Customer Reviews

Little Ship, Big War: The Saga of DE343

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Edward Stafford, a retired commander in the U.S. Navy, is better-known for his book "The Big E" about the carrier USS Enterprise during World War II. However, this book is worthy to stand with that epic work. A autobiography of Stafford's 1943-45 service on the USS Abercrombie, a destroyer escort, he describes in an very readable manner, day-to-day service on a WWII DE. The Abercrombie was one of hundreds of little-known ships who did their duty without fanfare during World War II. The crew was made up of heroes, cowards, spit-and-polish martinets, true leaders and all the others. Humorous incidents as well as the stress of constant general quarters are described in a very believable manner. Probably the highlight of the book (for me) was Stafford's description of the Battle Off Samar in October, 1944. In it, a handful of destroyers, DEs and escort carriers were all that stood between the Japanese main fleet and the American invasion fleet of helpless transports. Stafford describes in moving detail the sacrifices of these ships in launching attacks against ships ten times their size in an epic that is long-overlooked and ranks with the Alamo and Bastogne. Stafford's ship was within sight of the enemy fleet, and although not engaged, he describes the feelings of men who know they will soon launch their frail craft against an enemy many times their strength. If I had to take ten books on a desert island, this would we one of them. I hope that some smart publisher (maybe the USNI's "Classics of Naval Literature series?) will decide to bring this out again.

Way back in 4th grade I got a little book on the Battle of Midway (I think it was Ira Peck's) in a book distribution at school because the book I really wanted about making paper airplanes was already taken. I enjoyed that book immensely and began to turn the capacity for detail that most kids my age spend on dinosaurs or baseball towards the Pacific war. This book, though, which I scrounged at a used book store when I was a high schooler, introduced me to the human side of WWII. The people in the book were just plain old folks in a little ship in the middle of a big war. This book turned me into a historian, instead of just a reader of history books, because it introduced me to the concept that all history is biography. People make things happen, they don't happen on their own. You can read what happened, or you can look into why the people did what they did. This book doesn't give too much insight into the grand schemes of the Pacific War; the title says it all. It was, however, the catalyst that matured my interest in history. It is also a very fine read in its own right!

Lots of histories cover the major events of WWII, but what I liked was the way the author covered small details--little "slices of life" aboard a fighting ship.

It's difficult for readers today, accustomed to the security we enjoy, to appreciate the anxiety that sailors faced. What to us seems like an inevitable victory against Japan was not such a sure thing to the men being shot at, and for that reason alone this book is worth reading.

We are planing a reunion of DE shipmates and would like to give this book to all in attendance. Our ship was commissioned 1 month after DE 343 and we went to the same locations and training. I am amazed at the details and the accuracy of the book. It came to me by chance from my children and will remain one of the most valued in my library. I hope it will be reprinted.

Insofar as its chief topic is concerned, i.e. Stafford's personal experience as an officer aboard a destroyer escort in World War II, the book paints a no-doubt accurate picture of life aboard one of the Navy's lesser warships. But it strikes me as unremarkable unless one is into the minutiae of the Pacific Theater of Operations, as Stafford's ship saw no major combat.

That said, the chapter in which Stafford leaves his own ship and tells the story of the destroyers and destroyer escorts in the Battle of Leyte Gulf is worth the price of the book alone.

For those who are unfamiliar with the centerpiece battle of the multi-battle Leyte Gulf, its a classic case of the little guy giving the big guy a beating... and nearly dying in the process.

It wouldn't have happened if Admiral Halsey hadn't made the biggest mistake of his career. After pummeling the Japanese Central Force with his aircraft, Halsey took off after a group of Japanese carriers containing less than 50 airplanes that was deliberately sacrificed as a decoy to draw him away from the Leyte invasion force. In short, Halsey was suckered and left the invasion force nearly unprotected.

Far from beaten, the Japanese Central Force of four battleships, eight cruisers and 11 destroyers continued on toward the troop ships. Directly in their path was the task group Taffy 3, consisting of six "jeep" carriers and seven destroyers and destroyer escorts.

I've read a few accounts of this battle, and Stafford's is the most stiring, albeit incomplete as he concentrates on the destroyers and destroyer escorts as they take on the Japanese wagons and cruisers.

The damage and confusion they caused (three cruisers sunk), and the fact that Admiral Kurita thought he was up against the fleet carriers, saved Halsey from a disaster that could have been worse than Pear Harbor. Unbeknownst to Admiral Kurita, he could have broken through to the transports and sunk many of them.

Much of what Stafford writes about the battle has been covered elsewhere. However, his affinity for the destroyer escorts led him to cover the actions of the Samuel B. Roberts in detail.

That includes the story of how Commander Robert W. Copeland ordered his chief engineer to remove the safeties from the engines and boilers so as to make maximum speed. The steam pressure rose to 670 pounds in boilers designed for a maximum of 440, and the bridge pitometer logged 28.5 knots in a ship designed for a maximum speed of 24 knots.

You'll have to get the book, if you want the rest of the story. Believe me. It's worth it.

I forget how I found this book, but I read the The Last Stand of The Tin Can Sailors first, which I now see seems to have been inspired, at least in part, by this one since it was first published in 1984 and also relates the action of the DEs Sammy B, Johnson and Hoel.

The Abercrombie saw far less action than its namesake, a Devastator pilot shot down at Midway, but what it did see was hair-raising. Fighting off sixteen kamikaze attacks, etc. I had no idea they did not just dive down on a ship, but also came in low, on the deck, out of the night to collide with the front, back or side of a ship. And not just fighters but twin-engine suicide bombers.

After surviving all that we get to go along on a visit to post-war Japan immediately after the surrender. Visions of civilians wobbling about on their wooden sandals amid the rubble. Collecting souvenir rifles and swords to take home.

What really sticks, though, is just the elegant telling of the day-to-day detail of life aboard a little warship. She was, indeed, a microcosm of the war and its civilian and professional sailors. Even down to her irascible captain who fled her, unceremoniously, in the midst of the nightmarish Okinawa campaign. The author, grandson of Admiral Peary of North Pole fame, is a masterful writer of description, especially of controlled emotion. I'll read the Big E now. For that matter anything Stafford has written.

World War II was my parent's generation's war, and I am consistently drawn to stories of the sacrifices made by them. This is an excellent bit of history, told in a artfull but straightforward way. I highly recommend it.