I just finished the Sea of Thunder, by Evan Thomas and should tell you that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Thomas does an outstanding job of piecing together a fascinating tale of adventures on the high seas using first hand accounts, official military records, journal entries, and ships’ logs. He takes the reader below deck and inside the captain’s quarters of four legendary naval commanders of World War II, highlighting the vastly different, yet often similar, stories of Admiral William Halsey, who commanded the U.S. 3rd Fleet and Admiral Takeo Kurita, his Japanese counterpart.
Throughout the Sea of Thunder, I found myself captivated with the details of combat at sea like the following…
The concussion from the Japanese slavo lifted him off his feet. His helmet struck an overhang and he fell to the deck. Woozily rousing himself, he saw three men emerge from a hatchway to the engine room and lie against the bulkhead. The men, members of the engine room “black gang” were turning ghastly white and swelling; their skin was peeling off in sheets. Steam broiled, all three men were soon dead. With super-charged 840 degree steam blasting below, no one else made it out of the wrecked engine room.
I highly recommend Evan Thomas’ Sea of Thunder, whether a history buff or not. Additionally, Evan Thomas will be doing an online chat this Friday at 1200 hours (noon) at Newsweek.com. Sgt Hook out.
Posted by Hook @ 0350 zulu | | Permalink
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