Unsinkable
Five Men and the Indomitable Run of the USS Plunkett
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- ¥1,800
Publisher Description
In the bestselling tradition of Indianapolis and In Harm’s Way comes a “captivating…gripping” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) account of the USS Plunkett—a US Navy destroyer that sustained the most harrowing attack on any Navy ship by the Germans during World War II, later made famous by John Ford and Herman Wouk.
“A reflection on the nature of storytelling itself” (The Wall Street Journal), Unsinkable traces the individual journeys of five men on one ship from Casablanca in North Africa, to Sicily and Salerno in Italy and then on to Plunkett’s defining moment at Anzio, where a dozen-odd German bombers bore down on the ship in an assault so savage, so prolonged, and so deadly that one Navy commander was hard-pressed to think of another destroyer that had endured what Plunkett had. After a three-month overhaul and with a reputation rising as the “fightin’est ship” in the Navy, Plunkett (DD-431) plunged back into the war at Omaha Beach on D-Day, and again into battle during the invasion of Southern France—perhaps the only Navy ship to participate in every Allied invasion in the European theatre.
Featuring five incredibly brave men—the indomitable skipper, who will receive the Navy Cross; the gunnery officer, who bucks the captain every step of the way to Anzio; a first lieutenant, who’s desperate to get off the ship and into the Pacific; a seventeen-year-old water tender, who’s trying to hold onto his hometown girl against all odds, and another water tender, who mans a 20mm gun when under aerial assault—the dramatic story of each plays out on the decks of the Plunkett as the ship’s story escalates on the stage of the Mediterranean. Based on Navy logs, war diaries, action reports, letters, journals, memoirs, and dozens of interviews with the men who were on the ship and their families, Unsinkable is a timeless evocation of young men stepping up to the defining experience of their lives. “If you were moved by Norman Maclean’s A River Runs Through It, by William Kent Krueger’s This Tender Land…by the values we hold dear, decency, sacrifice, steadfastness, then Unsinkable will take you to a place long dead in your soul, and flood it with light” (Doug Stanton, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Horse Soldiers).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist Sullivan (Over the Moat) delivers an expansive, character-driven history of the USS Plunkett, a U.S. Navy destroyer that was "in on every invasion in Europe" during WWII and withstood a "savage" attack by German bombers at the Battle of Anzio in January 1944. Drawing on war diaries, action reports, and interviews, Sullivan tells the story through the eyes of five crew members: commander Ed Burke, gunnery officer Ken Brown, reserve officer Jack Simpson, and enlisted men Jim Feltz and John Gallagher, the author's great-uncle. Tracking the Plunkett's journey from its 1940 christening in New Jersey to its near-destruction at Anzio and its role in the D-Day landings at Omaha Beach (which director John Ford filmed from aboard the Plunkett), Sullivan packs the narrative with colorful character sketches and detailed descriptions of the ship's inner workings, from the upper decks to the engine rooms. He also recounts visits to interview surviving sailors, now in their 90s, and relates the outsize impact of destroyers on the Allied war effort. The book culminates in a dramatic account of the attack at Anzio, Italy, when the Plunkett was hit by a 550-pound bomb and lost more than 50 men. Suffused with evocative language and intimate portraits of life in the U.S. Navy, this is a WWII history to savor.
