Aboard the Farragut Class Destroyers in World War II: A History With First-Person Accounts of Enlisted Men [Paperback]

Leo Block (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 13, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0786442220 | ISBN-13: 978-0786442225

This book describes the life of the enlisted man aboard a Farragut class destroyer during the pre-World War II years; the war preparation period in 1941; and the wartime years. It features first-person narrations collected from interviews and correspondence with the few remaining Farragut class destroyer sailors, and briefly describes the evolution of the destroyer and the Farragut class destroyers, five of which survived the war.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Engineer and author Leo Block enlisted in the Navy prior to the United States' entry into World War II, serving aboard the Farragut class destroyer USS Macdonough as a fireman and later as a machinist mate.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: McFarland (May 13, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786442220
• ISBN-13: 978-0786442225
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,695,634 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Top of the class, January 22, 2010

By 

Matt Anderson (MA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Aboard the Farragut Class Destroyers in World War II: A History With First-Person Accounts of Enlisted Men (Paperback)

I opened this book with some hesitation because often first person historical compilations are filled with bias and inaccuracies, and my other hesitation was the publisher of the book. I have not liked many McFarland books because of bad editing, poor research etc. What I found after starting to read was a book that exceeded my expectations and is truly a gem for those who love Naval History. Mr. Block stayed true to discussing only one class of ships and was wise in not putting every story available into his book. Rather he paints a general picture of the ships and selects the best accounts to let the reader experiences the Farragut's.

What was even more of a treasure was his expertise in the engineering portions of the ship. The book alone was worth reading for his discussions on the set up of the engine rooms, the fire (boiler) rooms and his frank discussion of the sub standard engineering set up of the ships. He has two diagrams worth the purchase of the book showing two different styles of boilers that had me studying both and understanding the operation of boilers even better.

What was truly a pleasant surprise is he didn't go over material available elsewhere but brought out new and relevant material. Such as the U.S.S. Dale a Farragut is explored in Tales of a Tin Can and the overloading of the metacentric height causing the entire class of Farragut's to be top heavy was discussed by the U.S.S. Dewey's captain during the 1944 typhoon by Raymond Calhoun. Block wisely avoided covering material from those books so his book would be a compliment to those two fine books. I can't wait to reread all three books together to get a better sense of the Farragut class.