South Pacific Destroyer
The Battle for the Solomons from Savo Island to Vella Gulf
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Narrated by:
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Alan Bomar Jones
About this listen
Russell Crenshaw's riveting account of the savage night battle for the Solomon Islands in early 1943 offers listeners a unique insider's perspective from the decks of one of the destroyers that bore the brunt of the struggle. Drawing on his experience as a gunnery officer in the USS Maury, Crenshaw's vivid, balanced, and detailed narrative includes the Battle of Tassafaronga in November 1942 and Vella Gulf in August 1943, actions that earned his warship a Presidential Unit Citation and sixteen battle stars. Crenshaw also discusses the impact of radar and voice radio, the shortcomings of U.S. torpedoes and gunfire, and the devastating effectiveness of Japan's super torpedo.
©1998 Russell Snydor Crenshaw, Jr. (P)2011 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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- By: James D. Hornfischer
- Narrated by: Barrett Whitener
- Length: 16 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Told from the point of view of the men who waged this steel-shattering battle, The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors captures Navy pilots attacking enemy battleships with makeshift weapons and sacrificial valor, a veteran commander improvising tactics never taught in Annapolis, and young crews from across America rising to an impossible challenge.
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Outstanding
- By John on 04-17-04
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Turning the Tide
- How a Small Band of Allied Sailors Defeated the U-Boats and Won the Battle of the Atlantic
- By: Ed Offley
- Narrated by: James Adams
- Length: 17 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The U.S. experienced its most harrowing military disaster of World War II not in 1941 at Pearl Harbor, but rather in the period from 1942 to 1943, in the frigid North Atlantic and American coastal waters from Newfoundland to the Caribbean. Nearly seven decades after the event, the Battle of the Atlantic still stands as the longest-running and most lethal clash of arms in naval history.
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Just The Facts
- By PismoPat on 05-15-11
By: Ed Offley
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The War Below
- The Story of Three Submarines That Battled Japan
- By: James Scott
- Narrated by: Donald Corren
- Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
The War Below is a dramatic account of extraordinary heroism, ingenuity, and perseverance—and the vital role American submarines played in winning the Pacific War. Focusing on the unique stories of the submarines Silversides, Drum, and Tang—and the men who skippered and crewed them—James Scott takes readers beneath the waves to experience the thrill of a direct hit on a merchant ship and the terror of depth charge attacks.
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Unique. Engaging. Worth your credit.
- By Ryan on 06-21-13
By: James Scott
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The Silent Service in World War II
- The Story of the U.S. Navy Submarine Force in the Words of the Men Who Lived It
- By: Edward Monroe-Jones, Michael Green
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins, Jo Anna Perrin
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the US Navy had a total of 111 submarines. It was mostly a collection of aging boats. Fortunately, with the war in Europe was already two years old and friction with Japan ever increasing, help from what would become known as the Silent Service in the Pacific was on the way: there were 73 of the new fleet submarines under construction. The Silent Service in World War II tells the story of America's intrepid underwater warriors in the words of the men who lived the war in the Pacific against Japan.
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Disappointing
- By Chris on 09-17-18
By: Edward Monroe-Jones, and others
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Hell from the Heavens
- The Epic Story of the USS Laffey and World War II's Greatest Kamikaze Attack
- By: John Wukovits
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
On the morning of April 16, 1945, the crewmen of the USS Laffey saw what seemed to be the entire Japanese air force assembled directly above. They were about to become the targets of the largest single-ship kamikaze attack of World War II.
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Compelling story worth the effort
- By David Traill on 08-10-16
By: John Wukovits
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Thunder Below!
- The USS Barb Revolutionizes Submarine Warfare in World War II
- By: Eugene B. Fluckey
- Narrated by: Corey Snow
- Length: 15 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Under the leadership of her fearless skipper, Captain Gene Fluckey, the Barb sank the greatest tonnage of any American sub in World War II. At the same time, the Barb did far more than merely sink ships-she changed forever the way submarines stalk and kill their prey.
This is a gripping adventure chock-full of "you-are-there" moments. Fluckey has drawn on logs, reports, letters, interviews, and a recently discovered illegal diary kept by one of his torpedomen.
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Action, Excitement, & History. A great read!
- By Boone on 09-28-13
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The Burning Shore
- How Hitler's U-Boats Brought World War II to America
- By: Ed Offley
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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On June 15, 1942, as thousands of vacationers lounged in the sun on Virginia Beach, a massive fireball erupted from a convoy of oil tankers steaming into Chesapeake Bay. By the next day, three ships lay at the bottom of the channel, victims of Lieutenant-Commander Horst Degen and his crew on the German submarine U-701. In The Burning Shore, acclaimed military reporter Ed Offley presents a thrilling account of Degen's rampage along the American coast and of US Lieutenant Harry J. Kane's quest to bring him down.
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Ugh, Perhaps a Second Listen is Required?
- By Matthew on 09-05-15
By: Ed Offley
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Tin Can Titans
- The Heroic Men and Ships of World War II's Most Decorated Navy Destroyer Squadron
- By: John Wukovits
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When Admiral William Halsey selected Destroyer Squadron 21 to lead his victorious ships into Tokyo Bay to accept the Japanese surrender, it was the most battle-hardened US naval squadron of the war. But it was not the squadron of ships that had accumulated such an inspiring résumé; it was the people serving aboard them. Through diaries, personal interviews with survivors, and letters written to and by the crews during the war, preeminent historian of the Pacific theater John Wukovits brings to life the human story of the squadron and its men.
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Captivating
- By Jean on 09-23-17
By: John Wukovits
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Killing the Bismarck
- Destroying the Pride of Hitler's Fleet
- By: Iain Ballantyne
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In May 1941 the German battleship Bismarck, accompanied by heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, broke out into the Atlantic to attack Allied shipping. The Royal Navy's pursuit and subsequent destruction of the Bismarck was an epic of naval warfare. In this new account of those dramatic events at the height of the Second World War, Iain Ballantyne draws extensively on the graphic eyewitness testimony of veterans to construct a thrilling story, mainly from the point of view of the British battleships, cruisers, and destroyers involved.
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1960 a young boy became awed
- By torpedo alley on 10-02-19
By: Iain Ballantyne
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Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942
- By: Ian W. Toll
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 22 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
On the first Sunday in December 1941, an armada of Japanese warplanes appeared suddenly over Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and devastated the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Six months later, in a sea fight north of the tiny atoll of Midway, four Japanese aircraft carriers were sent into the abyss. Pacific Crucible tells the epic tale of these first searing months of the Pacific war, when the U.S. Navy shook off the worst defeat in American military history and seized the strategic initiative.
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Astonishingly good.
- By Mike From Mesa on 09-01-12
By: Ian W. Toll
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Enterprise
- America’s Fightingest Ship and the Men Who Helped Win World War II
- By: Barrett Tillman
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
America’s most decorated warship of World War II, Enterprise was constantly engaged against the Japanese Empire, earning the title “the fightingest ship” in the navy. Her career was eventful, vital, and short. Commissioned in 1938, her bombers sank a submarine just ten days after the Pearl Harbor attack, claiming the first Japanese vessel lost in the war.
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Great Bio of a Truly Remarkable Ship
- By Aser Tolentino on 09-18-12
By: Barrett Tillman
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The Cactus Air Force
- Air War Over Guadalcanal
- By: Eric Hammel, Thomas McKelvey Cleaver
- Narrated by: Adam Henderson
- Length: 14 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In The Cactus Air Force, Pacific War expert Thomas McKelvey Cleaver worked closely with Eric to build on his collection of diary entries, interviews and first-hand accounts to create a vivid narrative of the struggle in the air over the island of Guadalcanal between August 20 and November 15, 1942.
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Excellent Book!
- By Eric Peterson on 09-16-22
By: Eric Hammel, and others
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Horrible writing
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story is excellent...narrator...aarrgg
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Sink 'Em All was originally published in 1951 by Vice Admiral Charles A. Lockwood, the US Navy commander of the Pacific submarine fleet during World War II. Lockwood, in his leadership role, knew the skippers and crews of the submarines and retells their wartime successes and tragedies with an intimacy and realism often missing in second-hand accounts.
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Best of the best
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A True American Hero
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Great book, poor narration
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By: Mark E. Stille
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Tidal Wave
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The United States Navy won such overwhelming victories in 1944 that had the Navy faced a different enemy the war would have been over at the conclusion of the Battle of Leyte Gulf. However, in the moment of victory on October 25, 1944, the US Navy found itself confronting an enemy that had been inconceivable until it appeared. The kamikaze, meaning 'divine wind' in Japanese, was something Americans were totally unprepared for; a violation of every belief held in the West.
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Sink 'Em All was originally published in 1951 by Vice Admiral Charles A. Lockwood, the US Navy commander of the Pacific submarine fleet during World War II. Lockwood, in his leadership role, knew the skippers and crews of the submarines and retells their wartime successes and tragedies with an intimacy and realism often missing in second-hand accounts.
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Best of the best
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Lightning Sky
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Good for what it is, but not what it claims to be
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An Unassuming Leader
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More than 800 sailors served aboard the Sterett during her hazardous and demanding duties in World War II. This is the story of those men and their beloved ship, recorded by a junior officer who served on the famous destroyer from her commissioning in 1939 to April 1943, when he was wounded at the Battle of Tulagi. Peppered with the kind of vivid, authentic details that could only be provided by a participant, the book is the saga of a gallant fighting ship that earned a Presidential Unit Citation for her part in the Third Battle of Savo Island, where she took on a battleship.
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The War for the Seas
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Command of the oceans was crucial to winning World War II. By the start of 1942 Nazi Germany had conquered mainland Europe, and Imperial Japan had overrun Southeast Asia and much of the Pacific. How could Britain and distant America prevail in what had become a "war of continents"? In this definitive account, Evan Mawdsley traces events at sea from the first U-boat operations in 1939 to the surrender of Japan. He argues that the Allied counterattack involved not just decisive sea battles, but a long struggle to control shipping arteries and move armies across the sea.
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The Twilight Warriors
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April 1945. The end of World War II finally appears to be nearing. The Nazis are collapsing in Europe, and the Americans are vastly overpowering the Japanese in the Pacific. For a group of pilots in their early 20s who were trained during the twilight of the war, the biggest concern is that they'll never actually see real action and will go home without having a chance to face the enemy.
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Excellent Selection: One of the Best in this Genre
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Hell from the Heavens
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
On the morning of April 16, 1945, the crewmen of the USS Laffey saw what seemed to be the entire Japanese air force assembled directly above. They were about to become the targets of the largest single-ship kamikaze attack of World War II.
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Compelling story worth the effort
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Victory at Sea
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In this engaging narrative, historian Paul Kennedy grapples with the rise and fall of the Great Powers during World War II. Tracking the movements of the six major navies of the Second World War—the allied navies of Britain, France, and the United States and the Axis navies of Germany, Italy, and Japan—Kennedy tells a story of naval battles, maritime campaigns, convoys, amphibious landings, and strikes from the sea.
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No the defendant work on all navies fighting in World War II.
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The Silent Service in World War II
- The Story of the U.S. Navy Submarine Force in the Words of the Men Who Lived It
- By: Edward Monroe-Jones, Michael Green
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins, Jo Anna Perrin
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- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the US Navy had a total of 111 submarines. It was mostly a collection of aging boats. Fortunately, with the war in Europe was already two years old and friction with Japan ever increasing, help from what would become known as the Silent Service in the Pacific was on the way: there were 73 of the new fleet submarines under construction. The Silent Service in World War II tells the story of America's intrepid underwater warriors in the words of the men who lived the war in the Pacific against Japan.
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Disappointing
- By Chris on 09-17-18
By: Edward Monroe-Jones, and others
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War Beneath the Waves
- A True Story of Courage and Leadership Aboard a World War II Submarine
- By: Don Keith
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In November 1943, while on war patrol in the Makassar Strait, the USS Billfish submarine was spotted by the Japanese, who launched a vicious depth-charge attack. Explosions wracked the sub for 15 straight hours. With his senior officers incapacitated, diving officer Charlie Rush boldly assumed command and led key members of the crew in a heroic effort to keep their ship intact as they tried to escape.
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Interesting historical review
- By Rick on 04-25-10
By: Don Keith
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You'll Be Sor-ree!
- A Guadalcanal Marine Remembers the Pacific War
- By: Sid Phillips
- Narrated by: Dan John Miller
- Length: 5 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Sid Phillips's account of his experiences in the 1st Marine Division fighting on Guadalcanal in the early days of World War II.
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Fun read until the last chapter
- By Bobby on 09-13-21
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What listeners say about South Pacific Destroyer
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Brooke P. Anderson
- 04-10-12
Excellent book for those who like technical detail
Where does South Pacific Destroyer rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
This book goes into great detail, both about the battles and about the workings of destroyers. For hard-core military-history enthusiasts, this is excellent because that level of detail is rare. I value it because it gives me a good idea what it was like to do various tasks on a destroyer, especially in functions such as firing guns and operating the engine room. A non-hard-core reader might not want that level of detail, but every book has an audience for which it is the best fit.
The narrator is not a good fit for this material. He does not know the pronunciation of various naval terms, ship names, and place names, and his accent is offputting for this material. The material is worth it, though -- so if you don't like the narrator, please persevere. :)
Overall, I definitely recommend this book to readers who are interested in naval history and who like lots of technical detail. This part of WWII is not that well known, so I value a book on the topic with this level of detail.
For those who liked this book, you might also like Neptune's Inferno.
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- k schau
- 04-19-14
Good story-poor performance
What did you like best about South Pacific Destroyer? What did you like least?
I liked the realistice portrayal of life on a Destroyer in WWII. The performance was less than acceptable
What didn’t you like about Alan Bomar Jones’s performance?
He doesn't seem to be familiar with the terms in the story-mispronouncing many of them. Overall his performance seems choppy.
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Performance
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Story
- John
- 12-23-11
Good Story, Expertly Read!
If you could sum up South Pacific Destroyer in three words, what would they be?
Real Story of Naval Surface Action!
What did you like best about this story?
The Narrator, Alan Jones, makes an excellent read of an already riviting story. Alan is one of the Best I have ever heard in my 100 Gb book collection. I am well read about WW ll. But, I have always thought most of the real victories came from Carrie/plane actions. I now appreciate just how much Suface Actions our little
What about Alan Bomar Jones’s performance did you like?
Mr. Alan Bomar Jones is now my favorite voice. Great Job Alan!
If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?
Tin Can War, a Real Life Adventure in WW ll
Any additional comments?
WW ll students won't be disapointed.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- David Kocol
- 06-22-23
Narrator oblivious to Navy
Good book, read by someone who is clueless of ship operations.
One I got used to it, I enjoyed it more.
Good story, marginal narration.
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- E. Wilson
- 10-05-12
Horrible Narration!
Cannot recommend - this is the first book I have not been able to finish - as another reader remarked the narrator is horrible. Despite trying to infuse his own interpretation of drama, his narration actually comes off as annoying. Too bad, liked the premise but couldn't stand listening to the reader.
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- Placeholder
- 03-28-21
Very good listen. Start to finish.
Good depiction of life aboard a WW2 Destroyer. Vella and Kula Gulf actions were very interesting.
Finally an honest critique of the atrocious performance of the US torpedoes and top brass ignorance about it at that time. Brave crews did not deserve an inferior weapon and paid a heavy price.
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- Chiefkent
- 09-08-11
Great History - Hard Listen.
This is a much needed window into the history of US destroyer action in the South Pacific. Other than the stories of "The Little Beavers" of Burke's DesRon 23, and the fate of the tincans of Halsey's 3rd Fleet in Typhoon Cobra, little has been written about American destroyer operations during World War Two with any great specificity. Unfortunately the narrator's ignorance of anything "naval" or any familiarity with Naval history detracts from the subject matter with his repeated mispronunciations of both terminology and proper names. One would think that the editors would ensure that these errors would nor occur. Any fellow member of the US Naval Institute will cringe at these glaring errors. Content is outstanding, but the delivery while enthusiastic, makes this a tedious book to listen to for long periods of time.
I have found that this naval terminology mispronunciation problem is systemic on audible books due to ignorance and a lack of oversight, but one should expect that they would get proper names such as "Grumman" and "Mitscher" correct!
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13 people found this helpful
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- GERRARD-GOUGH
- 01-14-24
Listen to the Epilogue
A over detailed book that could be very good with a good editor. the epilogue is where it gets very interesting it evaluation of Navy and preparation for war and it's handling of so many complaints about weapon systems which were failing. The performance is mediocre at best.. it is the USS St. Louis, not the St Louie.
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- David
- 10-12-11
Waste of a credit
This is the first time I have not been able to finish an audio book. To begin with, the story itself is tedious. The writer goes into exacting detail on how every part of the destroyer works even into how the gears of a particular machine operates. But the worst part about the book is the narration. This narrator is just horrible. He reminds me of those mine-numbing health movies we had to listen to in middle school. Think of paint drying - he really is that bad. After listening to "Unbroken" or "Lost in Shangria La" or "Finish Forty and Home" I guess I thought all narrators would be on their level. Boy was I wrong. From now on I will click on the little sample button before I purchase another audio book.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Jeffrey S Cohen
- 01-05-13
Lots of detail but reader is hard to listen to
What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?
I have read and listened to a ton of WWII history, focused most heavily on the pacific naval war theatre. Often you don't get a lot of the destroyer detailed perspective, so I was expecting a lot of minutia and thats what I got. I was interested in giving this book a try as some of the detail fills in gaps when you hear the "big picture" but not the daily grind. Based on the comments of other reviewers I was concerned, and they are correct. This reader really makes it tough, sorry to say I stopped listening halfway thru.
How could the performance have been better?
Reader inflection, tone, continuity in reading is all lacking to the point I couldn't get thru this.
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