This was my Grandfather's favorite book, and I wish I had finished it when he was still alive. The first few chapters are a bit slow as the reader is introduced to the background of a number of the sailors and aviators, but as the action picks up its hard to put down.

The naval battle off Samar is a moment of drama, a clash in which an US Navy group of small escort carriers, destroyer escorts and destroyers successfully took on the main body of the Imperial Japanese Navy battle fleet. The war in the Pacific had other climactic moments: Pearl Harbour, the battle of Midway, the series of night actions in the Solomons. But no other event saw victory against such overwhelming odds.

You would nominate it as candidate for a movie, if there were not two very good reasons to avoid doing so. The first of course is the dismal quality of several attempts to bring WWII naval battles to the screen, recent and not so recent. The second is the amount of trauma and suffering that was involved. Hornfischer, sadly recently deceased, assembled this account from the stories of American veterans, and it is very direct and matter of fact about the horrific consequences of exposing small ships full of men to heavy naval guns. And the suffering did not stop when the ships sank, because confusion and negligence left the survivors remained adrift for a long time. It says something for the author, that the survivors were willing to share their memories with him: For many it must have been a difficult thing to do.

This is an account full of old-fashioned hero worship, but for once, it does not feel out of place. Hornfischer spent a lot of time describing the life experiences of these men, before, during, and after the battle. If at times the prose seems a little too swollen and crafted with more patriotism than historical objectivity, then it is a fault that is easy to forgive when the reality seems so conspicuously larger than life ought to be. And, to be fair to Hornfischer, he freely acknowledges the foibles, weaknesses and errors of many key figures on the American side. Maybe he could have been more analytical and objective, but a coldly critical attitude and getting veterans to share their traumatic memories with you do not go well together.

There is a big gap that Hornfischer admits to: This version of history does not include the Japanese side. The ten pages that John Prados devoted to this battle in Combined Fleet Decoded contain more Japanese reports and recollections than this entire book. So Hornfischer’s book, remarkable as it is, is also inevitably flawed.

But as a monument to the actions of the men who manned a handful of small ships and took up the fight in the desperate situation of October 25, 1944, this is entirely a success.

I picked up Last of the Tin Can Sailors, by James D. Hornfischer. simply because it was on sale for $1.99, and because one of my all-time favorite war movies is Preminger's "In Harm's Way." And in fact, the climactic sea battle of "In Harm's Way" has a few similarities to the battle off Samar that Hornfischer documents (what with the battleship Yamato making an appearance in both). The story was an eye-opener: this took place not that long ago, and yet the situations and tactics have far more in common with the 19th century than with my lifetime. That the way you defended your position was to hide yourself with smoke!--I knew on some level that this was the case in WWII, but Hornfischer made this and so many other aspects of naval warfare come to life. He does a great job of balancing the strategic and tactical elements of the battle with the stories of the men who fought it. He also balances nicely his main focus, the ships and sailors of one of the last (I think) big surface battles in history, with the story of the men and technology--pilots and aircraft carriers--that ultimately made the surface battle obsolete. October 2014

Rest In Peace Jim Hornfischer. Your writing continues to bring to life the great American’s we lost in the Battle of Samar, while your depth of research and story telling ability achieves the high call this story deserves:

“As catastrophic as it was, Taffy 3’s historic last stand at Samar conferred to the bloody campaign an aspect of transcendence. The victory at Leyte Gulf was the product of allied planning, savvy, and panache, to be sure. But only Samar showed the world something else: how Americans handle having their backs pushed to the wall. As Herman Wouk wrote in War and Rememberance, ‘The vision of Sprague’s three destroyers— the Johnston, the Hoel, and the Heermanb— charging out of the smoke and the rain straight toward the main batteries of Kurita’s battleships and cruisers, can endure as a picture of the way Americans fight when they don’t have superiority. Our schoolchildren should know about that incident, and our enemies should ponder it.’ “

Hornfischer’s “Last Stand of the Tin Can Soldiers” is a loving tribute to the bravery and sacrifice of the US Navy at the Battle of Samar, when the American fleet of escort carriers and destroyers, caught by surprise, managed to outfight an on-paper overwhelming Japanese fleet of battleships and cruisers. Hornfischer excels by making the battle and its participants tangible, capturing the horrors, fears, and confusion that make up naval war, as well as the professionalism and bonds of crews under unrelenting fire. In doing so, Hornfischer pays tribute to the warriors often forgotten in favor of those who fought at Midway. A vivid and personalizing naval history

A completely insane true story. These guys were doing ace combat shit and squaring off against impossible odds and winning

The subtitle is accurate, this is an extraordinary story. When the largest flotilla of the Imperial Japanese fleet competely surprised the U.S. Navy and steamed into Leyte Gulf the only American ships there to contest their advance were a flotilla of "baby" aircraft carriers and a small force of destroyers and destroyer escorts. Among the Japanese war vessal was the largest battleship afloat, the Yamamoto togehter with several battle cruisers. This was truly a David and Goliath confrontation. In an improbable and near suicidal action the Americans drove off the immensly superior Japanese force. The narrative is at the level of individual participants and is quite simply absorbing. Someone told me that they made the story into a History Channel special but I have not seen it. A good read is better than all the TV shows there are anyway.

Great history.

Originally published in 1953 this is a key factor in why this book is still relevant rather than a demerit against it's value. The author, Theodore Roscoe, is able to bring the fierce and dangerous experience of the little thought of ship to the forefront. Never getting the glamor that carriers or battleships receive, these little ships were everywhere and did everything. This includes protecting the aforementioned big ships.

Told in a terrific chronological fashion, this book flips from Atlantic to Pacific (sometimes to the Mediterranean too) in a way that keeps the reader interested. As a military historian who has an affinity to naval warfare this book is a prized part of my military book collection and tells a not often told story brilliantly.

My Rating: 5+ stars

Reviewed by: Mr. N

An excellent narrative history of the last great surface battle in history where a division of second line US fleet units faced off against much of what was left of the Japanese main fleet.

I've been aware of the heroic actions of Taffy 3 off Samar at the Battle of Leyte Gulf for some time, but only in a more abstract sense from more general histories of the war. This book goes into far more detail concerning the actions of each of the destroyers and destroyer escorts involved, and goes into as much detail as possible concerning the events surrounding the last moments of each ship lost to the US during the battle.

Unfortunately, I only have access to the Kindle edition, which omits the many photographs included in the print edition. A failure which seems all too common in ebook editions: shame on Bantam for not doing a better job.

I'm not very familiar with naval military history. My focus has always been on the ground forces, but there has the been the occasional event or action that has caught my attention. Task Force Taffy 3's ordeal on October 25, 1944 during the Battle of Leyte Gulf is one of those events. Dramatic, exciting and horrific the two hour battle between the U.S. Navy light carrier task force and the huge Japanese heavy surface fleet makes for gripping reading - akin to watching a movie. It also reads like a blow by blow account of a horrific disaster akin to Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History , which is appropriate, for that is exactly what a battle/war is.

Mr. Hornfischer's book is fast moving and competently written. Though not a professional historian Mr. Hornfischer is a former book editor and literary agent (hence the technical competence in the writing) with the spark that an enthusiast brings to one's interests. Though heavily researched Mr. Hornfischer also brings a strong sense of patriotism (often the professional historian tends to be more dispassionate) to the account which some might find off-putting, but not I. Mr. Hornfischer does not descend to jingoism so the minimal flag waving doesn't detract. In addition he does not get bogged down in the technical details of ship warfare - never losing sight of the fact that most of his readers are laypeople. There are those who have pointed out that the book focuses on details that a sailor never would. Perhaps (I'll take their word for it), but not being a sailor such details don't bother me.

All in all Mr. Hornfischer's account reads like a novel and not a traditional work of military history. It's become something of a modern classic for this very reason. While a professional historian or a snob might take umbrage to such an account I have no trouble recommending it to those who are just curious and aren't graduate level history students.

Shortly after 0630 on the morning of October 25, 1944 on the waters off Samar Island in the Philippines; American task force 77:4.3 known as task force or Taffy 3 would be engaged by a vastly superior Japanese force. The total American Naval forces on scene would include six small escort carriers none carrying the types of weapons needed for ship to ship battle. Providing escort would be a total of seven American ships three destroyers and four destroyer escorts. Japanese forces would include four battleships, six cruisers, two light cruisers and a total of 11 destroyers. The battleship Yamato alone at 72,000 tons would have more than sufficient firepower to eliminate the American forces. It staggers the imagination how completely overwhelming the Japanese forces should have been. The stakes in this engagement would not end with the lives and materials so far listed. Beyond this small American task force was the American Anchorage filled with the cargo ships that were providing material support for the American landing in the Philippines. Any portion of the Japanese forces moving among this anchorage would've produced huge scale carnage and possibly similar carnage for the suddenly unsupported Marines fighting the campaign ashore. The end of this day would find Japanese Adm. Kurita withdrawing his forces and forfeiting his control of these waters.

The Last Stand the Tin Can Sailors by James D Hornfisher is the dramatic recounting of one of most improbable victories in military history exceeding that the British archers and armor at Agincourt. The coda to this mismatched battle would be an additional several days of horror as American survivors would have to suffer while waiting naval efforts to finally locate and collect the living.

This book is an oral history and entirely from the American point of view. As such there are some technical errors. By keeping his focus on the Americans efforts and on the survivor descriptions of events the reader understands the battle as a human experience. We read of the carnage resulting from individual detonations. We feel the confusion, tension and fear of men who have no choice but to depend on the decisions of their commanding officers and in the luck of the moment.

We do not get is the most careful analysis of the larger strategic position or the most accurate reproduction of the turn by turn action.

It is almost impossible to over dramatize what these people faced, endured and by doing so succeeded in achieving. James D Hornfisher very nearly brings the feel of these hours into your armchair. The events he recounts are important and should be better known within the American population. Unfortunately the primary market for a book such as The Last Stand is going to be individuals who typically have a substantially broad historic background and a fine eye for military detail. Likewise the typical reader is going to note the failure of the author to give us a comparable view from the Japanese sailors. In choosing to give this book 5 stars I give preference to the fact that this book dramatically recounts dramatic events in a way a more general reader can appreciate. One can only hope that the deeds recounted here can inform and inspire a circle beyond naval enthusiasts.