"The Last Battle of The Tin Can Sailors" Topic

The Battle of Leyte Gulf. Very well written and amazing descriptive battle action.

JW

Yep, great read.

I found it a great aid in understanding the decisions made by the various Japanese commanders. Another point that struck me was how the Japanese lookouts and gun commanders kept referring to the American DEs as cruisers!

I would consider it the "Band of Brothers" of the Pacific War.
It proves once again that it is the commander, and not the hardware. Each character is very well fleshed out, and his own character is crucial to the story.
Very moving, and a great story with many great incidents.

Agreed, great book – mistitled, in my opinion, but a
great book.

The 'Last Battle' of the destroyermen (and DE sailors)
was radar picket duty off Okinawa, against the kamikazes.

And that is NOT meant to take away from the magnificent
fight by the 'small boys' in Leyte Gulf.

Hmmm…now that Ed mentions it, the actual title of the book I'm thinking of is "Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors" not "Last Battle…"

Which isn't too inaccurate, since they certainly *thought* they were making a last stand at Leyte Gulf.

Another point that struck me was how the Japanese lookouts and gun commanders kept referring to the American DEs as cruisers!

You see that over and over again in anecdotal WW2 (and WW1) naval actions, where the "other side" gets mistakenly seen as being bigger than they really were. Ship identification was apparently a much bigger challenge than expected when they were firing back at you. :)

Rich

And not really to change the subject, but by the same author is Ghost Ship, which is the story of the brief battle service of the US heavy cruiser Houston and what happened to her crew after her sinking in March 1942 – most of the survivors ended up working on the "Death Railroad" through Burma and into Thailand. Excellent read about what the sailors (and their comrades of the Army's Lost Battalion of the Pacific – a Texas National Guard artillery battalion) went through during Japanese captivity. Highly recommended.

Jim

Who's the author so I can get a copy?
Cheers

DD Hoel, DD Johnston and DE Samuel B. Roberts had been sunk or were mortally wounded, 4 other escorts damaged. CVE Gambier Bay was sunk, the other tiny CVEs were damaged. Their aircraft were reduced to dry runs to distract the Japanese AA gunners, and attempt to break up the Japanese formations.

At 09:20, Kurita gave the order for his battleship- and cruiser-heavy fleet to disengage and head north, away from the Americans, to break contact and retreat.

Upon seeing the Japanese turn away, Admiral Sprauge heard one of his signalmen say, "Dammit, boys, they're getting away!"

Hrm, Sprauge might not have been an Admiral at that point…

The highlights of the book were the pilot who, out of ammo, threw an empty drink bottle from his open cockpit at a Japanese battleship and the other pilot who opened his cockpit, flew inverted over a battleship, and fired his pistol into the superstructure.

Other than that, just the incredible ballsy attacks by the destroyers and destroyer escort crews. That would have taken some very big stones, and I'm glad they were remembered in such a great book to read.

Yes, an excellent book. I had tears in my eyes and a tingle up my spine when reading about the charge of those small ships into the teeth of the Japanese fleet. One of my uncles went down with the Hoel.

History Channel just ran an episode about this in their Dogfight series. Very entertaining, what with all of the computer generated action.

This one should be a movie.

Hundvig

"Stand is right." One day I may learn to look these things up before posting. :- )

Rat: James D. Hornfischer.

And Ghost Ship is of the same high quality. The story of the Bridge on the River Qwai.

As an aside the commander of the Johnston was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

There's a great website, btw, on all MOH recipients, with copies of their citations.

army.mil/cmh-pg/Moh1.htm MOH citations

JW

Thanks JW.

Great to hear that this is a good book! One of the books I gave to my father for Christmas!

Let me try that link one more time. I'm trying to learn something new.

army.mil/cmh-pg/Moh l.htm/

Hmmmmmmmmm. Well, back to the drawing board.

JW

As a follow-up read, take a look at the bigger Layte Gulf Battle and read "Sea of Thunder" by Evan Thomas.

Can't think of the author but I seem to recall "The Eend of the Japanese Navy (?)" was written by a former IJN staff officer. He actually had the opportunity as well as the basic guts to ask Admiral Kurita why he finally issued the order for his force's last turn away. If I recall correctly Kurita claimed to be exhausted at the time and was sincerely convinced he had hit Halsey's force instead of Sprague's that morning given the fierce resistance his force had encountered.

Jim, that would be Masanori Ito. A really good book too. Another excellent resource is Dr. Paul S. Dull's Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Wellw orth getting in anyone's library of the Pacific War.