Tales from a Tin Can: The USS Dale from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay - Tapa dura

the true story of a US destroyer in World War 2. The author, son of one of the ships sailors who served in her during th conflict, draws on stories garnered from crew members wartime experiences and he skilfully knits these together with revlevant events from the period, to place you abord a destroyer at war. Olson drew his experiences for the book form the ship's annual reunions, wher he found that once the veterans had gathered together they would open up and talk about their experiences much more freely. The USS dale served in the Pacific war form Pearl harbour right throguh to the kamikazi attacks on the USN at Okinawa, collecting 12 battle starts along the way without the loss of a single crewman to enemy fire. The style of mixing narrative with with background material works well and the salior's stories themselves provide a vivid impression of those moments in their lives that have been captured in the collective memory of the crew. The snippets make fascinating reading and Olson has presented the material well, creating a book that is higly recommended to anyone interested in the human dimension of WW2. --Warship International Fleet Review

(Olson) the son of one of the Dale's saliors during this period has done a masterfull job of preserving the crew's personal accounts. each chapter relates to a calendar year in the war and begins with a general narrative of ongoing operations. Relevant entries from the ships log are included in the terse shorthand of a unit's war diary. Personal accounts of the crew are then provided to give the human dimension to the story...We read off the boredom, good humour, and fear during the war in the Pacific as well as failures in leadership. Although the various records and narratives are seperated in time and orientation, they are effectivly interwoven to present a highley personal and compelling story of a destroyer at war. --Naval Historian

Author Olson managed to interview 44 veterans of the World War II destroyer U.S.S. Dale (despite their average age of 88), producing the first oral history of one ship's adventures over the entire Pacific theater. Their tales produce no new insights, but their eyewitness accounts of great and trivial events are fascinating. A dozen veterans describe the attack on Pearl Harbor, which occurred all around them, leaving their ship untouched. The men also spent nine miserable months in the Aleutians in subzero weather and stormy seas with no relief; five crew members suffered nervous breakdowns. But the Dale was a lucky ship: no sailors died in action, though all agree on the terrors of kamikaze attacks that destroyed nearby vessels. More frightening were typhoons during which everyone expected death for days on end, joining companion destroyers that sank with all hands. Between reminiscences, Olson writes a running account of the war and illuminates shipboard details readers need to know. His book is an impressive accomplishment, bringing vividly to life the actions of a single warship that fought across half the world during 1941 1945 --Publishers weekly

The destroyer Dale was one of the few U.S. warships present at both the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay. In the interim, she compiled a distinguished combat record, from fleet actions and fighting off kamikazes to more mundane tasks of escorting every sort of ship, rescuing the pilots of crashed planes (and dividing up the complimentary ice cream received from the carriers), and spending long months in dock for repairs and refits. Olson's father served aboard the Dale and introduced him to a cross section of former shipmates, whose interviews provide an eloquent portrait of an American warship in the Pacific War and offer different viewpoints on everything from fleet actions to captains (some sworn by, others sworn at) to the pleasures and perils of shore leave and the endless sweat of keeping a hard-worked warship supplied and maintained. A sound addition to World War II naval literature --Booklist