South Pacific Destroyer: The Battle for the Solomons from Savo Island to Vella Gulf [Audiobook, MP3 Audio, Unabridged] [Audio CD]

From there the author walks us through the tactical situations faced by the Maury and other destroyers, and covers each major and most minor actions in the Guadalcanal Navel Campaign. Cruiser and destroyer movements and actions in each battle are explained from the viewpoint of the participants, so you have a combination of the actions of the battle along with the personal memories. Some books focus more on one or the other, but this one achieves what I thought was a very nice balance.

At the end of the book tables are included that show actual results achieved in the actions (ships hit, with major or minor damage) the contrast between actual damage to the Japanese ships vs. what had been observed is striking! There is also a discussion of the torpedo problems in the US Fleet, and one regarding the effectiveness of some of our guns. Very enlightening.

While much of the detailed tactical information presented here is available elsewhere, combined with the personal and human information contained an outstanding reading experience is provided!

The Author,however, also attempts to interleave in the narrative a history of the surface actions in the South Pacicfic theater in 1942-1943. It appears that he liberally summarizes the Morrison hisory "Breaking the Bismark Barrier" without adding much if anything and deleting a lot. The presentation is certainly mechanical. Even the charts are cheap reproductions from the Morrision book.

For some reason the author does not describe his experinces with the destroyer from Pearl Harbor through Midway and etc. This to me would be much more interesting than a repeat of a book I have read several times and a lengthy discussion of the fallacies of the US torpedo program that thousands of authors have already covered ad nauseum. The torpedo problem was,though, a hugely important issue. What the author did add was that prior to the battle at Vella Gulf, he insisted that the Maurie's torpedo depth settings be set to mininum to compensate for faulty controls. This truly may have had a significant effect on the outcome of the battle.