Many naval historians view the battles of Leyte Gulf off the Philippines in World War II as the greatest fleet actions in naval history. Hornisher's brilliant book focuses on the Battle off Samar in which a vastly inferior US force consisting of six small escort carriers, three destroyers, and three destroyer escorts, vessels normally used to accompany convoys and for antisubmarine patrols, engaged a Japanese fleet including four battleships, two of which were the largest in the world, six heavy cruisers, two light cruisers, and 11 destroyers. Fortunately the Japanese were unaware of how weak the American force was. Moreover, they had no air cover.
In order to protect the US ground forces that had landed on Mindanao, the US task force instead of fleeing attacked the Japanese with 5 inch guns (vs. the battleships 15 and 18 inchers) and torpedoes on the destroyers and with dive bombers and torpedo bombers inflicting significant damage. When their ammunition was expended, the planes continued to make simulated attacks to deter the Japanese. (One US pilot dived at a battleship firing his .38 service revolver.)
Although the US lost several ships and numerous casualties, they managed to deter the Japanese offensive and the enemy fleet withdrew.
Hornfischer does a masterful job of depicting the battle. Readers get to know the individual sailors and airmen and get a sense of naval combat...the horrendous wounds suffered when boilers are hit and men steamed to death, survivors floating for days in shark infested waters... as well as what became of the various men after the war. Last Stand is lavishly illustrated with numerous photos, many maps detailing the maneuvers, an index, and a list of all the Americans who died that day.

Excellent tale of the U.S. Navy in a not-so-well-known battle during World War II. If one remembers the earlier history, General Douglas MacArthur had withdrawn from the Philippine Islands in the face of overwhelming Japanese forces in March of 1942 ... purportedly promising "I shall return." A little over two years later, in October 1944, MacArthur did just that as part of the Allied invasion known as the Battle of Leyte Gulf. In response to the Allies retaking the islands, the Japanese sent in their naval forces and fought back in a series of battles ... the least of which arguably became the linchpin of the victory ... this was the Battle off Samar. The "Last Stand" was that naval battle.

The American Navy had spread its ships around the Philippine archipelago to be able to react to any Japanese offensive. As it worked out, the smallest of the Allied forces ended up right in the path of the largest Japanese fleet (four battleships, eight cruisers, and eleven destroyers). The U.S. Navy's response with but a small fleet composed mainly of escort carriers, destroyers, and destroyer escorts was its "finest hour." Great lesser known tale that became overshadowed by other events. Recommended.

What a powerful piece of our history. An event that is slowly being forgotten as time goes by. This story covers the details of the Naval battle in Samar (during the conquest to retake the Philippines from the Japanese) in which, against overwhelming odds, a small group of ships under Admiral Sprague defeated a massive Japanese imperial fleet. It was from this battle that Herman Wouk used for his classic, War and Remembrance.
I served in the Navy, so obviously this hits home for me. I can relate to the surroundings, having served aboard a ship, the USS Jouett CG-29, and toured in the Philippines, but I was never in a conflict such as the battle at Samar. Very few have and because of todays technology we may never see another naval battle of its kind.
A great piece of military history.

I was passingly familiar with the Battle of Leyte Gulf and Admiral Halsey, but I didn't know about the Battle off Samar, in which a handful of American escort ships charged and, incredible as it sounds, beat back a large Japanese fleet full of Goliaths like the Yamato, the largest-ever warship at the time.

The courage and guts of this small naval battlegroup, called Taffy 3, reads like pure fiction, yet it isn't. A bunch of outnumbered and outgunned "peashooter" tin cans making a hopeless last stand before heavy cruisers and giant battleships, and being sunk as expected but not before inflicting so much damage that Japan's Admiral Kurita had to retreat on the brink of victory could've come from the mad imagination of a Hollywood screenwriter. There's scenes where American aviators are charging the Japanese ships without a single torpedo or bomb onboard, running low over the ships and pretending to drop non-existent bombs on them just to distract the crew and make their life miserable, buying time for the US carriers to outrun the Japanese. In one such scene, a pilot throws a Coca-Cola bottle at the Japanese ship because he had nothing to drop on them anymore; and in another scene, the same pilot commandeers at gunpoint ammo from the Army's airbase when he's denied help by the stiff-backed officer in charge, so he could go back into the fight rearmed.

I wish more history books were written in such an engaging and engrossing way, probably more people (and schoolchildren) would be into reading history. This one has its ponderous and slow parts, full of details about the Navy and the ships, proceedings, weaponry, etc.; but all that boatload of details is necessary to get the context. I live in a landlocked place, and can't tell a ship from another, but here I learnt the functions and shapes of each type of warship thanks to Hornfischer's penchant for giving you all the details. It helps that there's diagrams and drawings in-between the pages where you'll need them to visualise what the text says. All in all, it's an excellent book.

A really fascinating book, both for the history of the battle and the detail of so many sailors lives and their history. A well written book that covers mostly one battle from a huge variety of individuals involved in it. The book captures the human element that covers simple relationships between various members of different ships in this one carrier fleet, as well as the over-arching background of the war and the specific strategies and events that led up to this particular battle. There are all sorts of interesting details about the culture and specifics of military life as well as detailed explanations from the characters views of the technology and how it relates to the outcome of the battle. the book covers the tensions and teamwork that developed between people on numeorus levels- American/Japanese, Army/navy, carrier fleets, individual ships, and between the officers and crew. the story reads like a novel and I found it engaging almost throughout the entire book.
This is not just a "military" book, it gives an illuminating glimpse into what life was like when the US began the invasion of The Philippines, as the end of the war was in sight.
I had strong emotional reactions both for the camaraderie, courage and commitment of the sailors, and to the heartbreak of the horrors of war. The book pulls no punches, but tells the story straight up.

This was probably the best book about a naval battle that I have ever read. No, it was the best book that I have ever read. There was literally never a dull moment. The author did a great job setting up the battle by developing the characters and explaining all the events that led up to the battle of Samar/Leyte Gulf.

The actual battle was described in vivid detail through the eyes of the American aviators and sailors who fought it. Your heart will leap when the tin can sailors of the USN Samuel B. Morris and the Johnston score torpedo hits on the Japanese cruisers. You will gnash your teeth as the sailors of the Hoel and the other American Tin Cans slug it out with their 5" guns against heavily armored Japanese cruisers and battle ships including the Yamato which carried 18.1" guns! You will soar with the Naval Aviators who out of desperation were using ordinance designed to sink submarines or kill infantry. They were doing their best to harass the Japanese assailants. One pilot even inverted his plane and fired his pistol at a battle ship. This was a fight to the death by two desperate foes. The last ditch effort of the Japanese surface navy vs a screen of American destroyers and tiny destroyer escorts who's primary mission was to pick up downed pilots and protect the jeep carriers from enemy submarines.

You will sob as the brave men of the tiny destroyers - after doing their job - are forced to abandon ship. They spend several days drifting in the water, succumbing to hypothermia, drowning, having delusions from the salt water they were drinking and being eaten by the sharks.

Finally, a tribute to Captain Earnest Evans of the USN Johnston: Your name should be celebrated by this country in the same breath as John Paul Jones. After scoring the first hit by the Americans with a torpedo to a Japanese cruiser and operating at half power with most of your 5" guns either silenced or firing manually, You put your Fletcher class destroyer in line with the other destroyers to draw fire away from your brethren so that their torpedo attacks may be successful too - all the time making smoke to screen the carriers you were committed to protect. I salute you sir. You are an American hero. Somehow, the medal of honor doesn't seem like enough for what you did.

Somewhere at the back of the book the author suggests that this story of the men of Taffy 3 should be told to our school children and enemies alike. It demonstrates American resolve and what Americans can do even when they are outgunned and surprised with their backs to the wall. Maybe, our president should read this book as well?

This was a great book and an easy read. I loved the organization and layout of the book with it's short chapters. As Captain Evans said when he first laid eyes on his overwhelming foe, "flank speed, full left rudder" run out and get this book.

This is a rare 5 rating by me. This is a history of the Battle of Samar. It is 1944 and Halsey leaves destroyers and small carriers to protect MacArthur's landing in the Leyte Gulf. The book reads as a novel and is action packed. The Japanese attacked with a full complement of 2 battleships, crisers and destroyers. The Japanese had little air support. The Japanese were beaten by this lack plus superior technology and the grit of the American soldier. Destroyer verses battleship. This is not a good match up. The heroism of those young men was phenomenal.

A desperate battle and brave sailors. An amazing story.

In October of 1944, the Japanese threw the remainder of their naval power into an attempt to destroy MacArthur’s invasion of the Philippines, particularly the landing on Leyte. In a three-pronged desperate operation called Sho-1, employing powerful naval task forces under the command of admirals Nishimura, Kurita, Shima, and Ozawa, the Japanese sought to stall the American island-hopping advance. While Ozawa martialed Japan’s remaining fleet carriers in hopes of drawing Halsey’s Third Fleet north, away from its position blocking the San Bernadino Strait, the other three Japanese forces would advance on Leyte in a pincer movement from north and south.

When Halsey took the bait and left his assigned station to chase north after Ozawa, the only thing standing between the massively powerful Japanese fleet and the Leyte landings was Taffy 3 (Task Unit 77.4.3) consisting of 6 light carriers, three destroyers and four destroyer-escorts, under the command of Admiral Sprague.

Hornfischer’s fascinating book details the heroic stand of Taffy 3, which faced the largest battleship in the world whose 18” guns had a range of 20 miles, plus three more battleships armed with 14” guns, six heavy cruisers with 8” rifles, two light cruisers, and eleven destroyers. The 5” guns on Taffy 3’s small force had a range of only about 7 miles, and their shells were insufficient to put even a dent in the armored sides of the Japanese battleships and heavy cruisers. And yet Taffy 3 slowed the Japanese onslaught, and eventually caused Admiral Kurita to lose his nerve and withdraw.

The author does a superb job of introducing the reader to the human combatants, from cook to admiral, primarily on the American side. The book is full of riveting first-person accounts of the fear and courage of the men of Taffy 3, sailors and airmen, as they faced the devastating punishment of an opponent that overmatched them in every category except courage.

Hornfischer points out it was a battle of firsts and lasts: first time in history that an aircraft carrier was sunk by a surface fleet, and the last time this sort of surface melee involving battleships ever happened. His writing is superb: you can feel the spray and the concussion from the Japanese shells as they straddle the ships of Taffy 3.

If you enjoy military history, this is a must read. Five stars, highly recommended.

This book tells the story of the Battle off Samar. The story itself focuses on the people involved, it goes into minute details that the author has discovered in his research. The first part of the book deals mostly with the introductions of the people, mostly on the American side, and of the situation that led to the battle.

The latter part of the book deals with the battle itself and this part is quite riveting. You don't need to be a fan of naval warfare or world war 2 literature to like this part of the book. However, it does help to know about the various types of ships and other weapons of war on both sides to understand what is happening.

The book focuses mostly on the American side of the battle, there is very little from the Japanese perspective. This gives the book a kind of pro-US bias. The Japanese aren't described to be particularly effective or able in their tactics.

I gave the book 3 stars because although the latter part is quite good, the story does lag quite a bit in many places. Also the various personal anecdotes seem to often take the reader out of the events that were happening. The book could use a kind of map or a series of maps that would illustrate the events in more detailed fashion. It is often quite difficult to know what exactly is happening from reading the book.

Quite the harrowing tale. I didn't care too much for a lot of the personal stories.

Outstanding, well written and obviously extensively researched, just a great read