Now hear this: The story of American sailors in World War II - Hardcover

A kaleidoscopic series of short-take narratives that, collectively, document the hell-and-high-water lot of American sailors during WW II. Drawing on personal journals, unpublished manuscripts, interviews, and archival sources, the ever-prolific Hoyt (Warlord, p. 201, etc., etc.)tracks Navy personnel in battle against the Axis from offshore North Africa to the far reaches of the western Pacific. Without scanting the experience of those who participated in major fleet campaigns (Guadalcanal, Leyte Gulf, Midway, Normandy, etc.), the author makes room for a host of unsung heroes and all-but-forgotten units--ranging from the demolition teams who cleared beaches for amphibious assaults through construction battalions, air crews that flew antisubmarine patrols, minesweepers, training commands, and escort carriers that performed as well if not better in action than their larger, more glamorous flat-top counterparts. While Hoyt includes a generous ration of officers' tales, he focuses on the enlisted ranks--deckhands, the black gangs who manned engine rooms, gunners, and others who all too often were on their last voyages. In a lighter vein, the author dredges up the stranger-than-fiction story of a silent-service pharmacist's mate who performed an emergency appendectomy deep beneath Japanese waters. An engrossing example of military history with a human face. (Twenty photographs) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

This collection of entertaining, often stirring stories about the adventures/misadventures of young "gobs" and junior-grade officers captures the exhilaration, terror and bewilderment experienced by U.S. Navy volunteers during WW II. Drawing on diaries, letters and interviews, military historian Hoyt ( The GI's War ) assembles the recollections of sailors who served on warships from carriers to minesweepers, performing every type of job from gunner's mate to salvage diver, in such major battles as Pearl Harbor and Okinawa. The recollections are not confined to campaigns; typical are the unconventional story of a submarine crew's reaction to their Christian Scientist commander and the anecdotes of the battle-rattled sailor who frequently went AWOL. There are also vivid tales of collisions at sea, ferocious typhoons and shipwreck survivals. Photos.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.