Submarine Stories: Recollections from the Diesel Boats Review

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(More customer reviews)This book consists of 58 short chapters, each describing some event or advance in the development of US Navy conventional submarines. It covers the entire period of US diesel boat operation, from the early pre-WWI days up to the last of the "B-girls", USS Blueback, decommisioned in the late 1980's, and the Dolphin, lasting into the 21st century. The individual chapters can be read in 10-15 minutes, but each is a careful vignette of some interesting aspect of submarine life onboard these boats. The author list is spectacular: Slade Cutter, Lawson Ramage, Eugene Wilkinson, Edward Beach, Roy Benson, Paul Schratz, Robert Dornin, John Alden, Robert McNitt, Richard Laning, Waldo Lyon, and Joe Williams, among others.
One of the earliest chapters is a letter written by Theordore Roosevelt (yes, the president), in which he describes his reaction to a trip in the USS Plunger, and gives the order that granted submarine duty pay. The WWI L-boats get a chapter, and the operations in conjunction with the British subs are discussed. The S-boats, O-boats, Far East Service, and inter-war submarine losses are covered in their own chapters. Designing the fleet submarine as well as the Torpedo Data Computer get their own chapters, as does submarine detailing in the era before computers tracking of assignments existed. The Squalus rescue is covered from the standpoint of one of the divers.
The bulk of the chapters cover incidents and stories from WWII. Along the way, we hear from Slade Cutter about life under Lew Parks on Pompano, and what it taught him about submarine command. These chapters also include such notable actions as the exploits of USS Drum, in which the author, Adm Maurice Rindskopf, describes his duty as decoding officer of the ULTRA broadcasts. Told that a Japanese ship will appear at a particular location, he dons a garish yellow Hawaiian shirt. They subsequently find and sink the ship. On the next patrol, the codes come in again, and he again puts on the shirt in anticipation. The crew, figuring it is a good luck charm, immediately put on their own yellow Hawaiian shirts they have all purchased. There are tales of wolfpack operations with Parche, Hammerhead and Steelhead, as told by "Red" Ramage. The USS Darter runs aground after the Battle of Leyte Gulf, and all efforts to free her fail. She is finally abandoned, with the crew rescued by the Dace. Balancing these war incidents, are insights into life during that period: reservists at submarine school, crossing the equator, sub sailor's liberty and the experience of being a black submariner. Limited to the mess steward role during WWII, black submariner Hosey Mays stays with the Navy after the war, and eventually becomes rated as an electrician and makes chief.
The post war- Cold War era also gets coverage. Operations under the ice from diesels explorations up to Nautilus are covered by Dr. Waldo Lyons, the visionary scientist who foresaw submarine arctic operations. The experiences with the converted Guppy submarines, with a competition to see who can surface at the steepest angles (72 degrees was captured on film). Regulus missiles at sea are covered in two chapters, with one detailing operations during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The disastrous GM "pancake" rotary diesel engines of the Tang class get a chapter, complete with a nice picture of the offensive engines. The design and performance of the amazing Albacore, with its Body of Revolution hull have a place in the book. There are numerous other chapters all with fascinating stories to tell.

I found that the pacing of the book was excellent, with different stories and viewpoints interwoven among the varied chapters. A sparse but careful selection of black and white photos accompanies each chapter; some of the men and some of the machines. All in all, an excellent book with "bite-sized" stories that all add up to a superb history of the diesel submarine force.


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Culled from many never-before-published narratives and oral histories conducted under the auspices of the U.S. Naval Institute, Submarine Stories presents nearly five dozen first-person accounts from men who were involved with gasoline- and diesel-powered submarines during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The story of these boats, their technological evolution and tactical value, is also the story of the men who went to sea in them. The accounts illustrate the human aspects of serving in diesel boats:the training, operations in peacetime and war, liberty exploits, humorous sidelights, and special feelings of bonding and camaraderie that grew among shipmates.Included here are some familiar names.Slade Cutter, who earned four Navy Crosses as a skipper in World War II, describes the process that made him a capable submariner. Dennis Wilkinson, first skipper of the nuclear-powered Nautilus in the 1950s, tells of being in the first missile-firing submarine in the 1940s. Robert McNitt recalls his experiences as executive officer to Medal of Honor skipper Gene Fluckey. Among the other submariners who present their personal memories are Jerry Beckley, contemplating the possibility of firing nuclear missiles during the 1962 Cuban crisis; Hosey Mays, describing what it was like to be a black man in a boat with a nearly all-white crew; Paul Foster, discussing the sinking a German U-boat in World War I; and Wayne Miller, explaining the enormous satisfaction he felt when he earned his silver dolphins.

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