Book review: "All the gallant men" by Donald Stratton

[Sir_Davos_Seaworth]

Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/All-Gallant-Men-American-Firsthand-ebook/dp/B01ER6OKOO/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1491083079&sr=1-1&keywords=all+the+gallant+men  But my wife found it at our local library.

 

This is an important book. Not a long one, or one filled with pretty words, but important nevertheless. It is sometimes all to easy to forget the human side of war when all we have are grainy newsreels, and even here in the game where the ships magically are back in our port no matter how much damage they just took. Now, I'm not bashing the game, far from it. If this game gets some kid to pick up a book like this one, then I say more the merrier. But least we forget anytime one of ships of any nation lost their fight young men died by the thousands.

 

This is a story of one who survived the Arizona being blown up, sunk and burnt on December 7th 1941. There are plenty of good books about the attack, but this is the first memoir by a sailor who was on board that day. Donald was running an AA director during the fight until she blew up under him. Despite being horribly burned, not only did he survive, but went to sea again, this time on a DD. I won't rehash the whole thing, but if you want the story of someone who has "been there and seen that" you need to pick this one up.

 

Highly recommended. Five starts, all that...

 

I don't own the Arizona here in the game....I think I need to work on that, even if I never have the guts to run her... Thanks for reading my review!

 

Davos.