The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors: The Extraordinary World War II Story of the U.S. Navy’s Finest Hour, by James D. Hornfischer

The incredible story of the men who fought in the Battle of Samar in October 1944, The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors presents a David-and-Goliath sea fight filled with actionful elements: Navy pilots attacking with makeshift weaponry and selfless bravery, a veteran commander improvising tactics never found in the conventional playbook, and young American Sailors rising to an impossible challenge. The book takes us into the heart and mind of an iron-willed, self-made executive officer leading his men through a sea of carnage and two hellish days and nights clinging to survival amid oil, blood, sharks, and madness. And it dramatizes how the overmatched U.S. force, enduring the loss of five gallant ships and nearly a thousand brave men, turned a certain crushing defeat into a momentous victory that would lead to the final surrender of America’s ruthless imperial foe. At Samar, the American destroyers and escort carriers slugged it out with a much-larger Japanese force, as part of the larger Battle of Leyte Gulf. Filled with riveting detail and based on the author’s extensive interviews and correspondence with veterans, unpublished eyewitness accounts, declassified documents, and rare Japanese sources, The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors is an unforgettable story that captures the essence of heroism, the power of loyalty, and the way in which the unadorned truth is more stirring than legend itself.

This heartfelt recounting of one of the U.S. Navy’s most legendary engagements is a natural for the naval officer’s Naval and Military Heritage bookshelf. As Publishers Weekly put it, this is “one of the finest World War II action narratives in recent years.”

ISBN: 0553381482
Format: Hardcover, 296 pages
Pub. Date: November 2004
Publisher: Random House
Other Formats: none

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