One of the airmen featured in this book is a friend of mine. His name is Earl "Blue" Archer and you will see a picture of him in this book. The book is worth reading if you just read what he did the day he flew over the Japanese battleship after a fellow airman had been killed. I met Blue on a company trip about 5 years ago. He is nearly 88 now. He is still working for the same firm as myself. The man is a bonifide American hero. Buy this book and learn a little bit about a great man and a great story of heroes.

This book is a very excellent read. It was received in a timely
fashion and in the described condition.

Meticulous research, including interviews with battle survivors, is spun into a very readable history of the naval battle of the Leyte Gulf. The incredible bravery exhibited by U. S. Navy personnel is contrasted with major errors of leadership, and marvelous, gutsy leadership of other commanders. This is a story that deserves more exposure, as it shows us the finest in what makes America great.

I found Hornfischer's account of one of the greatest US Naval battle ever to be a very slow read at the start, but once the battle began, the account was very compelling. The depiction of ordinary American guys being lead by ordinary American officers to fight incredible odds and survive, despite the inactions of Halsey and others, is truly a great story. No wonder Brokaw termed this as 'The Greatest Generation'.

This is a great example of how to research and write the story of a battle.

I want to get that statement out there, right up front, so that you all understand that I really enjoyed this book and could barely put it down once I started reading it. And yet, I only give it four stars because of certain faults that I find in it.

The overall construction of the book is familiar to most readers of modern history books. The author picked a small episode in one of the key naval battles of World War 2 in the Pacific and tells a very detailed story of what transpired from the American point of view. The battle that we are reading about is the well-known battle of Leyte Gulf; the episode that is detailed in this book is the Battle off Samar where one of the main Japanese naval forces managed to get amongst three small support task forces and could have - in theory - done much to inflict major damage on General MacArthur's invasion of the Phillipines. The Japanese force was much superior to the American naval forces and so we have a classic David vs Goliath story. A story which is also full of heroism and sacrifices to the cause.

The story starts with the commissioning of each of the small destroyers and destroyer escorts that are involved on the American side as well as some anecdotes from at least one of the Escort Carriers - called Jeep Carriers. Some of the commanding officers and men's biographies are provided as well as some of the backstory of how they came to be in the Navy and in that location at that time.

The middle part of the book - and by far the largest - is dedicated to a detailed study of what each American ship did in an account that is detailed to the minute. The battle took almost three hours, and we seemingly hear about each salvo and shot that took place. This part of the book was completely riveting as it accurately describes what takes place in a modern naval vessel under gun (or missile) fire, and the vagaries of war. repeatedly we learn of how luck plays a bigger part in whether you survive a battle - or maybe even become a hero - than any skills. If you are well trained, execute your job well, you may still either die or survive due to completely random factors.

The third part of the book covers the aftermath of the battle as the survivors of the sunk ships drift in the Pacific and attempt to survive the onslaught of sharks and fatigue as well as enduring the wounds and the last stand of the wounded amongst them.

So, why not give this book five stars if it is so well written and so riveting to read? Because I think the author slanted the book in three main ways that detracted from it for me. First of all, the whole theme of the book is that three desperate destroyers and destroyer escorts (the tin cans of the title), take on a Japanese force of two battleships 4 cruisers, and 21 destroyers and somehow turn the battle around. However, a careful review of the facts presented in the book shows that the three tin cans had almost no effect on the Japanese. They did harm one of the cruisers, and did cause one of the battleships to turn briefly away from their torpedoes, but that was all. All of the real damage to the Japanese Navy was caused by the Navy fliers that arrived about two hours in to the battle and that caused several more sinkings to take place. There is one small admission that the Japanese turned away more from a realization that they were already too late to affect MacArthur's forces than from any puny impact the tin cans may have caused.

While tin can sailors performed heroically, their efforts were, unfortunately, not really decisive - merely suicidal.

The second main problem that I had with the book was its almost exclusive focus on the American side. Yet the author admits that almost 10,000 Japanese sailors died during the battle. In other words, there was much more going on in the Japanese side than merely having some ships show up, cruise around for a while, and then turn tail and run away to be sunk by airplanes. Why does this book not contain much more information and data from the Japanese point of view? In the timeframe that it was written (1998-2001) there was much Japanese information available.

Thirdly, the book tries valiantly to avoid assigning any blame to anyone. While it does take some mild pot shots at Bull Halsey (who took off in chase of Japanese bait thereby leaving this small force practically defenseless); it does not try to assign blame to the horrendous mistakes that lead to the survivors of the battle to be left at sea for almost three days following it. Here is a three hour battle that is over before lunchtime, there are planes aplenty that pass over the survivors and acknowledge having seen them, yet no one is picked up for three days? Why did this happen and how many unnecessary deaths were caused by this?

So, to reiterate, this is a great read and an important book that fills in the details of one minor engagement in the war. I wish it would have been a much better book if the Japanese side and the true imbecility of having destroyers go up against Battleships and Cruisers was told.

As an Ex destroyer Escort Sailor during WW 11, only in a different theater of operation, I was amazed at my lack of knowledge at what
our Ships and Sailors went through during this time period & location. We knew what was going on around us, but not in other Oceans or parts of the World.I presumw we had no need to know???? Regardless, it makes me proud
that many of the 600 or so DE's built did the job they were designed for
and some over and above their capabilities. Using a max 25 knot speed
platform to get within 4000 ft and fire up to 3 Torpedos was/is considered almost a kamikaze ( American Style) mission at the time.
Although, in "The last Stand of the Tincan Sailors" that's actually what
they did.Outstanding!!! I was never more proud of my Branch of the Navy.

After reading the continued and unblemished courage of these sailors, I could only sit back and reflect on how pathetically easy my life has been.

I cannot comment on the technical discrepancies mentioned by others, but they did not take away from the larger story in my opinion.

Wow - a great read.