Customer Reviews

Hit the beach (A Signet book)

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Apparently, HIT THE BEACH is an autobiographical novel that fictionalizes the experience of a top naval officer in one of the most important invasions of the Pacific War. Arthur Ageton (1900-1971) graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1923 and served in various stations as a naval officer until his retirement, with the rank of rear admiral, in 1947. He later taught creative writing at George Washington University and also served as U.S. ambassador to Paraguay in the mid-1950s. An expert on celestial navigation, Ageton is probably best-known for his NAVAL OFFICER'S GUIDE, first published during World War II and released in several subsequent editions.

During World War II, Ageton served as executive officer on the battleship USS WASHINGTON during the Solomons campaign, an experience that formed the basis of his earlier war novel, THE JUNGLE SEAS (1955). In 1944 he was placed in command of LST Flotilla 3, a unit of small transport ships, and led it into action in the invasion of Leyte, in the Philippine Island, in October. He went on to command other LST units during subsequent invasions.

("LST" stands for "Landing Ship Tank," a versatile, ocean-going vessel equipped with two large clamshell doors in the bow, plus a ramp. An LST could stand offshore in shallow waters and launch smaller landing craft, and it could be driven right up onto an enemy-held beach and unload dozens of tanks, trucks, and other vehicles over its bow ramp. More than a thousand LSTs were built during World War II for the U.S. and British Royal navies. Though sometimes derided as a "Large Slow Target," the ungainly LST was an invaluable component in amphibious operations during the war, in the Pacific and elsewhere.)

Ageton tells the story of an LST group taking part in the Leyte landings, largely through the eyes of "Andy Arnold," the captain in charge of the group. The other major character is Willis Waters, an Alabama lawyer-turned-naval-reservist who commands one of the LSTs and is constantly catching heat from Arnold for his inexperienced ship-handling. Some of the novel is seen through the eyes of Sid Cochran, a soldier who operates one of the landing craft aboard Waters's LST. (I was a bit surprised to realize that some smaller landing craft - known as "amtracs," or amphibious tractors, capable of moving in water or on land - were actually operated and controlled by the Army or Marines, not the Navy LSTs that transported them.)

But this is essentially Andy Arnold's, or Arthur Ageton's, tale, and for those of us interested in the minutiae of running a war, it's a pretty good taste of what is involved in getting an amphibious landing underway and continuing. The LST flotilla commander can't just sit on his ship and hope that all goes smoothly. Getting the first wave of troops ashore is only the first step. Arnold is moving back and forth, from ships under Japanese air attack to beachheads under enemy shellfire, at all hours, trying to see that follow-up landings of "hot cargo" - food, ammunition, fuel, medical supplies, and the other needs of fighting soldiers - are accomplished on time.

Beyond these details, however, HIT THE BEACH is of little interest. Only Arnold is anything like a well-rounded character. Everyone else is essentially a stereotype, and some of the lesser characters - for example, members of Arnold's staff - tend to get lost and blur into one another.

I was particularly curious about this book because my father was one of those soldiers who landed at Leyte on Oct. 20, 1944, and he probably rode aboard one of those LST-launched amtracs. But beyond the reader who wants to know more about how an LST group operates, and how an amphibious landing works, HIT THE BEACH is of little interest. Mercifully, it's fairly short - 127 pages.