Better than CA30 crewman Winslow's book

Disclosure: I know the author tangentially.

Ship of Ghosts: Crew of Valor

Hornfischer's new history of the last days of USS Houston (CA30) covers the story of USS Houston from her launch through her sinking at the Battle of Sunda Strait, Java, February 1942. Most of the volume covers her wartime service with the United States Asiatic fleet, and the subsequent ordeals of her surviving crewmembers as prisoners of war in Java, Burma, Thailand and Japan. The tales of valor, resistence, and survival in the face of the impossible circumstances of Asiatic Fleet, and of her crew's survival in prisoner of war camps, have long awaited telling. Hornfischer deserves great credit for obtaining and presenting the tale, and for honoring the last great men of a generation of WW2 veterans who are rapidly dwindling in number.

HEROIC Ghost of the Java Coast!

When I first read the sample pgs on Amazon, it reminded me of those Civil War books w/ the flowery language in place of facts/1st hand experiences - but I was going to get this book cause there are rarely new WWII stories. The only thing I had know about the Houston was that it had been lost early in the war & had only seen that 1 Japanese photo of it engulfed in shell splashes (not incl here unfort - prob too sensitive!)