Sea of Thunder: Four Commanders and the Last Great Naval Campaign 1941-1945

The title says it all: "Insightful, well-written, and fascinating." The character studies of the major naval figures are particularly well done, and Thomas manages to give a nice picture of both the USN and IJN at Leyte. Highly recommended!

Thomas has written a fine and apparently controversial book focusing on the Pacific naval war and four personalities - Admiral "Bull" Halsey and Commander Ernest Evans for the US and Admirals Matome Ugaki and Takeo Kurita for Japan. The four are quite different from one another but do explain some of the problems of the Pacific War. First, I do not believe this book is particulary anti-war and certainly was not anti- World War II. There are differences and similarities between the US and Japanese. The US had a racist bias against the Japanese and considered then classically near-sighted, buck-toothed, cowardly and evil. The Japanese were also racist and considered the Americans to be weak, cowardly and very soft. The sign Bull Halsey put up stating "Kill Japs, Kill Japs, Kill More Japs" may sound by itself a bit racists, but taken in context represents the predominant feelings of the age. Both sides found out that they had underestimated the enemy. Both sides had tremendous communication problems, both sides had rivalries between branches of the service and and officers. Fortunately for the USA, our problems were less than the Japanese and impacted the war somewhat less. The author uses personalities to explain much of what happened during the carrier war. This was quite effective. This book although having much factual material does some speculation which was interesting and probably on the mark. This is a well written and fairly easy read and I feel an excellent publication on the Pacific naval battles of WWII.

I have now read a half-dozen books on Leyte Gulf, not counting Herman Wouk's historical fiction version in "War and Remembrance," and the conclusion that Admiral Halsey blundered at Leyte Gulf by failing to leave Task Force 34 (or at least some significant force) to guard the San Bernardino Strait is now accepted historical truth. The only debatable point is how badly he blundered. He followed that up with two more indefensible mistakes, twice allowing his fleet to get hit with murderous typhoons that could have been avoided. If he hadn't been a hugely popular hero with the American people, he would have been court-martialed after the typhoons, rather than given a fifth star and allowed to retire quietly. Halsey said it best: the fates conspired to have the cautious Ray Spruance in charge at the Battle of the Phillippine Sea (where Halsey would have been the best man to lead the American fleet) and Halsey at Leyte Gulf (where the American landing force could have been torn to shreds, were it not for the "Last Stand of the Tincan Sailors" and Admiral Kurita's decision to retreat rather than risk the destruction of his fleet. One may quarrel with Evan Thomas's praise for Kurita, equivocal respect for Captain Ernest Evans's courage (Thomas seems almost quizzical as to why Evans made his final charge) and damning of Ugaki and Halsey, but this is a very good read. The fact that the book is provocative is a major part of its interest.

Thomas tells the tale through the voice of four naval Commanders, two Americans, and two Japanese. Background stories about the men are given before the build up to an accounting of the battle that would eventually lead to liberation of the Philipines. There is more information on the Japanese side than perhaps any other book in English on the subject. If you have found that neglected, you will enjoy the book. To me, the narative seems a bit strained in it's desire to show cultural conditioning and misses much opportunity for tactical analysis such as in H.P. Willmont's book on the subject, but that does not mean the material is uninteresting. However, with the high degree of cultural history emphasis, there should have been more addressing of Japanese atrocities against POWS from U.S., Australia, and the allies, the Rape of Nanking, and the treatment of the Filipinos and Filipinas-- in the area of the battle no less. That is, the depravity of the Imperial Army as a debilitating factor. Yes, old fashioned a concept as it may be, we won because we were on the side of right in that one. Despite the mistakes. Leyte Gulf was a fierce Naval battle that took place in waters near a province of the Philipines. Many say that it was the largest Naval battle in history, including this author, but it is hard to compare it to the ancient great sea battles at Salamis between Greece and the Persians or at Ecnomus between the Romans and Carthaginians. Certainly in terms of gross tonage, Leyte Gulf was larger hands down, but Leyte was a series of engagements over a few days. The Leyte struggle was in four main engagements: Sibuyan Sea, Surigao Strait, Cape Engaño, and Samar. That is, the battle covered a fairly large area, as well as the devotion of a large number of ships and men. Regardless of hair splitting, it was a terrible episode of modern warfare with great loss of life and I am thankful to the American sailors and aviators as well as the men of the 96 infantry "Deadeyes," 7th Infantry "Lightfighters" and 6th Army "Alamo Force" who did the heavy lifting of the land battle and the 11th Airborne for securing the mountains and the many others. Their sacrifice and hardships for our freedom is without measure.

History at its most compelling, a well written account that both illuminates the past and provides lessons for the future. In the spirit of Rick Atkinson's "An Army at Dawn," it ennobles the participants even while exposing their human flaws and foibles. I've read quite a bit of Pacific War Naval history, and this book does a singularly impressive job of exploring and explaining the Japanese mindset to a Western reader (and vice versa, I'd imagine.)

Evan Thomas presents an outstanding, extraordinarily researched, and easy to read narrative of one of the Pacific's greatest sea battles in `Sea of Thunder: Four Commanders and the Last Great Naval Campaign 1941-1945'. Uniquely, and most interesting is the balanced research it is clear Thomas completed in order to share a vivid picture of the mind-set of the combatants at sear: The U.S. Navy appeared to have a view that the Japanese Navy was not up to their combat ready level, and the Japanese Navy viewed the U.S. Navy as being made of individuals not willing to sacrifice for their beliefs. Obviously both perspectives were wrong; Thomas gives understanding of actions based upon these perspectives in a manner never told before. The Battle of Leyte Gulf, the focus of Thomas' work, is history's largest and most compelling naval battle. Writing from the perspectives of four officers: William Halsey, who commanded the U.S. 3rd Fleet; and Cdr. Ernest Evans, captain of a lowly destroyer, the U.S.S. Johnston; Adm. Takeo Kurita; Adm. Matome Ugaki, readers and historians alike are about to embark on a breath-taking journey onto the high seas of the Pacific where brave men sacrificed in the name of their country.