200,000 Miles Aboard the Destroyer Cotton

by C. Snelling Robinson

In mid-June 1943, Snelling Robinson, a 20-year-old Harvard graduate and newly commissioned ensign in the U.S. Naval Reserve, joined the pre-commissioning crew of the Fletcher class destroyer USS Cotten.  The new crew trained for the remainder of the summer and then sailed to Pearl Harbor in time to join the newly established Fifth Fleet.  Under t he command of Admiral Raymond Spruance, the Fifth Fleet was given orders to invade Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands in November 1943.  This offensive, along with naval battles in the Philippine Sea, the Leyte Gulf, and the invasion of Iwo Jima in February 1945, is chronicled from the perspective of a young deck officer and is integrated with the background of the larger conflict, including the politics of command.  After Japan’s surrender, the Cotten became a part of the Occupation Force anchored in Tokyo Bay.  Robinson deftly narrates how he and his friends took advantage of their good luck and brought their roles in the war to a fitting conclusion.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World War II, Biography, Military Fiction, Military History, Audiobook

342 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1999

Reviews

[Ron Denton · Rating 1 out of 5]

The most incredibly boring telling of life on a destroyer in WWII that you could imagine. Apparently no one edited this, as half of it could easily have been cut. IT is all in passive voice, so you never get the feeling of being there, or that the author or anyone else actually was there.
As difficult as this sounds, this author actually makes the Battle of Leyte Gulf, sound like someone reading the minutes of a very, very long board meeting. I'm amazed that this even got published. Whatever you do, don't get the audio version as the reader is clearly bored with it too.

By contrast, a book like "Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors" is full of action and minute-by-minute accounts that grips the author, even if you do already know the outcome.

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a book for everyone that is for sure. Still was quite an interesting first hand account of war life both on the ship and off. Some of the on ship is quite boring as probably ship life can be a bit boring and he includes some of the mundane. All in all was pretty good as a whole.

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a memoir of C. Snelling Robinson. In June 1943, Robinson was a twenty year old Harvard graduate (ROTC) and a newly commissioned Ensign. He was assigned to the pre-commissioning crew of the Fletcher class destroyer USS Cotton. The USS Cotton was assigned to the Fifth Fleet under the command of Admiral Raymond Spruance. The Fleet with USS Cotton invaded Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands on November 19, 1943.

The book covers Robinson’s three years aboard the USS Cotton (DD669). The Cotton was in some of the bloodiest battles in the United States Naval history, the forcible amphibious assault landings at Tarawa, Saipan, Iwo Jima and the enormous Fleet engagements in the Philippine Sea and Leyte Gulf.
Robinson describes what life aboard the Cotton was like and the workings of the destroyer and its role in the Fleet. The book is well written but at time bogs down in the details of seamanship and life aboard the destroyer.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in WWII history in the Pacific. I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. James Killavey narrated the book.

[Randy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a detailed account of Robinson's experience as an officer on the Destroyer Cotten during the last couple years of WWII. Since Robinson was an English lit major at Harvard one might have expected him to write a literary piece about life at sea. Instead we get what amounts to a naval procedural with very little editorializing or descriptive writing. This book is about as expository as one can get in a personal war memoir. He occasionally makes comments about fellow officers or crewmen and we learn that he didn't like MacArthur and favored Admiral Spruance over Admiral Halsey. And, until he lights things up a bit in the final chapter with his adventures in a Japanese Geisha house the book reads almost like an after action report. Perhaps this is because he used the ship's log and after action reports as the basis of the story. Clearly, his intention was to provide a chronological history of the Cotten and his own participation in what has been called the greatest naval war in history. Sea sickness prevented me from joining the Navy which would have been my first choice and I've long been curious about what it would have been like to serve on a warship. On this account Robinson delivers as he tracks his career on the Cotten from her entry in the war until she is decommissioned at war's end. Surprisingly, for a liberal arts major the book leans toward the technical rather than the sociological or analytical. The reader learns the responsibilities and ambitions of a junior officer, the details of anti aircraft fire, the tactics of a destroyer screen, the use of depth charges, defenses against Kamikazes and the miles and miles of sailing. I liked the book and learned a lot but think it could have risen to a higher level with more creativity. When the Cotten and the fleet get caught in a typhoon that sunk several warships there is no sense of the terror the writer must have felt. There is very little about how it actually felt to be a part of this great adventure, next to nothing about the personalities of his fellows or what it was like to live for two years in close quarters with so many people packed into small spaces. We do get a series of dates with a college gal in the Bay Area when on leave, some detail about a leave home to Chicago in the middle of his tour but the book doesn't have much life to it until they anchor in Tokyo Harbor and with his best pal comes of with a plan to sell cigarettes on the black market to come up with enough dough for the aforementioned foray to the Geisha house. Unlike a lot of WWII memoirs Robinson never denigrates his enemy. He is, in fact, impressed with their tenacity and skill. He is a Japanophile perhaps in retrospect and the result of his exploration of Japanese culture in the form of the Geisha. I like naval stories and have read dozens. This one has to be considered successful because it obviously accomplishes the goals the writer set for himself. In short, it's good but could have been a great deal better.

[Rebekah M · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was much more tactically focused than most of the military history I’ve read, but I enjoyed getting a feel for the role of a destroyer and the concerns of individuals in the larger context of WWII.

[Andy Klein · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dull and non-particularly interesting. I learned virtually nothing about the war and didn’t really get a sense as to what life was like on a destroyer. Which is pretty odd as that was what the book was about.

[Neal · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an excellent book about a sailor that was on the destroyer for most of WWII in the pacific.

[Cheryl Sundseth · Rating 1 out of 5]

Will not read again.

[Doug Sundseth · Rating 1 out of 5]

Review based on the Audible audiobook.

This book attempts to combine a grand-tactical and operational view with day-to-day details of life aboard a WWII destroyer. Ultimately, it fails at both.

On the wider-scale information, the author does not provide sufficient context to make sense of the actions of his ship. If you don't have a strong previous grounding in the history of WWII in the Pacific, much will be impossible to understand. (For that level of history, I'd recommend Samuel Eliot Morison's official history of the USN in WWII, which is the finest official history, and one of the finest histories of any provenance, ever written.)

For the details of DD life, the author seems to rely on copying events from the Cotten's log, spending a great deal of time and effort on the precise times of entering and leaving harbor, berth numbers, and ammunition expenditure, none of which was interesting to anyone even when it was entered into the log. Conversely, the details of shipboard life, the personalities of shipmates, and what pass for interesting anecdotes come almost entirely from the "Tell; don't show" school of writing.

Only my inherent interest in the period caused me to listen to this book past the first half hour or to rate the book above two stars.

The narrator, James Killavey, is frankly terrible. He uses a syncopated pacing much like that of caricatures of William Shatner. In addition, he uses a rising then falling tone on nearly every emphasized word, which results in a sing-song overall effect. The result of these in combination is both monotonous and distracting, a combination that I had not previously suspected was possible.

Furthermore, he regularly refers to Admirals "Michener" and "Halsley" (Mitscher and Halsey), which is incompetent, especially when the subjects are as prominent as Pete Mitscher and Bull Halsey, but he isn't even consistent in his incompetent pronunciation, pronouncing the names correctly at random intervals. The inconsistency draws attention to itself in a way that is even more irritating and distracting than a consistently wrong pronunciation.

I will make an effort not to buy any further books read by this narrator.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you want to read an account of the Pacific action in general, this is probably not the book for you. If you want to read about a junior officer's experiences on one ship, and that type of history appeals to you, I think you will appreciate this for what it is.

Whatever you do, do not get this book via audible. The narrator is horrific and the mispronunciation of locations and names associated with WWII, particularly for a book based on real life experiences, is unforgivable.

Some have indicated that it feels quite boring and that some events seem to have passed without much elaboration or detail, but this book isn't about WWII, per se. It's a young officer's memories of these events and the particular destroyer that he served on.

I'm certainly no expert on WWII, so I don't exactly know what Cotten was and wasn't involved in. However, I didn't expect that this book would be a detailed description on any particular battle. If I wanted that, I would have gotten a book on Iwo Jima, or the Battle of Leyte Gulf, etc. It's important to remember that it's very likely that Robinson may not have had direct experience for many of these events. His sphere of actual participation was likely limited directly to the Cotten. He wouldn't have had the same wider / complete field of vision that we have, years later and with multiple accounts. As such, his view of these events needs to be placed within the context of what he could see and hear in his immediate sphere of influence.

In that respect, while not the most detailed account of the Pacific theatre in general, I think it does give you an appreciation for one person's experience on a destroyer during WWII.

[Maria · Rating 2 out of 5]

Robinson recounts his experiences on board the Destroyer Cotten during the Pacific Campaign in World War II. He also recounts his time while stationed in Japan after their surrender.

Why I started this book: I decided to listen to some of the books that I had purchased on Audible.

Why I finished it: This book was hard to get into, and if I hadn't been so interested in the subject matter, I wouldn't have finished it. Robinson speaks of the ship as a whole anytime they are at sea, and it is hard to know his feelings or experiences. His few months stationed in Tokyo Bay and Yokosuka were more interesting. Both his selling smokes on the black market and hunting for a geisha house.

[Ray Stokes · Rating 4 out of 5]

As an avid reader of military history, and particularly those based on the writer's experiences; I found this story certainly fulfilled my expectations. I recommend as a companion piece: "Japanese Destroyer Captain" by Captain Tameichi Hara. As to this story, some have complained that parts were boring, the positioning of ships in the task group, etc., etc. My advice is read faster in those parts! The author's coming of age in his duties and responsibilities makes a good study for any young sailor. The reader can't help but wonder if he or she would have done as well. The author passed this life in 2006. Home port with liberty leave....

[Bert Hopkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to learn about World War II in the Pacific this book needs to be in your library. A first hand account of naval warfare as seen from the deck of the USS Cotton, DD- 669, a Fletcher class destroyer. The Cotton participated in many of the epic naval battles of World War II to include: invasion of Tarawa, the Marshall Islands campaign, the Battle of the Philippine Sea ( also known as the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot) , the Battle of Leyte Gulf and the Invasion of Iwo Jima. Book is very relevant to me for my father, Bert Crawford served aboard the USS Earle, DD-635 a Gleaves class destroyer during World War II.

[Heep · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had to stop about 20% of the way through because the narration is horrendous. The book is written in military dispatch style, and rarely betrays any feeling or sense of personal involvement by the author. It is too bad because the topic fascinates me, and offered the opportunity for something much better. It disturbs me to be this critical as the author must have served bravely for his country and is evidently trying to document his part in a a significant history. It just isn't a very good narration of the book that was already challenged by its narrative style.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of this book read like he was reading the ship's log: "The ship went here with these other ships. Then it went there." Skim through all of that, though, to get to his account of the first month of America's occupation of Japan. He had really unique experiences of post-war Japan that are worth a read.

[Andrey · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is more of the ship log than memoir. Ship moved there, went to such and such formation, proceeded there. The only memoir part is the last fifth of the book, about the time in the occupation force, and still it is almost devoid of any emotion.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, but sooooo detailed that it became repetitive and boring.