Customer Reviews

Sea Hawks: With the P.T. Boats at War

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One of the most neglected aspects of World War II combat was the service of the shallow water hunters, the PT boats. These small warships, the most heavily armed for their size in the war, and their brave crews did some pretty extraordinary things. This memoir by a boat commander and later squadron commander could have benefited from some editing. Not for errors necessarily, after all the events recounted occurred 50 plus years ago, but to clean up the writing. The author repeats himself and it almost seems that he was thinking that he would be paid by the word. The style itself is bombastic and full of braggadocio in places, but is frequently leavened with rather straight-forward recitations of brave events. The author too recounts his amorous exploits, thankfully not in too much detail as that really would be bragging, and that detracts somewhat. Makes you wonder what the sailors were doing while the officers squired the nurses around... All told, this is a fairly good read and has the advantage of being written by someone who actually rode the boats into battle.

Great summer reading. This whopping tale of one mans service in the PT boats is great history and adventure. There are awkward bits but all in all I think this adds a key element to the PT story!

Having read most of the books available on WWII PT Boats, I find this work full of factual and biographical material, but alas, very poorly written. I would wonder how the publisher let this text material reach the publication stage without some severe editing and/or rewriting.