The Twilight Warriors

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More About This Book

Overview

The Twilight Warriors, winner of the 2011 Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Naval Literature, is the engrossing, page-turning saga of a tightly knit band of naval aviators who are thrust into the final—and most brutal—battle of the Pacific war: Okinawa.

April 1945. The end of World War II finally appears to be nearing. The Third Reich is collapsing in Europe, and the Americans are overpowering the once-mighty Japanese Empire in the Pacific. For a group of young pilots trained in the twilight of the war, the greatest worry is that it will end before they have a chance to face the enemy. They call themselves Tail End Charlies. They fly at the tail end of formations, stand at the tail end of chow lines, and now they are catching the tail end of the war. What they don’t know is that they will be key players in the bloodiest and most difficult of naval battles—not only of World War II but in all of American history.

The Twilight Warriors relives the drama of the world’s last great naval campaign. From the cockpit of a Corsair fighter we gaze down at the Japanese task force racing to destroy the American amphibious force at Okinawa. Through the eyes of the men on the destroyers assigned to picket ship duty, we experience the terror as wave after wave of kamikazes crash into their ships. Standing on the deck of the legendary superbattleship Yamato, we watch Japan’s last hope for victory die in a tableau of gunfire and explosions.

Among the Tail End Charlies are men such as a twenty-two-year-old former art student who grows to manhood on the day of his first mission over Japan and his best friend, a ladies’ man and intrepid fighter pilot whose life abruptly changes when his Corsair goes down off the enemy shore. Another is a young Texan lieutenant who volunteers for the most dangerous flying job in the fleet—intercepting kamikazes at night over the blackened Pacific. Their leader is a charismatic officer who rises to greatness in the crucible of Okinawa. Directing the vast armada of sea, air, and land forces is a cast of brilliant and flawed commanders—from the imperturbable admiral and master of carrier warfare to the controversial soldier assigned to command the land forces.

The fate of the Americans at Okinawa is intertwined with the lives of the “young gods”— the honor-bound Japanese airmen who swarm like killer bees toward the U.S. ships. The kamikazes are dispatched on their deadly one-way missions by a classic samurai warrior who vows that he will follow them to a warrior’s grave.

The ferocity of the Okinawa fighting stuns the world. Before it ends, the long battle will cost more American lives, ships, and aircraft than any naval engagement in U.S. history. More than simply the account of a historic battle, The Twilight Warriors brings to life the human side of an epic conflict. It is the story of young Americans at war in the air and on the sea—and of their enigmatic, fanatically courageous enemy.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly
Former navy pilot and military historian Gandt (Season of Storms) is a first-rate storyteller, and here he focuses on an aspect of the Battle of Okinawa sometimes overshadowed by the bitter fighting on land: Okinawa was the most expensive naval battle in American history, with almost 10,000 American casualties. Thirty ships were lost, and over 350 more were damaged, many beyond repair. Gandt uses operational history to structure the naval campaign's human dimensions. He describes Japan's development of a kamikaze force so effective that American admirals deployed picket lines of small, expendable warships to absorb the attacks' initial impact. The author portrays senior officers aged beyond their years by the unending stresses of command. He recreates fighter cockpits as carrier pilots tackle the kamikazes and the escorts determined to bring them through. He boards ships desperately fending off attackers no less determined to make their dying count. On the waters off Okinawa it was kill or be killed. As Gandt ably shows, Okinawa taught President Truman a grim lesson: "any weapon," even an atomic bomb, "was preferable to an invasion" of Japan. B&w photos, maps. (Nov.)
AMERICA IN WWIImagazine
Author Robert Gandt retells the red twilight of the Pacific war in page-turning fashion in The Twilight Warriors. This is no dry review of the strategy of the war’s final campaign, which was fought for the possession of a base for the planned invasion of Japan. This is a richly human story told in the very accessible tradition of Cornelius Ryan and Stephen Ambrose…Gandt’s work is a handsome tribute to the fighting men, American and Japanese, who battled so valiantly in the waning months of the Pacific war and is a must-have for your WWII bookshelf.--(Brian John Murphy)
More Reviews (2) Fewer Reviews
Library Journal
This narrative of the last months of the war in the Pacific follows a number of pilots from their initial training to their first combat. Although the Japanese Empire was clearly doomed, it was not giving up easily. The author is particularly expressive in recounting the American defense against kamikaze attacks. This book is largely, though not entirely, focused on the bitter fight for Okinawa and will be of most interest for aviation buffs and broader collections.
Kirkus Reviews

Military historian and novelist Gandt (Black Star Rising, 2007, etc.) chronicles the epic Battle of Okinawa.

In the spring of 1945, as the Red Army approached Berlin, a ferocious land, sea and air battle raged in the Pacific, a dress rehearsal, many thought, for the upcoming invasion of Japan. The author credits the idea of bypassing the heavily fortified island of Formosa and seizing Okinawa to the brainy Adm. Raymond Spruance. Snapshots of Spruance, Marc Mitscher, Chester Nimitz, Ernest King, Morton Deyo and Arleigh Burke, towering names in American naval history, dot these pages, complemented by similar sharp takes on the Japanese high command defending the island. The heart of Gandt's story, though, is the tale of the young aviators, the Tail End Charlies on the American side, fearful they'd never get into action, and the Japanese Thunder Gods, the kamikazeforce whose suicide missions testified simultaneously to Japan's will and her desperation. By no means comprehensive—Gandt checks in only periodically with the halting advance of Simon Buckner's 10th Army—the narrative, nevertheless, consistently enlightens on numerous battle-related issues and incidents: the rivalry between the black shoe (seagoing) and the brown shoe (aviation) navy; how the Japanese consistently overestimated the destruction caused by the kamikazemissions; the circumstances surrounding the deaths of Buckner and famed correspondent Ernie Pyle; the peculiar susceptibility of the wooden-decked U.S. carriers to kamikazeattack; the sinking of the mighty battleship Yamato; the exploits of American ace Al Lerch, who shot down seven planes in a single mission; the strength of the USSLaffey, still afloat after six kamikazecrashes. The appalling price in lives lost, men wounded, ships sunk and aircraft destroyed made Okinawa "the costliest naval engagement in U.S. history." Three months later the atomic bomb would fall on Hiroshima.

A fine popular account of history's last great sea battle.

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780767932424
  • Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
  • Publication date: 11/8/2011
  • Edition description: Reprint
  • Pages: 400
  • Sales rank: 120,922
  • Product dimensions: 5.20 (w) x 7.90 (h) x 1.00 (d)

Meet the Author

ROBERT GANDT is a former naval officer and aviator, international airline pilot, screenwriter, and a military and aviation historian.  He is the author of six novels and seven non-fiction books, including Bogeys and Bandits, the definitive work on modern naval aviation, which was adapted for the television series Pensacola: Wings of Gold.  He and his wife Anne live in the Spruce Creek Fly-In in Daytona Beach, Florida.  You may visit his web site at www.Gandt.com.

Table of Contents

Time Line

Prologue 1

PART ONE THE WAY OF THE WARRIOR

1 The Next Island 7

2 Tail End Charlies 13

3 You Are Already Gods 24

4 Tiny Tim 35

5 Your Favorite Enemy 43

6 First Blooding 53

7 The Mood in Boys' Town 61

8 Shoot the Son of a Bitch 69

9 We Will Save the Ship 76

10 Thunder Gods 83

11 Three Seconds to Die 94

12 And Where is the Navy? 101

13 Gimlet Eyes and the Alligator 110

PART TWO STORMING THE GREAT LOOCHOO

14 Love Day 119

15 Bourbon and Puddle Water 126

16 Ten-Go 133

17 Divine Wind 142

18 Breakout 153

19 Race for Glory 161

20 First Wave 170

21 Ducks in a Gallery 182

22 There she Blows 190

23 Dumbo and Mighty Mouse 201

PART THREE FLOATING CHRYSANTHEMUMS

24 A Ridge Called Kakazu 217

25 Ohka 225

26 Gunslingers 233

27 Black Friday 244

28 Keep Moving and Keep Shooting 255

29 As Long as a Gun Will Fire 263

30 Glory Day 270

31 Target Intrepid 278

32 Call Me Ernie 287

33 Counteroffensive 294

34 Bottom of the Barrel 302

35 Gone with the Spring 310

36 Change of Command 317

37 Ritual of Death 330

38 Setting Sun 339

Acknowledgments 349

The Honored Dead of Carrier Air Group 10 351

Notes 352

References 365

U.S. Order of Battle 370

Japanese Order of Battle 371

Glossary 372

Credits 375

Index 376

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 3.5
( 7 )

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Sort by: Showing all of 7 Customer Reviews

  • Anonymous

    Posted March 16, 2012

    Robert Gandt is not an historian. He is a story teller who repea

    Robert Gandt is not an historian. He is a story teller who repeats without question myths, and half truths. It is a disserve to those who served in the Pacific war that this book was chosen by two history book clubs which will further enhance these myths. I served on Okinawa in 1945, but a soldier has little notion of what is happening around him. Later I studied the history of the war by serious writers . Gandt's offering, uncritically, the idea that two newpaper reporters were more expert on strategy than the commander on the ground, the Army's LtGen Buckner , is ludicrous. The suggestion that Holland Smith replace Buckner is even more ludicrous, and could never have happened. At Saipan Smith embarrased ADM Nimitiz and hampered the war with his intemperate actions. Out of twenty Army divisions in the Pacific, half served under Nimitz at different times in the war. He needed the soldiers and wanted good relations with the Army. Gen Marshall swore that he would never permit Smith to command Army troops again, so Gandt's mentioning this possiibility which is believed by many, could never happen. There were four battle hardened Army divisions and two Marine divisions, all veterans of Pacific battles, and all in constant combat on Okinawa. Later near the end, a Marine regiment was added. After Saipan, Smith was taken out of any combat role and kicked upstairs to command the Fleet Marine Force, whose purpose was administrative and training and located at Pearl Harbor. Smith was bitter about this assignment but he was lucky since he came close to leaving the theater. Adm King saved him. Nimitz promised to give Smith a combat job in the future which he did at Iwo Jima, only his position was such that he could do little damage.
    Okinawa was a bittle campaign since it was fought on the doorstep of Japan. To not understand the tenacity of the enemy and the nature of the rain soaked terrain is not to understand General Buckner's task. The attempt at a second landing as suggested by these reporters and seemingly put forth as a good possibility by Gandt would have been a fiasco. Nimitiz and Buckner would have been blamed for its failure. Gandt hints that Nimitz,s backing of Buckner was not real, despite the unusual press conference the Admiral called.
    One other point, Gandt stated that Adm Spruance was the victor at Midway. Another myth. Read "Blackshoe Carrier Admiral" the story of VAdm Frank Jack Fletcher at Coral Sea, Midway, and Guadalcanal, by Lundstrom.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted December 17, 2010

    Highly recommended for WWII history buffs.

    The Twilight Warriors is a very entertaining book covering the Navy airmen known as 'Tail End Charlies' that fought some of the bloodiest battles in the waning months of WWII. Although Gandt's writing style is a bit predictable and unpolished, he does an excellent job in capturing the reader's attention and holding it throughout the book. The reader quickly identifies with the characters and feels they are riding right along with them. This is a very enjoyable book and hard to put down.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted December 24, 2011

    Interesting, informative and entertaining read

    If you are interested in military history from the perspective of the men on the line this is a well worth reading. Lots of detail and insights without sacrificing the pace of the read.

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  • Posted February 13, 2011

    I highly recommend it.

    Twilight Warriors may be non-fiction, but there are no boring facts here. This account of the waning days of World War II in the Pacific is a compelling story. Robert Gandt's easy writing style, along with his personal experiences as a Navy pilot conveys a real world perspective. This comprehensive work told from both the Japanese and American perspective, brings it all together through the lives of USS Intrepid aviators.

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    Posted June 1, 2011

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    Posted June 28, 2011

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