In the last three months of World War II, during the operation to occupy Okinawa, the United States Navy ringed the island with destroyers stationed out at distant points like spokes on a wheel. The primary assignment of these picket ships was to use their radars to detect incoming air raids so to alert forces at the beachheads. Their secondary assignment was to call in carrier aircraft to intercept the incoming raids.

In a desperate attempt at defense of their homeland, the Japanese hurled hundreds of suicide aircraft at the invaders. These kamikazes wrought devastating losses on the isolated radar picket ships. Ten of these overwhelmed ships, including the USS Mannert L. Abele, were sunk by the end of World War II and another fifty-eight so badly damaged that they had to be removed from action. During the Okinawa operation the U.S. Navy suffered the worst casualties in its history: 5,907 sailors lost their lives, the greatest loss of any branch of the military during this operation.

Forty-eight survivors of the Abele’s crew contributed their stories. Enhancing these are seven first-hand recollections from witnessing crewmembers of two neighboring, defending vessels. Two contemporary Japanese accounts augment this narrative. Thirteen members of the families of Abele crew recalled their memories. This narrative is based on official US Navy sources found in the National Archives and the US Naval Historical Center. The author was the electronics officer aboard this beleaguered vessel.

This 358-page history contains 112 photographs and drawings to illustrate this account. Included are eleven appendices, endnotes, a bibliography, a glossary of nautical terms, an index of people and a general index.