Read By: Barrett Whitener

One of the finest WWII naval action narratives in recent years, this
book follows in the footsteps of Flags of Our Fathers, creating a microcosm
of the war's American Navy destroyers. Hornfischer, a writer and literary
agent in Austin, Tex., covers the battle off Samar, the Philippines,
in October 1944, in which a force of American escort carriers and destroyers
fought off a Japanese force many times its strength, and the larger
battle of Leyte Gulf, the opening of the American liberation of the
Philippines, which might have suffered a major setback if the Japanese
had attacked the transports. He presents the men who crewed the destroyer
Taffy 3, most of whom had never seen salt water before the war but who
fought, flew, kept the crippled ship afloat, and doomed ships fighting
almost literally to the last shell. Finally, Hornfischer provides a
perspective on the Japanese approach to the battle, somewhat (and justifiably)
modifying the traditional view of the Japanese Admiral Kurita as a fumbler
or even a coward-while exalting American sailors and pilots as they
richly deserve.

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