Summary of James D. Hornfischer's The Last Stand of The Tin Can Sailors

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

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#1 On January 20, 1944, three months before the commissioning ceremony that would make it a US Navy warship, the hull of DE-413, its prow festively draped in red, white, and blue bunting, slid off the ways at the Brown Shipbuilding Company in Houston and entered the Houston Ship Channel with a roaring sidelong splash.

#2 Rohde had skills the Navy valued. He was a proficient typist and had learned Morse code in radio club at Curtis High School. He was eventually assigned to the Navy Training School in Boston, where radiomen were trained.

#3 The genius of the Navy’s personnel system was that it sorted young men by their talents, trained them for specialized duties, and sent them to places where their knowledge was most needed.

#4 The men of the Roberts were not homesick at all. They were excited about what was in store for them in the Pacific.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Feb 21, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669350149

IRB Media

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Insights on James D. Hornfischer's The Last Stand of The Tin Can Sailors

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

On January 20, 1944, three months before the commissioning ceremony that would make it a US Navy warship, the hull of DE-413, its prow festively draped in red, white, and blue bunting, slid off the ways at the Brown Shipbuilding Company in Houston and entered the Houston Ship Channel with a roaring sidelong splash.

#2

Rohde had skills the Navy valued. He was a proficient typist and had learned Morse code in radio club at Curtis High School. He was eventually assigned to the Navy Training School in Boston, where radiomen were trained.

#3

The genius of the Navy’s personnel system was that it sorted young men by their talents, trained them for specialized duties, and sent them to places where their knowledge was most needed.

#4

The men of the Roberts were not homesick at all. They were excited about what was in store for them in the Pacific.

#5

Bob Copeland was the commander of the Roberts. He was fair, firm, and shrewd, and his men liked him for both his command and his care for them.

#6

Bob Copeland, a naval officer, was invited to visit the Admiral of the Fleet in Annapolis, where he was told he should go to the Naval Academy. He declined, as he didn’t want to cause his mother pain by going to sea.

#7

The Samuel B. Roberts was commissioned in honor of a young naval reservist from Portland, Oregon, who was killed on Guadalcanal in September 1942 when he took the landing craft he commanded and moved in to draw fire away from ships attempting to rescue Marines trapped in a Japanese crossfire.

#8

After the Samuel B. Roberts was commissioned, its crew went to Bermuda for a shakedown cruise. While there, seaman second class Jack Roberts reported for duty. The only people who knew his relation to the Mr. Samuel B. Roberts were the captain and his XO.

#9

The destroyer escorts, which were essentially small ships with big guns, were extremely prideful. They tended to think of themselves as being of higher quality than the other ships in the fleet, and it showed in how they carried themselves and performed.

#10

Destroyer escorts were not built to be a part of the main battle line, but rather to protect the carriers that were. They were not very well armored or protected, but they made up for it with their speed and maneuverability.

#11

The Samuel B. Roberts was sent to hunt down and destroy any submarines that might pose a threat to the fleet. On their first mission, the ship killed their first enemy when a whale surfaced behind them and spouted a geyser of blood.

#12

The Samuel B. Roberts’s voyage to the Philippine Sea began with a very poor omen. The ship had yet to enter a combat zone, and Captain Copeland was just trying to cover up for his crew’s negligence.

#13

While their ship was in Norfolk, Lieutenant Roberts and Captain Copeland made last minute adjustments to the crew roster. The Samuel B. Roberts was convalescing at the time, so the crew was given leave to visit family. Bud Comet, a seaman on the ship, visited his family in West Virginia and fell in love with the ship and its crew.

#14

The Samuel B. Roberts was a unique ship in that it seemed to foster a sense of pride among its