NOW HEAR THIS

A kaleidoscopic series of short-take narratives that, collectively, document the hell-and-high-water lot of American sailors during WW II. Drawing on personal journals, unpublished manuscripts, interviews, and archival sources, the ever-prolific Hoyt (Warlord, p. 201, etc., etc.)tracks Navy personnel in battle against the Axis from offshore North Africa to the far reaches of the western Pacific. Without scanting the experience of those who participated in major fleet campaigns (Guadalcanal, Leyte Gulf, Midway, Normandy, etc.), the author makes room for a host of unsung heroes and all-but-forgotten units—ranging from the demolition teams who cleared beaches for amphibious assaults through construction battalions, air crews that flew antisubmarine patrols, minesweepers, training commands, and escort carriers that performed as well if not better in action than their larger, more glamorous flat-top counterparts. While Hoyt includes a generous ration of officers' tales, he focuses on the enlisted ranks—deckhands, the black gangs who manned engine rooms, gunners, and others who all too often were on their last voyages. In a lighter vein, the author dredges up the stranger-than-fiction story of a silent-service pharmacist's mate who performed an emergency appendectomy deep beneath Japanese waters. An engrossing example of military history with a human face. (Twenty photographs)