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Cover of paperback edition
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Days of Steel Rain: The Epic Story of a WWII Vengeance Ship in the
Year of the Kamikaze
by Brent E. Jones
Hachette Books, 2021, 384 pages
A true masterpiece! This thoroughly-researched history of the light cruiser
Astoria (CL-90), nicknamed the "Mighty Ninety," provides a gripping
account of the ship's entire history including 79 straight days at sea from March 14, 1945, through most
of the Battle of Okinawa. The ship fired upon and received credit for the most
enemy planes of any of the 123 ships in the Okinawa Fast Carrier Task Force (41
planes taken under fire, 27 brought down, and 13 solo credits).
Astoria's history gets told primarily based on firsthand accounts from the captain,
several officers, and selected crewmembers. The sources used to put together the
ship's history include six unpublished personal narratives such as diaries,
interviews by the author between 2007 and 2015 of nine former crewmembers, and
interviews of Astoria's captain by two persons from 1969-1971 and 1981-1984.
The use of these many firsthand sources gives the narrative liveliness and
richness.
Japanese kamikaze aircraft never hit the light cruiser Astoria, but the crew witnessed
many hits and near misses on other ships. Astoria had the assignment to
protect the aircraft carrier USS Essex (CV-9) and shot down several
Japanese kamikaze and conventional aircraft that had this carrier as their target. The captain describes two kamikaze
aircraft shot down by the ship's gunners before they could reach Astoria (p.
279):
From his perch on the open bridge, Captain Dyer would later recall, "two
planes that got very close to the ship, headed right for us very obviously
Kamikaze-bent. We destroyed one of them when it was about 1,000 yards
from the ship where it exploded and disappeared. The other one came boring
in, burning all over, but still coming on. It got in about 300 yards from
the ship. It got inside the range where your five-inch shell explodes.
Everything in the ship, of course, was shooting at it …
It splattered the ship with all kinds of machine gun bullets until the very
last minute. They were shooting at us, they had good aim, they couldn't have
much else."
Astoria carried two Kingfisher seaplanes used in rescue of
American airmen who went down in the sea. Among American ships equipped with
floatplanes, Astoria's rescue pilots retrieved the most airmen during the
Pacific War, and these
thrilling stories highlight the dangers they faced when they attempted daring
landings under enemy fire to save downed airmen.
The book's extensive bibliography and 20 pages of notes reflect the
comprehensive research performed by the author. There are two separate 16-page
inserts of photographs, many which have not been published elsewhere. Several
detailed maps also help to follow details of the ship's movements and the
rescues carried out by the ship's seaplane pilots.
The author does not shrink from topics that do not necessarily reflect
positively on the ship and her officers and crew. These issues include discipline problems
such as intentionally missing the ship's departure, engineering breakdowns,
discrimination, and conflicts between certain crewmembers. The story of
crewmember Rousseau Lemon is one of the most captivating, as the ship's captain
keeps pursuing strict discipline for his transgressions, which included going
intentionally AWOL and missing the ship's departure from the mainland to head
toward the war zone. Astoria crewmembers shunned him for a long time when
he was forced by the captain to return to the ship several months later, but
his changed attitude and work finally led to his being accepted again among
crewmen as one of their own.
Not only did kamikaze aircraft cause damage directly by hits on American
ships, these planes and Japanese conventional aircraft also led to friendly fire
incidents where American ship guns hit other ships as they tried to down
Japanese planes when they neared their targets. On March 20, 1945, as several
ships' gunners tried to protect against an attacking Japanese plane, the carrier
USS Enterprise got hit by a shell from another ship in Astoria's
group that killed seven men and wounded 30. Interestingly, the identify of the
responsible ship does not get specified in the book or other Internet
sources. On the same day, Astoria also got hit by friendly fire that
resulted in superficial wounds to a handful of crewmembers.
USS Enterprise after hit by friendly fire on March 20, 1945.
The ship, astern of Astoria, as the task group has turned
to let the wind pull smoke away from the carrier's decks
and superstructure. Astoria 40mm gunners watch in the
foreground. (US Navy photo taken
by
Herman Schnipper, Astoria photographer)
The author Brent Jones has written prior magazine articles, but Days of Steel Rain
is his first book. After writing reviews on this web site for over 60 histories
of ships that encountered Japanese suicide attacks, I think Days of Steel
Rain is the best overall. This comes as quite a surprise with a WWII ship's
history that was published 76 years after the end of the Pacific War. His motivation
began with trying to learn more about the wartime experience of his great-uncle
who had been a crewman on Astoria during World War II. Jones writes in a
way that makes the crewmen come alive.
Cover of hardback edition
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