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Author Evan W. Thomas III ’73 is an assistant managing editor of Newsweek, where he has written extensively about the ongoing Iraq war. Meanwhile, he has spent the past few years working as a naval historian after-hours. (His 2003 biography of the seafaring American revolutionary John Paul Jones was a New York Times bestseller.) In his newly-released “Sea of Thunder,” Thomas’ moonlighting and his day-job converge. The subjects Thomas tackles—from military infighting to the suicide bomber’s mentality—could...
...Dwight Eisenhower had already laid claim to the “D”). The A-Day invaders overran Japan’s first line of defenses in less than 24 hours. But then the Japanese moved the fight to the ocean—and there Thomas’ naval narrative sets sail...
Indeed, we might wish that Halsey weren’t on our side. Thomas tells us (twice) that Bull Halsey had “an enormous head,” but Halsey was a small-minded man come battle-time. On the eve of the largest confrontation in naval history, Halsey allowed Admiral John S. “Slew” McCain, the grandfather of the Republican senator, to take five aircraft carriers and 400 warplanes “for resupply and R&R.” It’s difficult to calculate how many American seamen now rest...
...episode also taught that brute American naval strength alone couldn’t end the war—Japan fought on for nearly a year after Leyte. Before the fight, commanders wondered whether a “battleship duel could really turn the fate of nations in a day.” The answer from Leyte Gulf...
Even though the book’s immediate subject-matter, large-scale naval warfare, appears to be obsolete now, “Sea of Thunder” remains relevant to modern-day conflict. Twelve kamikaze pilots dive-bombed American ships during that battle—perhaps the first incident of Japanese suicide tactics in the war. Another 3,900 self-destructing flyers would follow suit within a year...