The author of The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors chronicles the untold Story of one of World War IIs most celebrated warships, the U.
S.
S.
Using journals and letters, rare historical documents, including testimony from postwar Japanese war crimes tribunals, and the eyewitness accounts of Houston \'s survivors, James Hornfischer has crafted an account of human valor so riveting and awe-inspiring, it\'s easy to forget that every single word is true..
Here is the gritty, unvarnished Story of the infamous Burma-Thailand Death Railway glamorized by Hollywood, but which in reality mercilessly reduced men to little more than animals, who fought back against their dehumanization with dignity, ingenuity, sabotage, will-power--and the undying faith that their country would prevail.
In the brutal privation of jungle POW camps dubiously immortalized in such films as The Bridge on the River Kwai , the war continued for the men of the Houston --a life-and-death struggle to survive forced labor, starvation, disease, and psychological torture.
For more than three years their fate would be a mystery to families waiting at home.
There, hopelessly outnumbered, the Houston was finally sunk and its Survivors taken prisoner.
Hornfischer brings to life the awesome terror of nighttime naval battles that turned decks into strobe-lit slaughterhouses, the deadly rain of fire from Japanese bombers, and the almost superhuman effort of the crew as they miraculously escaped disaster again and again-until their luck ran out during a daring action in Sunda Strait.
It wasn\'t a fair fight, but the men of the Houston would wage it to the death.
Without hope of reinforcement, her crew faced a superior Japanese force ruthlessly committed to total conquest.
Renowned as FDR\'s favorite warship, the Cruiser USS Houston was a prize target trapped in the far Pacific after Pearl Harbor. naval legend.
The navigator of the USS Houston confided these prophetic words to a young officer as he and his captain charted a course into U.
S.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Son, we\'re going to Hell.
Houston, and the Survivors who were captured and made slaves on Japans infamous Burma-Thailand Death Railway.
The author of The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors chronicles the untold Story of one of World War IIs most celebrated warships, the U.
S.
S
