“Sensational, riveting history, plus a brilliant penetrating study of both the American and Japanese military minds. Sea of Thunder is full of psychological insight that will leave your jaw dropping.”– Bob Woodward, author of Plan of Attack
If you read history, in some ways you would feel that this is a book about the Battle of Leyte Gulf, which was fought in 1944 October. But it’s much more. It is very well balanced and thought out book. I was the most impressed by the information provided on how Halsey and most of his senior staff had fought the battle while under the influence of the flu and had also lost a lot of sleep. Even though you are not familiar with the historical facts, it’s a good suspenseful war story, and a good place to start if you want to know more about the story. I loved this book, and recommend it very much.
Book Description
Evan Thomas takes us inside the naval war of 1941-1945 in the South Pacific in a way that blends the best of military and cultural history and riveting narrative drama. He follows four men throughout: Admiral William (“Bull”) Halsey, the macho, gallant, racist American fleet commander; Admiral Takeo Kurita, the Japanese battleship commander charged with making what was, in essence, a suicidal fleet attack against the American invasion of the Philippines; Admiral Matome Ugaki, a self-styled samurai who was the commander of all kamikazes and himself the last kamikaze of the war; and Commander Ernest Evans, a Cherokee Indian and Annapolis graduate who led his destroyer on the last great charge in the last great naval battle in history.
Sea of Thunder climaxes with the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the biggest naval battle ever fought, over four bloody and harrowing days in October 1944. We see Halsey make an epic blunder just as he reaches for true glory; we see the Japanese navy literally sailing in circles, torn between the desire to die heroically and the exhausted, unacceptable realization that death is futile; we sail with Commander Evans and the men of the USS Johnston into the jaws of the Japanese fleet and exult and suffer with them as they torpedo a cruiser, bluff and confuse the enemy — and then, their ship sunk, endure fifty horrific hours in shark-infested water.
Thomas, a journalist and historian, traveled to Japan, where he interviewed veterans of the Imperial Japanese Navy who survived the Battle of Leyte Gulf and friends and family of the two Japanese admirals. From new documents and interviews, he was able to piece together and answer mysteries about the Battle of Leyte Gulf that have puzzled historians for decades. He writes with a knowing feel for the clash of cultures.
Sea of Thunder is a taut, fast-paced, suspenseful narrative of the last great naval war, an important contribution to the history of the Second World War.
About the Author
Evan Thomas (born April 1951) is an American journalist and author.
A graduate of Phillips Andover, Harvard University and the University of Virginia School of Law, since 1991 he has been the Assistant Managing Editor at Newsweek. From 1986-1996, he was Newsweek’s Washington bureau chief. He has won numerous journalism awards, including a National Magazine Award in 1998 for NEWSWEEK’s coverage of the Monica Lewinsky scandal[1].
Thomas is the author of five books: “John Paul Jones,†a biography of the American revolutionary (2003); “Robert Kennedy: His Life†(2000); “The Very Best Men: The Early Years of the CIA†(1995); “The Man to See: The Life of Edward Bennett Williams†(1991), and “The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made†(with Walter Isaacson, 1986)[2]. His sixth book, “Sea of Thunder: Four Naval Commanders and the Last Sea War,†was published by Simon & Schuster in November 2006[3].