Tin Cans,: The true story of the fighting destroyers of World War II

by Theodore Roscoe

Original title: "United States Destroyer Operations in World War II"

Genres: Military Fiction

438 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1953

About the author

Theodore Roscoe (1906–1992) was an American biographer and writer of adventure, fantasy novels and stories. Roscoe's stories appeared in pulp magazines including Argosy, Wings, Flying Stories, Far East Adventure Stories, Fight Stories, Action Stories and Adventure. A collection of his stories, The Wonderful Lips of Thibong Linh, was published by Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc. in 1981.

Roscoe was commissioned by the United States Naval Institute to write the detailed and massive histories United States Submarine Operations in World War II (1949) and United States Destroyer Operations in World War II (1953). He subsequently wrote several other books on naval history including The Trent Affair, November, 1861: U.S. detainment of a British ship nearly brings war with England (1972).

Reviews

[Chris Gager · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recently acquired from the town transfer station. I like the war stuff and the Navy stuff, so this might be interesting. My edition is earlier(1960) than the one pictured(1972). The original copyright was from 1953.

Reading about Pearl Harbor last night I discovered that the scene from "In Harm's Way" that shows the launch trying to catch up with the rapidly departing destroyer so the skipper can get aboard was based on fact. The destroyer didn't stop and the skipper didn't get aboard until the attack ended. He'd been at home on shore when the attack started.

I occasionally get back to this chronicle of sea-borne mayhem, destruction and death. Sherman was right(of course): war is all hell ...

- BTW - this book was written in the wake of WWII so there was no problem using the words "Jap" and "Japs" ...

Moving along through the gradually improving fortunes of the Allies in both theaters of conflict, the narrative is interesting, but also such an unending litany of death and destruction that it's kind of hard to read a lot of pages at a time.

Interesting to read about the Solomon Islands campaign. Most of our latter-day attention is focused on the battle for Guadalcanal("Guadalcanal Diary") and Marine Corps heroism and suffering. There is(or was) a bar in Boulder up on "The Hill" named Tulagi/Tulagi's(the Tule) that was apparently named for the island in the Solomons archipelago where the owner's son had died. The naval story is pretty darned compelling too!

So ... 1942 is drawing to a close and the Japanese advance in the South Pacific has been halted at great human cost to both sides. As has been the case from the start, one is impressed by all the wasting of lives and material in big-time warfare. One impression - naval battles were as much about chaos as about anything else. WWII had the biggest and baddest so far.

Getting near to the end now with only The huge Okinawa carnage(think Kamikaze) looming. Last night I read accounts of each of the three destroyers that sank in a typhoon off the Philippines on Dec. 18, 1944. The crucial scene in "The Caine Mutiny" was based on a real possibility. I knew about the typhoon(think Conrad) sinking but it was heartbreaking and scary to read. SOME men did survive from each ship - amazing. One of the reasons these ships sank was that their skippers were too concerned with maintain formation and not steering in the best direction to save the ship. That was part of the "Caine" story as well. Sad ...

Finally finished with this comprehensive account of American destroyer action in WWII. The best/worst come last in the Battle of Okinawa. The suicide planes and rocket bombs took a terrible toll of ships and men, while the toll of the whole war war was truly astounding and awful. Let's try to NOT go there again, shall we?

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stars for its exhaustive account of what appears to be every significant destroyer action in WWII. However, the book, being a product of a time so close to the events themselves, mixes cold, hard accounts with patriotic jingoisms of the time.

[Xdw · Rating 2 out of 5]

ww2 action. not very engaging. mostly a list of the loss of every DD and DE in WW2, with a page or so about each.