Review: Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors

[Subnuts]

Yahhhhhh! He has books, and he knows how to read them!

Introduction
Hollywood heroism and real-life heroism are worlds apart. In Hollywood, heroism is defined as "charging into machine gun fire, killing 50 Germans, and getting bruised in the ankle." In real life, heroism is "charging a squadron of Japanese battleships at flank speed in a tiny destroyer escort with two 5-inch guns and three torpedoes." Literally, this is the sort of story that’s too good for Hollywood. I put off reading this book for the longest time, simply because the title turned me off. The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors? It sounded corny beyond belief. Having a voracious appetite for naval literature, I gave in and read it, and I’m glad I did.

James D. Hornfischer’s The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors tells the extraordinary story of the United States Navy’s most heroic, and frankly statistically improbable, victory of World War II. Last Stand focuses on the Battle of Samar, one of four confrontations between the American and Japanese Navies in October 1944 that was later named the Battle of Leyte Gulf.

Historical Background
The Battle of Leyte Gulf is famous in that it was the largest, and last, major surface action of World War II, and that the remains of the Imperial Japanese Navy were essentially destroyed during it. What’s often forgotten is how close the Japanese came to wiping out a sizeable portion of the American 7th Fleet.

The liberation of the Philippines began on October 20, 1944, when the U.S. Sixth Army invaded the island of Leyte. Supporting them was the largest concentration of seapower ever assembled. At the same time, the Japanese launched the "Sho" plan, an extremely complicated naval plan to seriously impede, if not outright stop, the American invasion. They assembled three main forces (A Centre Force, Southern Force, and a Northern "Decoy" Force.) The Southern Force attempted to break through the Surigao Strait south of Leyte, and was almost completely destroyed. The Northern Force was spotted several hundred miles to the North, and the 3rd Fleet and it’s battleships took chase.

To guard the landing beaches, Admiral Halsey left behind three small "Task Groups," each consisting of five or six small escort carriers and a few destroyers or destroyer escorts. This force was named Task Group 77.4, and each group was known as a "Taffy." Early on the morning of the 25th, the Japanese Centre Force slipped through the San Bernadino Strait undetected, and turned south at flank speed. It was Taffy 3, commanded by Admiral Thomas Sprague, that had the singular misfortune of being in the path of this powerful force.

With four destroyers and three destroyer escorts all that stood against four battleships, six heavy cruisers, and a dozen destroyers, the men of Taffy 3 did the only thing they could do - they fought to the death. The seven tiny escorts charged the Centre Force at full speed, riddling the enemy ships’ superstructures with five inch shells, and launching torpedoes at ranges as close as 4,000 yards. The carriers of Taffy 3 launched their aircraft armed with whatever weapons were available, harassing the Japanese all morning to buy time for the carriers' escape. By 9:30 am, with reinforcements on the horizon, the Centre Force beat a hasty retreat back to San Bernadino Strait.

This miraculous victory was not won without painful losses. Five of the 13 ships in Taffy 3 went to the bottom, including two escort carriers, two destroyers, and a destroyer escort. One of these, the St. Lo, was the first warship to fall victim to a kamikaze. More than 800 men died, a number of whom died in the sea after an error in communications delayed their rescue. For their sacrifice, the Centre Force never threatened the island of Leyte.

Criticism
Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors is one of the most gripping stories of naval warfare I’ve ever read. I devoured the whole thing in three days - I would have read it in two, but I needed my sleep! The first third is a bit slow and exposition heavy, but once the Battle of Samar Gulf began I couldn’t put it down.

What startled me most reading Last Stand was that even after 150 years of technological evolution, naval warfare never changed all that much between the Napoleonic Wars and World War II. The ships and weapons may have been new, but flying splinters gave way to red-hot shrapnel, powder magazine explosions became boiler explosions, and the iron balls of old became armor-piercing, explosive-tipped shells that sometimes weighed more than a ton. Needless to say, the effects of one of these shells exploding inside the machinery space of a destroyer would be absolutely catastrophic, and Hornfischer leaves almost nothing to the imagination. Anyone squeamish about blood and gore should stay far away from Land Stand.

Normally, I’d praise a book like this for actually developing it’s characters instead of leaving them ciphers. But that’s where the main problem with Last Stand lies - there’s simply way too many characters in this book, and once the bombs, torpedoes, and shells start flying, it’s impossible to tell them apart. Last Stand is Hornfischer’s first "real" book (his two previous books were collections of quotes by famous politicians), and his overambition shows through at spots. There’s so much going on that the human interest stories simply crumble under the weight of all that gunfire.

Also, there’s a number of annoying technical and historical errors, most of them relating to the Casablanca-class escort carriers. Hornfischer describes them as being powered by steam turbines and built over a Liberty Ship hull, both of which are patently false. He also describes the Gambier Bay as the only aircraft carrier ever sunk by gunfire, something that would surprise the crew of the HMS Glorious.

Conclusion
Occasionally clumsy editing and a few annoying mistakes aside, The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors is a fine entry into the canon of naval literature. I have no doubt that it’ll someday be considered a classic, and I heartily recommend it to anyone interested in naval history. I know some people are flaunting it as the new book that "every American must read!" Well, it’s not that good, but I’m sure most readers will be blown away at least a couple times reading it.

Nitty-Gritty
The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors was published as a hardcover book by Bantam Books in February 2004, and as a paperback in March 2005. The book is divided into four main sections and 56 chapters, is 512 pages long, and has 32 pages of black and white photographs along with a number of maps.

James D. Hornfischer is a writer, literary agent, and former book editor. His two previous books were Right Thinking: Conservative Common Sense Through the Ages and "Hate Is Not a Family Value:" A Quote Book for Liberals in a Right-Wing World. His next book, Ship of Ghosts: The Story of the USS Houston, is to be released in October this year.

[Ishmael]

Last month, I met a retired Chief Gunner's Mate at the Casino Buffet on the Rez who was mount 51 Captain(forward 14-inch gun mount) aboard the old Prune Barge, USS California, BB-44, from Pearl Harbor to the surrender. He received 2 Bronze Stars in that time, one at Surigao Straits where, along with the other Battleships that were raised from the bottom of Pearl Harbor, annihilated the Japanese Southern Force when Oldendorff's force Crossed the T. The other he received at the Battle of Lingayen Gulf when a Kamikaze struck his mount & he single-handedly saved his entire mount crew.

The US ships sunk at the Battle off Samar were USS Johnston DD-557, USS Hoel DD-533, USS Samuel B. Roberts DE-413, USS St Lo CVE-63 & USS Gambier Bay CVE-73. In fact, the reason for the sudden withdrawl of Kurita's Center Force has never been fully explained. Halsey's Task Force was all the way up near the Northern end of Luzon by Cape Engano chasing the Decoy Force and Oldendorff's Bombardment force were still at Surigao straits to the south. The only explanation that makes sense to me is that Taffy 3 fought so ferociously that they made Kurita think they were Halsey's Task Force 58.

Here's a link to a great site that details the battle. It is run by the great-nephew of one of the Gambier Bay survivors.
http://www.bosamar.com/

This battle has special signicance for me because I saw a ghost of one of USS Johnston's crew while passing over her wreck aboard USS Schofield in 1973 while transiting the San Bernardino Straits on the way to Subic Bay.

[Subnuts]

I really thought more people would be interested in this book.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Ishmael

Last month, I met a retired Chief Gunner's Mate at the Casino Buffet on the Rez who was mount 51 Captain(forward 14-inch gun mount)

Interesting story, but I would like to correct one point: Mount 51 would be the forward 5-inch gun mount (51=5" no. 1). This refers to the early days when destroyer guns were open mounts, and carried over to the time when they were encased in turrets.

The forward turret on a battleship is Turret Number 1 (unless it's British, in which case it would be 'A' Turret).

[SkvyWvr]

Originally Posted by Subnuts

I really thought more people would be interested in this book.

Don't fret shipmate. I found it very interesting.

[U-snafu]

Originally Posted by Subnuts

I really thought more people would be interested in this book.

Just finishing up on this one--great read--and thks-- your review is what drew my interest to getting it. Have read before on the invasion of the phillipines but dealt mostly with the land side and the "american ceaser" and maybe looked at the naval side in passing.---this book was an eye-opener and informative for one not read in naval history--thks for the heads up

Have toured the USS North Carolina at wilmington N.C. (I know it's not a destroyer) but it helped while reading the book to give me a picture in my mind of what the guys below the decks went through----like I said eye-opening--any other book recomendations along the same lines of this one?