Barrett Tillman

Popularly known as the Douglas Dauntless, the U.S. Navy's SBD dive bomber was well named. Though considered obsolete at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Dauntless turned the tide of war in the Pacific with the destruction of four Japanese carriers at the Battle of Midway, making its mark in aviation history for sinking more enemy carriers than any other aircraft. Still in service at war's end, the Dauntless was the only U.S. carrier aircraft in operation from Pearl Harbor to V-J Day. The Dauntless was the only American Navy aircraft to fly in al five of the naval engagements fought exclusively by aircraft carriers and was credited with sinking the first Japanese fleet submarine and dropping the first bombs on Japanese-occupied soil during the war. The SBD was also active in the Atlantic, sinking Vichy French shipping at Casablanca and German vessels in Scandinavian waters. In between his authoritative accounts of these missions, Barrett Tillman tells the rousing story of the men who took the "slow but deadly" Dauntless into combat, loving her for her ruggedness and dependability while wishing for more speed and firepower. Among the people he describes is the pilot who nearly single-handedly knocked out a Japanese carrier and died in the process, and SBD squadron that flew unexpectedly into the Pearl Harbor attack.… (more)

"In June 1944, American and Japanese carrier fleets steamed toward each other, seeking battle in the Philippine Sea." "Their clashing objectives: retaining the vital Marianas for Japan versus seizing the islands for American air bases. When the fleets met, they embarked upon a naval engagement that escalated into the most spectacular aircraft carrier battle in history - a battle that would later become known as the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot." "During two days of brutal combat, the American and Japanese carriers dueled, launching wave after wave of fighters and bombers against one another in an all-out fight for supremacy, By day and night, hundreds of planes filled the skies. When it was over, the exhausted pilots of the American Fifth Fleet had claimed more than four hundred aerial c...… (more)

It's not surprising that I thought this book was kind of thin, considering I was forewarned by other reviews, but it's still sad that it lived down to expectations. Describing Halsey on the flag bridge on the west coast in 1940, watching Japanese ships loading scrap metal...."War was coming. He could feel it." :-(- Or describing VJ day..."People who had never met before, and likely never would meet again, exchanged heartfelt hugs, kisses, solicitations, and body fluids." Is that detail really necessary in a book about the carrier Enterprise? There's another line a few pages later about sailors reminiscing about girls "loved and left" as the ship steams out of harbor. Not appropriate in a book that was published in the second decade of the 21st century.

Tillman has written a book that focuses mostly on the aviators, although he does manage to get in nearly all the ship captain's names, is not a very interesting or compelling narrative, and gives accounts of major incidents in a logbook-like, just-the-facts account. We learn about the character of some of the aviators shot down only in the same paragraph describing their deaths. Or we hear about how so-and-so (and really, the endless parade of unknown names is pretty confusing) was a tall guy from the Southwest who really loved gambling, but then there's nothing else about him until the next chapter when he is shot down.

Obviously Tillman has affection for the ship and it's crew, but details are thin (only 262 pages) and narrative is awkward and underwhelming. He's also hampered by trying to write about characters that have mostly died. Maybe that's why it reads more like a 1950's book...because he's relying on documents from the events rather than personal memories? Still, I can't help but wonder what an author like John Lundstrom would do with this subject.… (more)