Most of the submarine warfare that we hear about is that of the Germans and their U-boats. The losses in that service were horrific and around 80% of those who went to sea never returned. That is a loss of over 1,000 boats and 22,000 men.

The US submarine service did not have that high a loss rate, but still it was enough that 52 boats and 3500 men never returned. These boats were used almost exclusively against the Japanese as the Germans did not have much international shipping. Yet the Japanese relied on shipping to bring raw materials for war production. It was against the merchant shipping that US submarines were mostly deployed, though it never hurt to sink a destroyer or cruiser or other large military ship!

The beginning of the war was not good for the US. The submarine service was hampered by mostly inadequate boats, poor planning and faulty torpedoes. The better boats situation was improved by the pre-war design Gato class and the later Balao class of fleet submarine. Planning and use was also improved by sacking a bunch of admirals and having subs patrol the choke points where lots of shipping was bound to travel. It wasn't until late 1943 that the torpedo problem was finally resolved.

This book covers all of this and goes into some detail on operations of the boats themselves and how they conducted the war. Camouflage schemes, equipment and 'standard' tactics are covered in a most interesting way. There is also a goodly section on some of the more interesting exploits of some of the submarines. I have also discovered from reading this and other books on US submarines that much of what you see in those WWII submarine movies is based on reality. Makes for some very interesting reading.

This is one of the best books on the subject and while really a primer on the subject, provides enough information to be interesting and to whet one's appetite for more. It is a book that I found quite interesting and I know you will as well.

August 2006

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