Hell from the Heavens Hell from the Heavens

Hell from the Heavens

The Epic Story of the USS Laffey and World War II's Greatest Kamikaze Attack

    • 4.2 • 13 Ratings
    • $10.99
    • $10.99

Publisher Description

Looking toward the heavens, the destroyer crew saw what seemed to be the entire Japanese Air Force assembled directly above. Hell was about to be unleashed on them in the largest single-ship kamikaze attack of World War II.

On April 16, 1945, the crewmen of the USS Laffey were battle hardened and prepared. They had engaged in combat off the Normandy coast in June 1944. They had been involved in three prior assaults of enemy positions in the Pacific-at Leyte and Lingayen in the Philippines and at Iwo Jima. They had seen kamikazes purposely crash into other destroyers and cruisers in their unit and had seen firsthand the bloody results of those crazed tactics. But nothing could have prepared the crew for this moment-an eighty-minute ordeal in which the single small ship was targeted by no fewer than twenty-two Japanese suicide aircraft.

By the time the unprecedented attack on the Laffey was finished, thirty-two sailors lay dead, more than seventy were wounded, and the ship was grievously damaged. Although she lay shrouded in smoke and fire for hours, the Laffey somehow survived, and the gutted American warship limped from Okinawa's shore for home, where the ship and crew would be feted as heroes.

Using scores of personal interviews with survivors, the memoirs of crew members, and the sailors' wartime correspondence, historian and author John Wukovits breathes life into the story of this nearly forgotten historic event. The US Navy described the kamikaze attack on the Laffey "as one of the great sea epics of the war." In Hell from the Heavens, the author makes the ordeal of the Laffey and her crew a story for the ages.

GENRE
History
RELEASED
2015
April 7
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
336
Pages
PUBLISHER
Hachette Books
SELLER
Hachette Digital, Inc.
SIZE
13.4
MB

Customer Reviews

Knotoncall2 ,

Reads right to left

After downloading the sample, noticed it reads in Arabic format. E.g. right to left rather than left to right. Won’t buy until fixed!

More Books Like This

Tin Can Titans Tin Can Titans
2017
Neptune's Inferno Neptune's Inferno
2011
Midnight in the Pacific Midnight in the Pacific
2017
World War II at Sea World War II at Sea
2018
The Fleet at Flood Tide The Fleet at Flood Tide
2016
Sunday in Hell Sunday in Hell
2014

More Books by John Wukovits

Tin Can Titans Tin Can Titans
2017
Admiral "Bull" Halsey Admiral "Bull" Halsey
2010
One Square Mile of Hell One Square Mile of Hell
2006
For Crew and Country For Crew and Country
2013
American Commando American Commando
2009
Pacific Alamo Pacific Alamo
2004

Customers Also Bought

Guadalcanal:Decision At Sea Guadalcanal:Decision At Sea
2009
Carrier Clash Carrier Clash
2009
Battle Stations Battle Stations
2021
War Beneath the Waves War Beneath the Waves
2010
Gallant Lady Gallant Lady
2006
The Ship That Wouldn't Die The Ship That Wouldn't Die
2015