Tales From a Tin Can: The USS Dale from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay - Hardcover

Olson, Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 076032770X ISBN 13: 9780760327708

Verlag: Zenith Press, 2007

Inhaltsangabe

“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.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Michael Keith Olson is an agriculturalist and journalist. He consults on farm projects throughout the world, from the city of Watts to the jungles of the Amazon. Olson has produced, written, and photographed news for the San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner newspapers, NBC, ABC, the Australian Broadcast Commission, and KQED Public Television. His previous book, MetroFarm, is a guide for small-scale farming in the city. Olson is the executive producer and host of Food Chain, a syndicated radio talk show, and is currently president of the MO MultiMedia Group in Santa Cruz, California, where he lives with his family. Robert “Pat” Olson, his father, served on the USS Dale.

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Looking up from his newspaper as 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, finally, the red rising sun painted on the plane s 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 Dale s war comes vividly to life in this first oral history of a combat ship from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay. Tales from a Tin Can recreates service aboard the Dale from the carrier raids on Midway and Guadalcanal to the kamikaze raids of Okinawa, from the Aleutians in the far north to strikes on Tokyo and Kobe in the Far East conveying as never before the true grit of wartime on a destroyer.

Aus dem Klappentext

Tales from a Tin Can is the true story of the destroyer USS Dale in the words of the sailors who served on her. These colorful first-person accounts bring every aspect of service on a World War II destroyer to life, from the attack on Pearl Harbor:

I was down below, brushing my teeth. . . . There was a huge commotion, so I ran outside to see what was going on. The first thing I saw was a Japanese bomber dropping its torpedo, which then ran right up into the old Utah and exploded. Alvis Harris

To life on the Dale:

[S]ome of the guys were chumming the water off the fantail with galley scraps. You could see huge sharks swimming around, so I threw a couple of wooden crates over the side and the sharks went into a frenzy over them. The [captain] came on the squawk box and said, You guys better not fall over the side because I don t want to pick up what s left! Earl Hicks

To gripping combat stories:

When the Salt Lake City went dead in the water we figured we were all goners for sure. . . . That water temperature was right at thirty-three degrees, which would give us about ten or twelve minutes before we froze to death. Just when things got to be about as bleak as you could imagine, one of our cans got a 5-incher right smack on the bridge of the lead [Japanese] cruiser. You could see it as plain as day. Then [they] simply turned tail and ran. It was a miracle! John Cruce

And all the way to the end:

When word came through that the war had ended, everyone went wild. We made noise with whatever we could get our hands on. Sirens shrieked, bells rang, and horns bellowed. . . . I whooped and hollered and banged on metal. . . . And I celebrated a bunch for all those guys that couldn t, too! Robert Pat Olson

But before the boys come home, Tales from a Tin Can transports the reader to Dale s rolling decks, under the hot South Pacific sun and deadly enemy fire, illuminating the courage and humor of a generation of young men thrust into the life and death struggle of World War II.

Michael Keith Olson is an agriculturalist and journalist. He has produced, written, and photographed news for theSan Francisco Chronicle and Examiner newspapers, NBC, ABC, the Australian Broadcast Commission, and KQED Public Television. His previous book,MetroFarm, a guide for small-scale farming in the city, won the 1995 PMA Ben Franklin Book of the Year Award (Silver). Olson is the executive producer and host of the syndicated radio talk show Food Chain, the California legislature s 1996 Ag Show of the Year , and is currently president of the MO MultiMedia Group in Santa Cruz, California, where he lives with his family. Rob

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Zenith Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2007
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 076032770X
• ISBN 13: 9780760327708
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 336
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar