USS Johnston, Captain Evans was heard bellowing, "All hands to general quarters. Prepare to attack major portion of the Japanese fleet. All engines ahead flank. Commence making smoke and stand by for torpedo attack. Left full rudder." This last command as everyone hearing this knew, the new course was straight at the enemy fleet. Lt. Hagen remembers saying to himself, "Please Skipper, don't let this ship go down before we launch our torpedoes."
All of the escort carries immediately launched all the aircraft they could. Most of the ones that were armed had ordinance for supporting the land invasion, not fighting heavily armored ships of the line. Many aircraft had no ordinance at all but launched anyway. The unarmed planes along with ones that had long since expended their ordinance repeatedly made dummy dive bomb and torpedo runs in an effort to make the Japanese ships hastily maneuver to avoid the attack. And they succeeded in doing this time and time again. Virtual suicide runs to at least delay the larger ships from overrunning the U.S. ships which they could easily do.
I will not spoil the rest of this story for you, READ THIS BOOK! It made this Marine proud of his Marine Corps naval heritage.
*****
HIGHLY Recommended
I could talk about this book all day long and still feel like I did not do it justice. And not just because it is well written, I have read 3 of his books and this is the most well written of them I have found. No, I can't do it proper justice for as the sub-tittle states, it is the U.S. Navy's finest hour.
This book covers the portion of the Battle of Leyte Gulf known as the 'Battle Off Samar'. It is a story of dedication, perseverance and bravery the likes of which are found but once in a generation. And made more spectacular for its concentration in this battle. It chronicles the tale of a small task unit called Taffy 3 consisting of 6 small escort carriers (CVE), 3 destroyers (DD)and four destroyer escorts (DE).
Through a political reshuffling of commands born out of MacArthur's egotistical desire to control and take credit for all he could, the navy was split into two separate fleets, the Third fleet and the Seventh fleet. so selfishly were they controlled that they were not even allowed to communicate directly with each other. Instead communication from one fleet to the other had to go through MacArthur's HQ before being routed to the other fleet, a process that added many hours to the time of transmission to the arrival of the message. This was a large but not the only contributing factor that lead this small task unit, armed with nothing larger than torpedoes and 5" guns, to be thrust into going toe to toe with the Imperial Japanese Navy sporting 4 battleships, 4 heavy cruisers, 2 light cruisers and 11 destroyers. The 11 destroyers alone would have been enough to completely annihilate Taffy 3. And go toe to toe they did!
The book starts at the christening of the USS Johnston commanded by Commander Ernest E Evans who will posthumously be awarded the Medal of Honor, and many of her crew who help tell the tale of battle.
Among them is the gunnery officer Robert Hagen, who in a previous engagement off Saipan spied through his aiming device, a Japanese officer on the beach waving his sword trying to rally his men. Upon seeing this Lt. Hagen thought "Why not", slewed all five 5" guns on his new target, closed the firing key and all guns fired at once obliterating his target. He then heard his Captain call up to him "Mr. Hagen, that was very good shooting, but in the future, try not to waste so much ammunition on one individual".
During the first tortuous minutes of this engagement off Samar, when the odds of victory, or even survival were non-existent, the captain of the USS Samuel B. Roberts, a destroyer escort that will be sunk that same day got on the intercom. Captain Copeland told his crew, "A large Japanese fleet has been contacted. They are fifteen miles away and headed in our direction. They are believed to have 4 battleships, eight cruisers and a number of destroyers. This will be a fight against overwhelming odds from which survival cannot be expected. We will do what damage we can."
Aboard the USS Johnston, Captain Evans was heard bellowing, "All hands to general quarters. Prepare to attack major portion of the Japanese fleet. All engines ahead flank. Commence making smoke and stand by for torpedo attack. Left full rudder." This last command as everyone hearing this knew, the new course was straight at the enemy fleet. Lt. Hagen remembers saying to himself, "Please Skipper, don't let this ship go down before we launch our torpedoes."
All of the escort carries immediately launched all the aircraft they could. Most of the ones that were armed had ordinance for supporting the land invasion, not fighting heavily armored ships of the line. Many aircraft had no ordinance at all but launched anyway. The unarmed planes along with ones that had long since expended their ordinance repeatedly made dummy dive bomb and torpedo runs in an effort to make the Japanese ships hastily maneuver to avoid the attack. And they succeeded in doing this time and time again. Virtual suicide runs to at least delay the larger ships from overrunning the U.S. ships which they could easily do.
I will not spoil the rest of this story for you, READ THIS BOOK! It made this Marine proud of his Marine Corps naval heritage.
*****
HIGHLY Recommended