| Tales From a Tin Can - The USS Dale from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay
(2007)
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| Front Cover |
Book Details |
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| Genre |
Non-Fiction |
| Subject |
Dale (Destroyer : DD-353); Oral History; World War, 1939-1945 - Campaigns - Pacific; World War, 1939-1945 - Naval operations, American; World War, 1939-1945 - Personal narratives, American |
| Publication Date |
3/15/2007 |
| Format |
Hardcover (9.1
x
6.3
mm)
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| Publisher |
Zenith Press |
| Language |
English |
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| Description |
| “What was life like on a destroyer during World War II? Find out by reading Michael Keith Olson’s superb telling of tales of the war in the Pacific as seen from the deck of a very luck ‘tin can”… The son of a former Dale crewman, Olson interviewed 44 veterans and delved deeply into official documents to give this book the air of authenticity that puts the reader in the heart of the action. “Tales from a Tin Can is the first oral history of one combat ship’s adventures, sometimes comic, sometimes mundane, sometimes heart wrenching, over the entire course of America’s involvement in the Pacific. An impressive accomplishment and highly recommended.” WWII History “This fascinating book captures not only the furious clashes with the Japanese but also the humdrum days in-between and the heart-stopping encounters with typhoons that could be as lethal as any engagement with the enemy. Anyone interested in stories from World War II will find this well-illustrated account of the naval campaign in the Pacific fascinating.” Register –Pajaronian Looking up from his newspaper from where he sat on the deck of the destroyer USS Dale, Harold Reichert could see the pilot plain as day--the leather helmet with chin strap, the goggles, and then the red rising sun painted on the planes fuselage. "I saw the torpedo drop and watched as it ran up on the old Utah." It was daybreak at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the beginning of the war, and the Dale was there; she would serve until the end, when the atomic bombs were dropped and Japan surrendered. In the words of those who manned her, the Dales war comes vividly to life in this first oral history of a combat ship from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay. From carrier raids on Midway, Guadalcanal, and the Solomons to the bombarding of Saipan and Guam in the capture of the Marianas, from the Aleutians in the far north to strikes on Tokyo and Kobe, Tales from a Tin Can recreates the action aboard the Dale, and conveys as never before the true grit of wartime on a destroyer. |
| Personal Details |
| Store |
AbeBooks |
| Purchase Price |
$6.89 |
| Acquire Date |
7/3/2018 |
| Condition |
Good/Good |
| Rating |
0 |
| Links |
Library of Congress
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| Product Details |
| LoC Classification |
D774.D27 .O48 2007 |
| Dewey |
940.545973 |
| ISBN |
9780760327708 |
| Cover Price |
$24.95 |
| No. of Pages |
336 |
| First Edition |
No |
| Rare |
No |
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| Notes/Review |
One minor quibble with the title: the USS Dale didn't go to Tokyo Bay.
One of the most visceral books I've ever read is Hornfischer's Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors. This book is more McHale's Navy than Last Stand. I don't mean that in a negative way. It's not that the Dale wasn't involved in some serious actions and serious peril, and it's certainly not that the officers and crew of the Dale were misfits in any way. It's just that nobody on McHale's Navy ever got hurt, and the Dale suffered no combat casualties. (Warships are dangerous places, though, and accidents do happen.)
Some books about war describe battles or campaigns. Some are the recollections of individual soldiers. This is more like a unit history. It's an oral history, told by the sailors who were there, in their own words. The author collected the stories, put them in the proper sequence, and provided some connective tissue.
The Dale made it through the whole war, from Pearl Harbor to the surrender of the Japanese. It saw some combat and served in many of the major Pacific campaigns. The ship and her crew contributed to the defeat of the Japanese. They suffered tropical heat and arctic cold, sailed though calm seas and killer typhoons. The men dealt with the stress of combat and the tedium of inaction. This book tells those stories, and tells them well. |
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