Title: "For Crew and Country: The Inspirational True Story of Bravery and Sacrifice Aboard the U.S.S. Samuel B. Roberts."
Author: John Wukovits
Publisher: St. Martin's Press, New York
Publication date: 2013
ISBN (hardcover): 978-0-312-68189-0
ISBN (e-book): 978-1-250-02124-3

Was there ever a braver ship and crew in the history of the U.S. Navy than the U.S.S. Samuel B. Roberts, the destroyer escort that fought like a battleship in the Battle off Samar on October 25, 1944?

The Battle off Samar has been called the U.S. Navy's finest hour: three destroyers and a destroyer escort charging straight at the most powerful battle line afloat since the Battle of Jutland: twenty ships including six battleships, among them the world's largest, the "Yamato," and eight heavy cruisers, in a desperate "Charge of the Light Brigade" effort to defend the jeep carriers of Task Group Taffy-3, while the fast carriers and fast battleships of Task Force 38 were nowhere near, Admiral Halsey having been drawn away to attack Japanese carriers that offered no real threat since they had no aircraft. The attack of the four "little boys" was so daring it convinced the Japanese Admiral that the Americans would only do such a thing if they knew the main fleet was soon to arrive. As a result, he turned away just at the moment he could have swept on into Leyte Gulf and sunk every defenseless ship of the American invasion fleet. After accomplishing this feat, the men who survived the sinking of their ships (only one survived, badly damaged) were faced by a cruel sea and sharks as they drifted off the island of Samar for three days with no attempt by their navy to rescue them, losing over half their number before being found.

U.S.S. Samuel B. Roberts (DE-413) was only launched the previous spring, less than six months before the battle; she had arrived in the combat zone just at the beginning of October, less than a month before her immortal trial by fire. Had her captain held back and stayed with the task group, no one would have ever said a word against his decision, since a destroyer escort had no business in the middle of a major naval engagement. But the "Sammy B" joined the Heermann, the Hoel and the Johnston in the attack on the Japanese battle line as it emerged from San Bernardino Strait after the Navy thought it had been turned back the day before by air attacks.

Author John Wukovits has assembled the story of ship and crew through interviews with living survivors, and letters and diaries of those no longer here, to draw a very personal portrait of a ship in "Democracy's Navy," a "small boy" meant to escort convoys, manned by a crew of reservists, most of whom had never been to sea and never seen a ship before reporting aboard. He is able to use the material to give three-dimensional portraits of everyone from captain on the bridge to junior fireman in the engine room, and to tell the life of the ship from her commissioning to her death. As a writer of history myself, this is an amazing accomplishment. In terms of bringing the people and events alive, this book compares favorably with "Band of Brothers."

This is definitely one of the very best naval histories I have read. Period. Read it, you'll like it.

Now I just want Trumpeter to release a nice injection-molded 1/350 John C. Butler-class DE kit so I can build Sammy B.