The nonfiction book ''The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors: The Extraordinary World War II Story of the U.S. Navy's Finest Hour'' is the first full narrative account of the Battle off Samar, which the book's author,

James D. Hornfischer James D. Hornfischer (November 18, 1965 – June 2, 2021) was an American literary agent and naval historian. A one-time book editor at the publishing company HarperCollins in New York, Hornfischer was later president of Hornfischer Literary Man ...

, calls the greatest upset in the history of naval warfare. Published by

Bantam Books Bantam Books is an American publishing house owned entirely by parent company Random House, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House; it is an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group. It was formed in 1945 by Walter B. Pitkin, Jr., Sidney B. ...

in February 2004, the book won the

Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Naval Literature The Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Naval Literature is for literature about the United States Navy. The award was created in 1982 by the New York Commandery of the Naval Order of the United States, who administers and chooses the winner which is ...

in 2004 from the

Naval Order of the United States The Naval Order of the United States was established in 1890 as a hereditary organization in the United States for members of the American sea services. Its primary mission is to encourage research and writing on naval and maritime subjects and pr ...

Content

A Main Selection of the

Book-of-the-Month Club Book of the Month (founded 1926) is a United States subscription-based e-commerce service that offers a selection of five to seven new hardcover books each month to its members. Books are selected and endorsed by a panel of judges, and members ch ...

and the

Military Book Club Book of the Month (founded 1926) is a United States subscription-based e-commerce service that offers a selection of five to seven new hardcover books each month to its members. Books are selected and endorsed by a panel of judges, and members c ...

, the book tells the story of the remarkable two-and-a-half-hour sea battle fought on October 25, 1944, in which Rear Admiral Clifton A. F. Sprague's task unit, known as "

Taffy 3 The Battle off Samar was the centermost action of the Battle of Leyte Gulf, one of the largest naval battles in history, which took place in the Philippine Sea off Samar Island, in the Philippines on October 25, 1944. It was the only majo ...

" ( 7th Fleet's Task Unit 77.4.3), of " jeep carriers" and their "tin can" escorts rose to the impossible challenge of beating back an overwhelming force of Japanese

battleship A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ...

s and

cruiser A cruiser is a type of warship. Modern cruisers are generally the largest ships in a fleet after aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, and can usually perform several roles. The term "cruiser", which has been in use for several hu ...

s under Vice Adm.

Takeo Kurita was a vice admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during World War II. Kurita commanded IJN 2nd Fleet, the main Japanese attack force during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval battle in history. Biography Early life Takeo Kurita ...

. Survivors of the four U.S. ships lost in the battle—, , , and —then struggled to survive a two-day-ordeal adrift at sea awaiting rescue. A fifth ship from Taffy 3, the escort carrier , was sunk in a

kamikaze , officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending to d ...

attack immediately following the Japanese withdrawal. Two TV documentaries based on Hornfischer's book have been produced. The first of them, produced by Lou Reda Productions and premiering on The History Channel on November 11, 2005, featured interviews with Hornfischer and veterans of the battle. It was followed by an episode of ''Dogfights'' on the History Channel, titled "The Death of the Japanese Navy", premiering on December 29, 2006, which featured a sophisticated CGI rendition of the sea battle. Episode 9 of '' Battle 360'' dealt with the Battle of Leyte Gulf. However, given that ''Battle 360'' was focused on the carrier , the only survivors who recounted the battle were ''Enterprise'' sailors and airmen. In this episode, there were no survivors of Taffy 3 interviewed. In fact there is no mention of any of the Taffy 3 ships or their captains except Commander

Ernest E. Evans Ernest Edwin Evans (August 13, 1908 – October 25, 1944) was an officer of the United States Navy who posthumously received the Medal of Honor for his actions during the Battle off Samar in World War II. Biography Evans, of Native American a ...

of the destroyer . The episode skirts the fundamental issue of how close the Japanese came to annihilating Taffy 3.

Graphic Novel

In 2021 Doug Murray and Steve Sanders, with Hornfischer adapted the book into a

graphic novel A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...

of the same name.

Notes

External links

www.jameshornfischer.com
��James D. Hornfischer's official site
Interview
with James D. Hornfischer at the

Pritzker Military Museum & Library The Pritzker Military Museum & Library (formerly Pritzker Military Library) is a non-profit museum and a research library for the study of military history on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. The institution was founded in 2003, and its spe ...

Battle 360 - BATTLE OF LEYTE GULF History Channel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors, The

Samar Samar ( ) is the third-largest and seventh-most populous island in the Philippines, with a total population of 1,909,537 as of the 2020 census. It is located in the eastern Visayas, which are in the central Philippines. The island is divided in ...

Books of naval history 2004 non-fiction books Non-fiction books about the United States Navy

Content

Graphic Novel

See also

Notes

External links