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by: Evan Thomas  List Price: $11.99 Amazon.com's Price: $9.59 You Save: $2.40 (20%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.5426 Format: Kindle Book Label: Simon & Schuster Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 432 Publication Date: November 23, 2006 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Release Date: November 23, 2006 Studio: Simon & Schuster Related Items:
Editorial Review: Product 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." Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Sea of ThunderSea of Thunder by Evan Thomas Published by Simon & Shuster 2006 414 pps. A Review by Colin J. Edwards Four Commanders and the Last Great Naval Campaign. One might be forgiven for thinking that everything that can be said about World War II, has already been said. That is probably right; but it is not what is said, but how it is said. In Sea of Thunder, Evan Thomas brings a balanced appraisal of the leading personalities involved in the Battle of Leyte Gulf at the close ... Read More Rating:  - A Great Insight Into Naval Warfare MindsThis book was thoroughly enjoyable, particularly for a WW2 Naval history buff like myself. Evan Thomas gives us four opposing leaders in the Pacific War. The daring American Admiral "Bull" Halsey who was a famed fighting icon. The other three were an American destroyer captain who won the Medal of Honor as well as two main Japanese admirals Matome Ugaki and Takeo Kurita. Thomas uses lots of varying resources - debriefings, eyewitnesses, , diaries and interviews and more to give us portraits of these ... Read More Rating:  - Read 'Last of the Tin Can Sailors' insteadThis is a good read as an adjunct to the other book, but 'Last' is better. It is often referenced in this book, and for good reason. This book delves into the mind set of the Japanese sailor, but their 'fight to the death' mentality has already been explored many times before. Rating: - more personal than detailed historyEvan Thomas examines more of the personalities of individuals and a general sweep of some of the Pacific war than providing a detailed military history of engagements and their root causes. He assumes the reader is somewhat familiar with World War II and the basics in the Pacific, from Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima. Even so, he touches on key points and themes to refresh the reader's understanding, perhaps to fill in some gaps, and to give his own orientation and spin on events and some people involved. ... Read More Rating: - A Different PerspectiveSea of Thunder was an interesting history of the latter part of the naval war in the Pacific during WWII. The author looked at the lives of four leaders, 2 American and 2 Japanese and how their lives developed and how they affected the battles in whihch they were engaged. It added to the understanding of why theses sea battles went in the direction they did. It was an easy reading book and an enjoyable biography of 4 men doing their duty as they saw it. 
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