Customer Reviews

Destroyer Squadron 23: Combat Exploits of Arleigh Burke's Gallant Force (Bluejacket Books)

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This book covers that part of admiral Burke's carreer when he served in destroyers in a fairly interesting fashion. The author spends a lot of time developing the characters of Burke's destroyer captains, and the descriptions of the actions are somewhat overblown. Otherwise, an ok read.

This volume provides an excellent review of an historic changes in surface warfare, and an extended bio of the leader who brought these new tactics into successful being. Admiral Burke was a dynamic leader who did not bend to tradition, if the situation didn't call for it. He molded many new-to-battle and very young sailors into the best "tin-can" unit in WWII. Ken Jones recognized that one does not accomplish that team feat without officers and non-commissioned officers of talent and trust. He therefore brought out the leadership background of many in his book. Jones archives the most successful destroyer actions of WWII in the South Pacific, and shows how the team worked. It is a fitting tribute to the entire squadron and its leaders. I am prejudiced here, because one of the mini-bios is about my father. I learned more about his actions in WWII than I did while he was still with me.

The Author does comment in the his preface what Bull Halsey does not note his forward that the book is fictionalized non-fiction. I am probably not being fair to the author but I just don't enjoy reading accounts where you continuosly wonder whether or not the events are real. I did not finish the first chapter.

This book needed a good editor. Jones' preface promised "... far less attempt to record deeds of heroism than ... the origins of the compulsions which prompted such deeds." He failed, and in the process muddles the descriptions of the action. In fairness, the topic was not much examined at this level of detail, the book DOES convey the hardships of World War 2 in the Pacific theater and one learns a fair bit about the tin can navy's operations.

Jones finds some strange ways of using words, often making them clank and sometimes reaching for incomprehensibility. He never misses an opportunity to use six unusual words when one would suffice. The development of the American captains' characters is shallow, and then doesn't really lead anywhere. The dialog and motivation attributed to Japanese characters is laughable -- just imagine Rear Admiral Sentaro Omori reflecting (pg. 218) "as he drummed happily on the edge of the chart table with his pudgy fingers," ... "This /was/ a golden opportunity to teach the white [...] a lesson, and he was just the little boy who could do it, too!"

Here's an example of florid description, re the sinking of the cruiser USS Quincy (pg. 73): "... Burning flag bags filled the [bridge] area with heavy acrid smoke laced with the searing rasp of cordite fumes, and steering control was lost. A freak hit on the port 5-inch antiaircraft battery inflicted agony on the gunners and exacted all of their lives. Conforming to the immutable laws of physics a Japanese shell neatly cut away the cartridge case bases of the 5-inch ammunition in the fuse pots, and the propellant powder in the 5-inch shell transformed them instantly into Roman candles which first seared and then roasted alive the gunners of the battery. ..."

Jones occasionally gets sloppy with essential technical details. He misspells a ship's name, the Reina Mercedes, where Naval Academy midshipmen were once brigged. USN DD destroyers' main guns had a 5-inch bore, and their anti-aircraft guns were 40- and 20-millimeter.