James D. Hornfischer Book order

"A close-up, action-filled narrative about the crucial role the U.S. Navy played in the early years of the Cold War, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Fleet at Flood Tide This landmark account of the U.S. Navy in the Cold War, Who Can Hold the Sea, combines narrative history with scenes of stirring adventure on--and under--the high seas. In 1945, at the end of World War II, the victorious Navy sends its sailors home and decommissions most of its warships. But this peaceful interlude is short-lived, as Stalin, America's former ally, makes aggressive moves in Europe and the Far East. Winston Churchill crystallizes the growing Communist threat by declaring the existence of "the Iron Curtain," and the Truman Doctrine is set up to contain Communism by establishing U.S. military bases throughout the world. Set against this background of increasing Cold War hostility, Who Can Hold the Sea paints the dramatic rise of the Navy's crucial postwar role in a series of exciting episodes: the tests of A-bombs dropped on warships at Bikini Island the growing science of undersea warfare and invention of sonar the Korean War as a deadly test of naval superiority the growth of the modern Navy with its dramatic game-changers: cruisers fitted with surface-to-air missiles, and the invention of the nuclear submarine lessons learned from the dramatic sinking of the submarine USS Cochino in the Norwegian Sea the USS Nautilus's dangerous, first-ever cruise underneath the North Pole As in all of Hornfischer's work, the events unfold in riveting--and often surprising--detail. The story of the Cold War at sea is ultimately the story of America's victorious contest to protect the free world"-- Provided by publisher

Here is the extraordinary story of the most consequential campaign of the Pacific War- the U.S. Fifth Fleet's seizure of the Marianas, a relentless deployment of overwhelming force on air, land, and sea that opened the path to total victory over Japan and established a new state of the art in warfare- the first use of the forerunners of today's SEALs; the emergence of massive cross-hemispheric expeditionary operations; the flowering of American naval aviation and carrier power; and the secret training of Marianas-based air crews who would first unleash nuclear fire. From the epic seaborne invasion of Saipan, to the stunning aerial battles of the Marianas Turkey Shoot, to the grinding combat ashore and the devastating bombing campaign that culminated with Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Marianas were the fulcrum of the Pacific, a kaleidoscope of valor, drama, and tragedy. Story Locale- The Marianas, Central Pacific, 1944

Describes the loss of the cruiser U.S.S. Houston during the early days of World War II in the Pacific and the fate of the warship's surviving crew, who were captured by the Japanese and forced to work as slaves on Japan's brutal Burma-Thailand Death Railway

Chronicles the October 1944 battle off Samar between a vastly outnumbered fleet of American warships and a flotilla of the Japanese Navy, a struggle that changed the course of World War II in the Pacific