Kamikaze
   Images

	Ship history about destroyer Laffey

Books - Ship Histories

Many Pacific War veterans have written books about U.S. Navy ships on which they served. These books often combine the ship history with a personal memoir. The accounts included in these books provide extremely valuable sources of firsthand accounts by Navy crewmen who experienced Japanese kamikaze crashes on their ships, shot down suicide planes, and witnessed kamikazes crash into other ships.

Although professional writers did not write many World War II ship histories, the realism of accounts by eyewitnesses makes these books very helpful in understanding the thoughts and emotions of men who lived through kamikaze attacks. The authors range from ship commanders to enlisted men, and the ships range from aircraft carriers to smaller auxiliary ships designed for tasks such as rescue or minesweeping. Authors often include accounts of their shipmates, so readers can take into account multiple perspectives to piece together what actually happened during kamikaze attacks.

Several histories begin in 1943 or 1944, when the U.S. Navy commissioned many new warships. Most books, especially those about ships involved in both the fighting in the Philippines and Okinawa, also include general information about the course of the war and kamikaze attacks.

This section contains reviews of the following ship histories:

• Acord and Holbrook, Hell and High Water in the Pacific: The Story of the USS Lowry, DD 770 (destroyer)
• Andersen, Three Minutes Off Okinawa (destroyer Mannert L. Abele)
• Arnold, Standby Arnold (destroyer escort Swearer)
• Ball, Fighting Amphibs: The LCS(L) in World War II
• Becton, The Ship That Would Not Die (destroyer Laffey)
• Billingsley, The Emmons Saga: A History of the USS Emmons (DD457-DMS22) (destroyer, later converted to high-speed minesweeper)
• Blanton, Boston——to Jacksonville (41,000 Miles by Sea) (LCS(L)(3) 118)
• Bonner and Bonner, USS Missouri at War (battleship)
• Brown and Anteau, Historical Review: U.S.S. Drexler DD-741 (destroyer)
• Burt, Kamikaze Nightmare (escort carrier Ommaney Bay)
• Bustin, Humble Heroes: How the USS Nashville CL43 Fought WWII (light cruiser)
• Calhoun, Tin Can Sailor: Life Aboard the USS Sterett, 1939-1945 (destroyer)
• Charney, USS Ingraham DD694: 1944-1945 (destroyer)
• Cline, Escort Carrier WWII: War in the Pacific on the Aircraft Carrier USS Petrof Bay
• Craig, USS Cassin Young: Fletcher Class Destroyer DD793
• Craighead, All Ahead Full: World War II Memoirs of an LSM 215 Veteran
• Crew, Combat Loaded: Across the Pacific on the USS Tate (attack cargo ship)
• Dennis, The Destroyer U.S.S. Flusser DD368: Her Life of Service
• Dennis, U.S.S. Frustrate: "The Luckiest Ship in the Navy" (destroyer Flusser)
• Duffy, The Wonderful World of John Duffy: An Autobiography (heavy cruiser Louisville)
• Fillmore, War History of USS Leutze (DD-481) (destroyer)
• Foster, The Last Destroyer: The Story of the USS Callaghan
• Fry, USS Saratoga CV-3: An Illustrated History of the Legendary Aircraft Carrier 1927-1946
• Griggs, Preludes to Victory: The Battle of Ormoc Bay in WWII (high speed transport Kephart)
• Graves, Men of Poseidon: Life at Sea Aboard the USS Rall (destroyer escort)
• Harmon, U.S.S. Cassin Young (DD-793) (destroyer)
• Harper, Too Close for Comfort (hospital ship Comfort)
• Irons, Phalanx Against the Divine Wind: Protecting the Fast Carrier Task Force During World War 2 (destroyer Haynsworth)
• Novotny, In the Wake of Jellybean (destroyer Hyman)
• Jackson, Lucky Lady: The World War II Heroics of the USS Santa Fe and Franklin (light cruiser and aircraft carrier)
• Jones, Days of Steel Rain: The Epic Story of a WWII Vengeance Ship in the Year of the Kamikaze (light cruiser Astoria)
• Kalosky, Harm's Way—Every Day: The Book of Destroyer (Tin Can) at Okinawa (destroyer Sproston)
• Kennedy, Danger's Hour: The Story of the USS Bunker Hill and the Kamikaze Pilot Who Crippled Her (aircraft carrier)
• LCS(L) Landing Craft Support (Large)
• Lott, Brave Ship Brave Men (destroyer minelayer Aaron Ward)
• Lott and Sumrall, USS Ward—The First Shot (also has title of USS Ward Fires First Shot WWII) (destroyer)
• MacKay, The U.S. Navy's "Interim" LSM(R)s in World War II: Rocket Ships of the Pacific Amphibious Forces
• Mair, Oil, Fire, and Fate: The Sinking of the USS Mississinewa (AO-59) in WWII by Japan's Secret Weapon (auxiliary oiler)
• Mair and Waldron, Kaiten: Japan's Secret Manned Suicide Submarine and the First American Ship It Sank in WWII (auxiliary oiler Mississinewa)
• Malott, "If We Save But One" (PCE(R) 852)
• McBride, William M., ed., Good Night Officially: The Pacific War Letters of a Destroyer Sailor (destroyer Howorth)
• Monsarrat, Angel on the Yardarm (light aircraft carrier Langley)
• Novotny, In the Wake of Jellybean (destroyer Hyman)
• Oberg, Lucky Sweetbrier (Coast Guard cutter Sweetbrier)
• Olson, Tales from a Tin Can: The USS Dale from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay (destroyer)
• Payne, H.M.A.S. Australia 1928-1955 (heavy cruiser)
• Phelan, Tin Can 367 (destroyer Lamson)
• Rielly, Mighty Midgets At War: The Saga of the LCS(L) Ships from Iwo Jima to Vietnam
• Ronck, Battleship Missouri
• Rooney, Mighty Midget U.S.S. LCS 82
• Samuels, War Patrol of the PCE(R)852
• Simmons, USS Tennessee in World War II (battleship)
• Skeldon, USS Kadashan Bay VC-20 (escort carrier)
• Stafford, Little Ship, Big War: The Saga of DE343 (destroyer escort Abercrombie)
• Stafford, The Big E: The Story of the USS Enterprise (aircraft carrier)
• Staton, The Fighting Bob: A Wartime History of the USS Robley D. Evans (DD-552) (destroyer)
• Stillwell, Battleship Missouri: An Illustrated History
• Stone, "My Ship!" The U.S.S. Intrepid (aircraft carrier)
• Streb, Life and Death Aboard the U.S.S. Essex (aircraft carrier)
• Sumrall, USS Kidd (DD-661) (destroyer)
• Surels, DD 522: Diary of a Destroyer (destroyer Luce)
• Veesenmeyer, Kamikaze Destroyer: USS Hugh W. Hadley (DD774)
• White and Gandt, Intrepid: The Epic Story of America's Most Legendary Warship (aircraft carrier)
• Wolfe, Wolfe, and O'Hara, History of the USS Kidd (DD661) and the Fletcher Class Destroyers (destroyer)
• Wukovits, Hell from the Heavens: The Epic Story of the USS Laffey and World War II's Greatest Kamikaze Attack (destroyer)
• Y'Blood, The Little Giants: U.S. Escort Carriers Against Japan

The following book contains a ship history, but it has been included in this web site's section on "Books - General" because much of the book deals with the general history of kamikazes.

• Sholin, The Sacrificial Lambs (destroyer Wren)