Unsinkable

A “captivating . . . gripping” account of the USS Plunkett—the WWII destroyer that survived harrowing attacks and fought in every Allied European invasion (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).

Unsinkable traces the individual journeys of five men on one ship from Casablanca, Morocco, 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.

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. “Unsinkable, a fine narrative in its own right, is also a reflection on the nature of storytelling itself” (Wall Street Journal).