SEA OF THUNDER by Evan Thomas

SEA OF THUNDER

Four Commanders and The Last Great Naval Campaign 1941-1945

Evan Thomas

Simon & Schuster

$27.00, hardcover, 414 pages; ISBN 13: 978-0-7432-5221-8 (2006).

 

If you're a fan of military history – especially sea battles – this book is not to be missed. Evan Thomas does a great job of thoroughly explaining the strategy of World War II South Pacific naval warfare from both the Japanese perspective and that of the American fleet. Sea of Thunder is a thoughtful and fascinating account of the war in the Pacific based on extensive research in both the United States and Japan. The book culminates in the Battle at Leyte Gulf – the largest naval battle ever fought. 

As Thomas notes in the Prologue:

Curiously, in America, the Battle of Leyte Gulf has been largely forgotten. When Americans think of the victorious "Good War," they tend to think of D-Day and the liberation of Europe, not the Pacific War. Most people have heard of the Battle of Midway or seen the image of the marines raising the flag at Iwo Jima. But the Battle of Leyte Gulf blurs together with a dozen other battles fought in jungles or on coral reefs on the other side of Civilization. Most Americans do not know when the Battle of Leyte Gulf was fought, where Leyte Gulf is, or even how it's pronounced (lay-TEE). They certainly don't know why the battle mattered.

 The book clearly answers all those questions and shows exactly why the Battle of Leyte Gulf was so important to the war effort. Sea of Thunder presents a riveting picture of four men: Admiral William ("Bull") Halsey, Commander of the American Third Fleet; Admiral Takeo Kurita, a Japanese battleship commander and Halsey's counterpart; Admiral Matome Ugaki, the commander of the Japanese First Battleship Division, which included the world's two largest battleships, the Yamato and Musashi; and Commander Ernest Evans, captain of the destroyer, the U.S.S. Johnston. These men are followed from the outbreak of war at Pearl Harbor to the Battle of Leyte Gulf – a clash that involved "more ships (almost 300), more men (nearly 200,000), and covered a larger area (more than 100,000 square miles, roughly the size of the British Isles) than any naval battle in history."

 Thomas, an assistant managing editor of Newsweek, is the author of five other books. For Sea of Thunder, he traveled to Japan and interviewed Japanese survivors of the Battle of Leyte Gulf and family and friends of the two Japanese admirals. Thomas presents a clear picture of these men by focusing on their beliefs and personalities and explaining the vast differences in the Japanese military structure and culture. The reader is left with an intimate portrait of these individuals that helps to explain their actions at the climax of the book.

 One of the reasons why this sea battle is relatively unknown is because at a key juncture just before the full confrontation, Halsey steamed north – with the strongest part of the American naval forces – in pursuit of a Japanese decoy consisting of just a few aircraft carriers. Kurita's main force, two additional fleets composed of numerous battleships and cruisers, was poised to destroy General Douglas MacArthur's landing force in the Philippines. Commander

Evans and the men of the U.S.S. Johnston play heroic roles by repeatedly sailing into harm's way against overwhelming odds. Firing all her torpedoes, the Johnston manages to blow the bow off a Japanese cruiser. Japanese shells soon strike the Johnston and it eventually sinks. 270 sailors endure over fifty horrifying hours in waters infested with stinging jellyfish and sharks. Only 141 survive.

In large part due to Evans' bravery and that of other American captains and crews in helping to repel the Japanese fleet, Kurita broke off the attack despite having clear naval superiority. With Halsey rushing back to the battle, Kurita refused to remain and fight and risk sacrificing his men at the end of a war he knew to be already lost. 

Thomas writes that "wars are fought, and won or lost, by the actions of individuals – heroes and cowards, the prudent and wanton, ordinary men reacting, not always predictably, to extraordinary circumstances." This fine novel shows what type of character these four men possessed and helps explain a battle that was the turning point in the South Pacific. It's history brought to life. 

Buy it here.

 

Comments

[Tom Porter]

Mr. Thomas,
Can not tell you how much I am enjoying "Sea of Thunder". One annoying point that I am sure must have been an error on your editor's part is that on many of the maps ther are no milage scales. I would hope that this has been corrected in latter additions.

Regards,

Tom in Fairfield, CT

[Theodore A. Curtin]

Thanks, Evan,

A great read.

Two annoyances throughout: 1. Your constant repetition of both versions of time. A simple notation at the beginning as to the relationship of Navy time to civilian time would have sufficed. And I never in all my Navy years heard anything but "0600" etc, never "0600 hours". That's an Army thing.

2. Your continuous references to messages as "telegrams" or "wires". In the Navy, a message is a message is a message, however it comes in or goes out. Tactical signals, by flag hoist, yardarm blinker or TBS, were "signals" Never was there any reference to "wires" or "telegrams." I'm surprised your Navy liaison or proofreaders let those things by. They sort of jarred the continuity of a great story, otherwise well told.

Ted Curtin,
U S Navy (ret.) 1943-1969