Book Review: "Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors"

I have read a lot of books in my life. Many of them have been about World War II, and many of them were pretty darn good. But I've found a new candidate for the coveted status of "best book ever." Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors, by James D. Hornfischer, is a must-read for anybody with even a passing interest in military history.

The book describes the Battle off Samar, part of the larger Battle of Leyte Gulf off the Philippine coast in October 1944. Before the battle, Japan knew that the U.S. would be coming after the Philippines soon. They also knew that the U.S. fleet by that time was significantly more powerful than the remaining Japanese naval units. Admiral Halsey's 3rd Fleet could bring 16 large and medium aircraft carriers to bear, while Japan's own carrier force had been decimated during fighting the previous year. So they came up with a clever plan.

Japan sent its remaining carriers down from Japan as a decoy force, knowing that the Americans would take them seriously and probably move the bulk of their fleet to intercept them. This left the American amphibious force (lots of cargo ships carrying tens of thousands of troops, plus their tanks, artillery, trucks, and other supplies) pretty much on its own by the landing beach on the island of Leyte. Japan then sent a powerful force of battleships, cruisers, and destroyers, including the Yamato and Musashi, the biggest battleships ever built, east from Singapore and Indonesia to attack the American transports.

In short, the Japanese plan worked beautifully. Admiral Halsey took the bait and attacked the decoy carriers (sinking most of them), but left the transports unguarded, except for a small group of destroyers, destroyer escorts (kind of like a mini-destroyer), and six escort carriers (basically cargo ships with wooden flight decks for about 25 planes). This group, called Taffy 3, was meant to scout for submarines and provide close-air support to the soldiers on the beach. They didn't even have very many bombs or torpedoes to attack other ships. Many of their planes were older models, already phased out of front-line service with the rest of the fleet. None of the American ships had armor, or anything bigger than a 5-inch gun. None of the escort carriers could outrun the Japanese fleet. Yet when the huge Japanese battle force came into view, this little group of destroyers and escort carriers was all that stood between the Japanese fleet and the helpless soldiers unloading on shore.

In this situation, if you're the captain of one of the destroyers or destroyer escorts, it seems like you'd have 3 options:

A. Run away slowly, trying to protect the vulnerable carriers and cargo ships, until you're destroyed
B. Run away quickly, saving yourself and leaving the escort carriers to their fate (if they're going to be sunk anyway, you might as well salvage something to protect the cargo ships a couple dozen miles away)
C. Put yourself between the escort carriers and the Japanese fleet, and try to hold them off for as long as possible to buy your charges some time to escape

Yet when the Taffy 3 found itself in this very situation, Captain Earnest Evans of the destroyer USS Johnston chose a 4th option--attack the Japanese fleet head-on, by yourself. Evans knew that if he could somehow get to within about 5 miles of the Japanese battleships and cruisers, he could fire his 10 torpedoes and possibly knock some of them out of the battle. His 5-inch guns would be almost useless against the Japanese ships' armor, but they might at least distract their crews and cause damage on deck. Evans ordered his destroyer to turn around and charge full speed, right into the teeth of the Japanese armada. Shortly thereafter, three other U.S. destroyers and destroyer-escorts followed suit. Aided by the relentless assaults of dozens of American warplanes, many of which didn't even have any ammunition or bombs and just pretended to strafe the Japanese ships, they faced the largest Japanese surface fleet ever encountered in World War II.

And thus began one of the epic battles in naval history - a classic David vs. Goliath mismatch. Although I was generally familiar with the facts of the battle beforehand, the author has done a tremendous job of interviewing survivors, collecting declassified documents from both Japan and the United States, and otherwise piecing together the little details that make his account of the battle so interesting.

I have to admit that I was particularly moved by his account of an American navy pilot who, running low on fuel and ammunition and with his own escort carrier under attack, landed on a muddy field on Leyte that American army engineers were bulldozing into an airstrip. As his plane coasts to a stop, an army major in a jeep drives out to berate him for getting in the way of an army operation. The navy pilot tries to explain that Taffy 3 is taking a terrible beating 30 or so miles away, and that he needs all the fuel, bombs, and ammunition that he can get, but the army officer refuses to cooperate, saying that his orders are to save his supplies for some army fighters that would be showing up the following week.

This part of the story, coming immediately after the Japanese shells begin striking home on several of the courageous American warships and unleashing incredible carnage on the little vessels (which Hornfischer describes in sad detail), makes you want to just slug the unthinking officer, who doesn't understand that if Taffy 3 gets wiped out, that this very airfield will be attacked next. Yet the American navy pilot does us one better. He pulls out his service pistol, gives it to his 18-year old radioman, and tells him to keep the stunned Army officer hostage, while he (the pilot) goes off to find someone in charge and talk some sense into them. Happily, cooler heads finally prevailed, but the irony of the navy's sacrifice juxtaposed with the Army's indifference to their selfless heroics is just powerful.

Anyway, that's the setting--you'll need to read the book to find out what happens (or look up "Taffy 3" on Wikipedia, but the book is much better). But it's an amazing story. I give Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors four thumbs up (I'm borrowing Geneil's thumbs for our purposes today--it's that good). You can find it at Barnes and Noble or other bookstores, in the military history section.