A CALL TO COLORS

A Call to Colors begins in the summer of 1944. Lieutenant Commander Mike Donovan has seen more of the war than he wants to remember. Wracked with stomach pains so intense that they double him over, Donovan has just survived the invasion of Guam aboard the USS Ridley, a destroyer hit by a Japanese bomb that took the lives of twenty-six men and the ship’s captain. He is escorting the battered ship back to the United States, where he will assume his first command—of the USS Matthew—a lifelong dream for Mike Donovan.

What the novice commander doesn’t know is that he and the Matthew are headed into turbulent waters made even more treacherous not only by the awesome power of the Japanese navy, but also by a saboteur’s handiwork: bombs set to detonate within the torpedo holds of random American ships. Donovan’s survival, and that of his men, depends on their ability to dismantle the bombs in the midst of the panic and chaos of the greatest naval battle ever fought. Leyte Gulf! Fiction. 487 pages.

The Battle of Leyte Gulf took place on October 24 and 25 in1944. Without a doubt it was the final battle in the history of the world where naval surface combatants were in actual physical sight of each other. In John J. Gobbell's A Call To Colors he takes us back to that tenuous time late in the war when most of the strategic minds within the U.S. and Japanese militaries were certain of one thing. The Japanese had lost the war. The questions that remained were, how would the remaining resources of the Japanese armed services be used. Gobbell has constructed a fictional account of an American destroyer and her crew and placed them in the unenviable location of the famous squadron of ships known to most World War II historians as Taffy 3. The under armed, outnumbered men of Taffy 3 faced the most powerful force of Japanese warships ever assembled, all centered on the super battleship Yamato. Gobbell's account of the battle concentrates on Commander Mike Donovan, Captain of the destroyer USS Matthew, taking us through the events that lead Donovan from his terrifying experiences during his first engagement with the enemy to his taking command of the Matthew. Interspersed are two side stories. The first involves the U.S. military railway and how it underwent some determined foreign sabotage. This story does deviate from the Donovan story—just when you want to know more. From a historical standpoint, the military railway story is very interesting, and Gobbell does use it to tie a lean parallel story concerning an estranged friend of Donovan's now back into his life, however the book could have stood alone without it. The second perspective is a Japanese point of view and is helpful because the Japanese simply don't write about their failures in WWII. I have no doubt this is a fictional account, but without the real thing, this is a great addition to the book.

The writing is good; and the character development is paced well. From a historical standpoint, everything appears to be in the right place. Armchair Interviews says: Anyone who likes a good historical WWII fiction can't go wrong with A Call to Colors.

History's greatest sea battle was the Battle of Leyte Gulf in World War II, which involved 165,000 troops and 700 ships. Gobbell served in the Navy as a deck officer with the Seventh Fleet in the South China Sea aboard a Fletcher class destroyer that had fought in the Leyte battle. In this, Gobbell's [sixth] novel, a Navy veteran is given his first command-a brand-new destroyer with a mostly green crew on its way to the Philippines to join a task force defending MacArthur's amphibious landings at Leyte Gulf. The Americans will sail a few slender, lightly armored, outgunned but wickedly fast destroyers into an ingenious trap laid by the remaining Japanese naval forces, including the mighty battleship Yamamoto. Gobbell knows his military history and skillfully mixes in the stories of the sailors, their friends, lovers and families. A rousing read from a Laguna Niguel-based author.

-Marilyn Hudson is co-founder of Round Table West and a member of the National Book Critics Circle.

Hooked on World War II

John J. Gobbell’s “sea tales ... will have you looking up your nearest Navy recruiter,” says highly acclaimed novelist W.E.B. Griffin. Gobbell’s stories about the United States Navy during World War II allow armchair admirals to slip back in time to the 1940s, as America fights back after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

This month, Gobbell’s new novel, A Call to Colors, introduces his new U.S. Navy hero, Commander Mike Donovan, against the backdrop of the Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Pacific.

Gobbell kindly responded to questions from Quarterdeck about his writing career...

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