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Torpedo Junction
Diary of the famous war correspondent with the Pacific Fleet from Pearl Harbor to the battle of Midway during WW2.
460 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 5, 2020
I'm a big fan of these journalist accounts.
In this one, our journalist is out on operations with the fleet from Pearl Harbor to Midway, roughly the middle of December 1941 to June 1942. For the most part, it sounds like a diary: date, time, weather conditions, what he saw and did. There's a bit of conjecture of what the future may hold, but not a lot of analysis of past events. Published as it was during the war it's subject to some censorship and uncertainty. He is there for one particularly notable operation and manages to describe events without mentioning the key player. Somewhat like being told the plot of a book without even a single mention of the main character. (The uncensored entries are included at the end of the book.)
A more critical reviewer might complain that the author tells the story of a war fought by aircraft carriers from the deck of a cruiser and thus misses all the action. But he seemed to know everybody on board his ships. He talked to many of the sailors and officers and he does a great job telling their tales, even if they're not the most dramatic tales of the war.
And I liked his attitude.
He was in the artillery during the First World War and published a book about his exploits. After that war he went into journalism. If I can find a fairly inexpensive copy of that first book I'll pick it up.
In this one, our journalist is out on operations with the fleet from Pearl Harbor to Midway, roughly the middle of December 1941 to June 1942. For the most part, it sounds like a diary: date, time, weather conditions, what he saw and did. There's a bit of conjecture of what the future may hold, but not a lot of analysis of past events. Published as it was during the war it's subject to some censorship and uncertainty. He is there for one particularly notable operation and manages to describe events without mentioning the key player. Somewhat like being told the plot of a book without even a single mention of the main character. (The uncensored entries are included at the end of the book.)
A more critical reviewer might complain that the author tells the story of a war fought by aircraft carriers from the deck of a cruiser and thus misses all the action. But he seemed to know everybody on board his ships. He talked to many of the sailors and officers and he does a great job telling their tales, even if they're not the most dramatic tales of the war.
And I liked his attitude.
He was in the artillery during the First World War and published a book about his exploits. After that war he went into journalism. If I can find a fairly inexpensive copy of that first book I'll pick it up.
December 3, 2020
This is a book that Dad read while aboard the USS Wren in WWII. I found Casey to be a good writer and yet I struggled to continue reading.
August 6, 2016
Torpedo Junction is the diary kept by Robert J Casey, a reporter for an unnamed news syndicate, aboard an unnamed cruiser during the first year of the Pacific War against Japan. It is just what you would expect from a crusty old correspondent of the 40's: cynical, funny, and almost poetic at just the moments. For example, from May 20 (1942)
"At sea. Fair. Hot. Lat. this morning 12 south 178 east. I slept hardly at all last night nor was I any better able to when chance offered this morning. I had just about conquered the heat and was dozing off when I discovered most of my companions on the ship weren't able to sleep either. I'll never find out why people who can't sleep have such rotten taste in phonograph records.
Got up. Did little else.
Tonight at 5:30 p.m., we passed the 180th meridian eastbound.
There was no noticeable jar."
I did some research and found that Casey was on the US Salt Lake City. This book was published in late 1942, so it was subject to heavy censorship (a topic Casey grouses about frequently.). It does convey the experience of being on a US warship in WW2 better than any other account I have read. Mostly Heat, boredom, occasional terror, but leavened with the sense of comradeship and righteous purpose. On Casey's last cruise, the director John Ford joined the small group of journalists assigned to the ship. Of course, what neither Casey or Ford could know was that a small group of extremely bright people had broken the Japanese code and the US commanders knew exactly where and when to attach the Japanese fleet. Casey did observe that this battle marked the turning point for the US forces and he was right.
"At sea. Fair. Hot. Lat. this morning 12 south 178 east. I slept hardly at all last night nor was I any better able to when chance offered this morning. I had just about conquered the heat and was dozing off when I discovered most of my companions on the ship weren't able to sleep either. I'll never find out why people who can't sleep have such rotten taste in phonograph records.
Got up. Did little else.
Tonight at 5:30 p.m., we passed the 180th meridian eastbound.
There was no noticeable jar."
I did some research and found that Casey was on the US Salt Lake City. This book was published in late 1942, so it was subject to heavy censorship (a topic Casey grouses about frequently.). It does convey the experience of being on a US warship in WW2 better than any other account I have read. Mostly Heat, boredom, occasional terror, but leavened with the sense of comradeship and righteous purpose. On Casey's last cruise, the director John Ford joined the small group of journalists assigned to the ship. Of course, what neither Casey or Ford could know was that a small group of extremely bright people had broken the Japanese code and the US commanders knew exactly where and when to attach the Japanese fleet. Casey did observe that this battle marked the turning point for the US forces and he was right.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews