Tin Cans And Greyhounds

For men on destroyer-class warships during World War I and World War II, battles were waged “against overwhelming odds from which survival could not be expected.” Those were the words Lieutenant Commander Robert Copeland calmly told his crew as their tiny, unarmored destroyer escort rushed toward giant, armored Japanese battleships at the Battle off Samar on October 25, 1944. This action-packed narrative history of destroyer-class ships brings readers inside the half-inch-thick hulls to meet the men who fired the ships' guns, torpedoes, hedgehogs, and depth charges. Nicknamed "tin cans" or "greyhounds," destroyers were fast escort and attack ships that proved indispensable to America's military victories. Beginning with destroyers' first incarnation as torpedo boats in 1874 and ending with World War II, author Clint Johnson shares the riveting stories of the Destroyer Men who fought from inside a "tin can"—risking death by cannons, bombs, torpedoes, fire, and drowning. The British invented destroyers, the Japanese improved them, and the Germans failed miserably with them. It was the Americans who perfected destroyers as the best fighting ship in two world wars. Tin Cans & Greyhounds compares the designs of these countries with focus on the old, modified World War I destroyers, and the new and numerous World War II destroyers of the United States. Tin Cans & Greyhounds details how destroyers fought submarines, escorted convoys, rescued sailors and airmen, downed aircraft, shelled beaches, and attacked armored battleships and cruisers with nothing more than a half-inch of steel separating their crews from the dark waves.

An epic narrative of World War II naval action that brings to life the sailors and exploits of the war's most decorated destroyer squadron. When Admiral William Halsey selected Destroyer Squadron 21 (Desron 21) to lead his victorious ships into Tokyo Bay to accept the Japanese surrender, it was the most battle-hardened US naval squadron of the war. But it was not the squadron of ships that had accumulated such an inspiring resume; it was the people serving aboard them. Sailors, not metallic superstructures and hulls, had won the battles and become the stuff of legend. Men like Commander Donald MacDonald, skipper of the USS O'Bannon, who became the most decorated naval officer of the Pacific war; Lieutenant Hugh Barr Miller, who survived his ship's sinking and waged a one-man battle against the enemy while stranded on a Japanese-occupied island; and Doctor Dow "Doc" Ransom, the beloved physician of the USS La Vallette, who combined a mixture of humor and medical expertise to treat his patients at sea, epitomize the sacrifices made by all the men and women of World War II. Through diaries, personal interviews with survivors, and letters written to and by the crews during the war, preeminent historian of the Pacific theater John Wukovits brings to life the human story of the squadron that bested the Japanese in the Pacific and helped take the war to Tokyo.

Bordered by three oceans, Canada's Navy has always needed ships and crew who could brave the harshest of seas to enforce her sovereignty and protect her freedom. The destroyer has been "the very finest ship" for such tasks. Their crews may call them 'tin-cans' but these hardy ships have faced off against U-Boats, Gunboats, Sampans and North Atlantic gales. From Ushant to Inchon, from the frigid Atlantic and wide Pacific to the narrow Gulf, they have sailed and fought and shown the flag. They are the greyhounds of the seas. They are the Tin-Can Canucks.

The latest installment in the New York Times bestselling Politically Incorrect Guide series expands on the pro-South slant of the hugely successful Politically Incorrect Guide to American History. Author Clint Johnson shows why the South, with its emphasis on traditional values, family, faith, military service, good manners, small government, and independent-minded people, should certainly rise again!

As the importance of sustainability in strategy and development grows, so does the importance of cross-border cooperation (CBC) to facilitate green projects. Border territories, however, are complex and fragile areas, and thus, their planning through CBC projects should be deeply analyzed and studied. It has become crucial to understand this issue across many different disciplines. Cross-Border Cooperation (CBC) Strategies for Sustainable Development is a pivotal reference source that provides relevant theoretical frameworks and trends in border area dynamics as well as cross-border cooperation’s influence on sustainable development. Highlighting topics such as CBC in insular territories, biodiversity policy, and sustainable planning and development, this book is ideally designed for culture analysts, sustainability specialists, policymakers, researchers, academicians, and students.

It has become impossible to resolve the many serious problems we face in America. My token efforts in this book details the issues as I see them. Whether you agree with me or not, at least give me the credit for devoting the last twenty years of my life trying to make sense out of it all and proposing solutions. I did not do it for financial gain but as an American who reveres our heritage and hopes we can find a way to pull together and once again be that shining city on the hill.

“He Was A Survivor,” is a historical and human drama of the first order centered around the ethos of an ordinary person, Robert Crew. Due to the fact that he was at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941; Crew is propelled out-of-a basic existence and onto the forefront of a national veterans organization; The Pearl Harbor Survivors. Crew who physically survived the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Second World War, like so many veterans; in a mental - in a spiritual - sense he does not. The shadows of the war come up from the past and overtake him. “He Was A Survivor,” adheres to the strict no-nonsense historical line. Little known aspects of the United States Navy of the nineteen twenties and thirties are incorporated into the story. Obscure realities about what took place prior to and during the attack appear here for the first time. Most of the individuals who have made this story possible have passed away and many of the geographic areas no longer exist. It took more than a quarter century to research and formulate this story. Hence it would be impossible to write, “He Was A Survivor,” today.