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mburnamfink's review
4.0
Destroyers are the workhorses of the fleets. While carriers might have the glory, battleships the honor, and cruisers a sleek elegance, destroyers get the job done where bigger ships are too expensive to risk. With 5" guns, torpedoes, and a potent mix of anti-aircraft and anti-submarine weapons, destroyers do all the dirty and dangerous jobs of the fleet.
Tin Can Titans focuses on the decorated ships of DesRon 21, primarily the Fletcher-class destroyers USS Fletcher, USS Nicholas, and USS O'Bannon. This ships were the frontline in the most desperate days of the Solomon Islands campaign, first escorting supply ships to Guadalcanal, and then pushing back the IJN along the Slot.
Wukovits writes a conventional WW2 hagiography, celebrating the heroism of the common sailor and their rapid professionalism. Senior leadership is called out for failing to use destroyers as independent units in night action, relegating them to a close screening role that invited confusion and reduced the effectiveness of radar in key battles in 1942 and 1943. The narrative focuses closely on the men of the ships, but as a military history it loses focus later in the war. As the Pacific Fleet swelled, destroyers were no longer Halsey's only punch, but merely once component of a massive amphibious war machine. This is a good book, and I appreciated the details on the Solomon Islands, but there are few surprises here.
Tin Can Titans focuses on the decorated ships of DesRon 21, primarily the Fletcher-class destroyers USS Fletcher, USS Nicholas, and USS O'Bannon. This ships were the frontline in the most desperate days of the Solomon Islands campaign, first escorting supply ships to Guadalcanal, and then pushing back the IJN along the Slot.
Wukovits writes a conventional WW2 hagiography, celebrating the heroism of the common sailor and their rapid professionalism. Senior leadership is called out for failing to use destroyers as independent units in night action, relegating them to a close screening role that invited confusion and reduced the effectiveness of radar in key battles in 1942 and 1943. The narrative focuses closely on the men of the ships, but as a military history it loses focus later in the war. As the Pacific Fleet swelled, destroyers were no longer Halsey's only punch, but merely once component of a massive amphibious war machine. This is a good book, and I appreciated the details on the Solomon Islands, but there are few surprises here.