LAST STAND OF THE TIN CAN SAILORS: The Extraordinary World War II Story of the Navy's Finest Hour, THE

Sea Power, Feb 2004 by Munns, David W

THE LAST STAND OF THE TIN CAN SAILORS: The Extraordinary World War II Story of the Navy's Finest Hour by James D. Hornfischer, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Dell Publishing Group, Feb. 2004. 496 pp. $24.95 ISBN: 0-553-80257-7.

Nearly 60 years after the fact, The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors is surprisingly the first book to detail the Navy's astonishing achievement in the World War II Battle off Samar. Rear Adm. Clifton Sprague's escort carriers and destroyer screen in the Philippine Sea defeated the Yamato and the rest of the Japanese Center Force in the early hours of Oct. 25, 1944. This was an unlikely triumph because the flotilla, a U.S. naval force comprised of ships so scantily armored they were called "tin cans," outflanked the Japanese naval force heralding some of the most powerful warships ever built. Hornfischer bases his book on previously classified materials and interviews with sailors who participated in the battle to put the reader aboard the tiny ships beside the inexperienced Americans whose spirit prevailed against all odds to defeat the Japanese in this crucial and unexpected battle. The book is a valuable tribute to the heart of several brave sailors, airmen, and naval officers who fought that morning and also a reverent eulogy to the lives lost during the battle.

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