Left to Die: The Tragedy of the USS Juneau

Facing impossible odds for survival. This is one of those special stories that will stay with you.

Before the loss of the U.S.S. Indy, there was the U.S.S. Juneau.The Navy performed in the same poor manner in regards to the rescue of the 150 survivors, after this light cruiser blew up after being torpedoed. The result was sailors left in the wateror on rafts being seen by airmen flying over the wreckage site.The airmen reported the siting of survivors, and reports were filed by no action resulted in the survivors being rescued. The result were 140 sailors dying due to the negligence of the U.S. Navy. Among the dead were two Rogers brothers and the five Sullivans. This was one of the U.S. Navy's worst disasters.

This book is riveting! Who would believe history could be made so interesting that you hate to put the book down? If history textbooks could be written like this, we'd have a lot more History Majors in college. Adding to this author's superb writing ability is the fact that he tells us the story of the Japanese submarine (and its inmates) involved in this story that was untold for too long. There is also an Epilogue that fills us in on what happened later.

"Left To Die" is one of the most compelling stories to come out of WWII. The story of the USS Juneau, her skipper, and crew is another of the great mysteries of the war. Why no search and rescue mission was initiated until all but 10 of the crew were dead, draws comparison to the later disaster following the sinking of the USS Indianapolis in 1945. The bittersweet tale of Capt. Lyman K. Swenson adds more poigniancy to the story of a gallant crew that was left to the fates. The book also details the lives of the Juneau survivors after their rescue. It also brings to light the bungling of numerous sightings of survivors, which bordered on criminal negligence.

Dan Kurzman followed up his excellent account of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis ("Fatal Voyage") with another tragic sinking of an American warship, this time the USS Juneau. The Juneau disaster is probably best known because among the many deaths were five brothers who had joined the navy at the start of World War Two and insisted that they be assigned to the same ship. Only one of the brothers survived the initial sinking, and he tragically succcomed to dehydration and delirium while frantically searching for his siblings on the open ocean amidst the oil and debris from the wreck. Equally compelling is the story of how the commander of The Juneau's task force made a life and death decision to leave the survivors behind in the water lest he put his other ships at risk. As a result only a mere handful of sailors ultimately survived. Their story is as haunting as anything I've read.

This is one of the most EXCITING books I have ever read, and I read A LOT! I am a female and rarely read any kind of military history book. I picked this one up because of the story of the Sullivan brothers, and because I vaguely remember hearing about this ship sinking and the subsequent shark attacks on the survivors. As I read this I was reminded again that TRUTH IS STRANGER THAN FICTION, not to mention more thrilling! What a writer! What a story! What a book! I can't wait to read Kurzman's Fatal Voyage: the Sinking of the USS Indianapolis, written before this one. (P.S. The movie of LEFT TO DIE was an abomination! The movie covers about five minutes of the book, and not even the exciting stuff. Oh Hollywood, shape up!)