"Slade Cutter's heroic feats as an athlete and World War II submarine commander left an indelible mark on the U.S. Navy. From a humble upbringing on a depression-era farm in Illinois, he won an appointment to the Naval Academy and went on to become one of America's most formidable and decorated naval officers in World War II. As commander of the USS Seahorse, he sank twenty-three enemy ships in the Pacific, earning four Navy Crosses and a Presidential Unit Citation. Although Cutter's brilliant tactics and unusual exploits are the stuff of legend, this is the first biography published about him. With complete and exclusive access to his subject, journalist Carl LaVO presents a remarkably candid portrait of the storied captain. He draws on countless interviews with Cutter and with many of his shipmates and admirers - as well as a few detractors. Cutter's own views about his naval career and the inner workings of the Navy's hierarchy are always forthright and contribute uniquely to the official record."--BOOK JACKET.
World War II submariners rarely experienced anything as exhilarating or horrifying as the surface gun attack. Between the ocean floor and the rolling whitecaps above, submarines patrolled a dark abyss in a fusion of silence, shadows, and steel, firing around eleven thousand torpedoes, sinking Japanese men-of-war and more than one thousand merchant ships. But the anonymity and simplicity of the stealthy torpedo attack hid the savagery of warfare -- a stark difference from the brutality of the surface gun maneuver. As the submarine shot through the surface of the water, confined sailors scrambled through the hatches armed with large-caliber guns and met the enemy face-to-face. Surface and Destroy: The Submarine Gun War in the Pacific reveals the nature of submarine warfare in the Pacific Ocean during World War II and investigates the challenges of facing the enemy on the surface. The surface battle amplified the realities of war, bringing submariners into close contact with survivors and potential prisoners of war. As Japan's larger ships disappeared from the Pacific theater, American submarines turned their attention to smaller craft such as patrol boats, schooners, sampans, and junks. Some officers refused to attack enemy vessels of questionable value, while others attacked reluctantly and tried to minimize casualties. Michael Sturma focuses on the submariners' reactions and attitudes toward their victims, exploring the sailors' personal standards of morality and their ability to wage total war. Surface and Destroy is a thorough analysis of the submariner experience and the effects of surface attacks on the war in the Pacific, offering a compelling study of the battles that became "intolerably personal."
Eugene Fluckey was one of the great naval heroes of World War II. His exploits as captain of the submarine USS Barb revolutionized undersea warfare and laid the groundwork for a nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine fleet. He retired as a rear admiral and was awarded numerous presidential, congressional, and military honors, including the Medal of Honor and four Navy Crosses. In the war against Japan, Fluckey fired the first ballistic missiles from a submarine, sank more tonnage than any other U.S. submarine skipper, including an aircraft carrier, a cruiser, a destroyer, and blew up a train after landing submariners-turned-saboteurs on mainland Japan in 1945. Here is the legendary submariner's story, told with the exclusive access to Fluckey's personal papers and based on interviews with him, his family, Barb shipmates, official Navy documents, and the recollections of his contemporaries.
From unpromising beginnings in March 1942, the Allied submarine base at Fremantle on the west coast of Australia became a vital part of the Allied offensive against Japan. Pushed back from the Philippines and the Netherlands’ East Indies, American submariners, accompanied by a small group of Dutch forces, retreated to Fremantle as a last resort. The location was chosen for its good harbor and the fact that it was outside the range of land-based Japanese aircraft. Unfortunately the base was also far from their patrol areas and supply lines, and it was difficult to reinforce should the enemy attack. Thanks largely to a welcoming civilian population, morale quickly improved. The hospitality and sense of belonging fostered by Western Australians became legendary among Allied submariners and remains central to their wartime memories. Perhaps as a result of such a positive experience, the Allied forces became much more successful in combat. Intertwining social and military history, Fremantle’s Submarines relates how courage, cooperation, and community made Fremantle arguably the most successful military outpost of World War II from the standpoint of troop morale.
The remarkable true story of Dudley “Mush” Morton, the most admired—and feared—submarine commander of World War II Mush Morton was a warrior without peer. At the helm of the USS Wahoo he completely changed the way the submarines fought in the Pacific War. He would relentlessly attack the Japanese at every opportunity, burning through his supply of torpedoes in record time on every patrol. Over the course of only nine months and five patrols, Morton racked up an astounding list of achievements, including being the first American skipper to wipe out an entire enemy convoy single-handedly. Here, for the first time, is the life and legend of a heroic submarine commander who fought the war on his own terms, and changed the course of the undersea war in the Pacific.
Vice Admiral Allan Rockwell McCann left no reminiscences that might reveal a deeper sense of his extraordinary service, but naval historian Carl LaVO has filled that void by writing this revealing—and often inspiring—biography. Among McCann’s many accomplishments: Served as liaison officer for the modification of the antiquated O-12 submarine into the privately-leased Nautilus that made the first attempt to sail beneath the Arctic ice shelf in 1931; pioneered the McCann Submarine Rescue Chamber; directed fire from the sub tender Pelias at Japanese aircraft attacking Pearl Harbor; commanded the battleship Iowa during the Battle of Leyte Gulf; was Chief of Staff of the Navy’s 10th Fleet that stymied a last ditch effort to attack North America via U-boats; headed the Navy task force that transported President Truman to the Potsdam conference; and as ComSubPac was aboard the first submarine to navigate under the polar ice in 1947. This book is an overdue appreciation of a significant admiral who has been all but ignored in naval history.
Capt. Edward “Ned” Latimer Beach, Jr. USN is known primarily for his bestselling novel Run Silent, Run Deep, which was made into a film in 1958 with Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster and his record setting voyage as commanding officer of USS Triton (SSN(R) 586), that was the first submarine to circumnavigate of the globe while submerged. A highly-decorated United States Navy submarine officer, during World War II, he participated in the Battle of Midway as well as other 12 combat patrols, earning 10 decorations for gallantry, including the Navy Cross. His career also offers insights into the inner workings of power, from inside the Pentagon in the years right after World War II, to inside of the Eisenhower White House, to the politics of the Republican Party in the United States Senate in the 1970s,. In addition to serving as an officer aboard U.S. submarines in the Pacific during World War II, he was a prolific author publishing two novels in addition Run Silent, Run Deep, as well as numerous works on naval history. Ned Beach is a biography that weaves together the personal, professional and writing life of a man who for many was the public face of the submarine community in the years after the Second World War. With a father, who was a naval officer and the author of thirteen published novels in the 1910s & ‘20s, as the eldest son Ned Beach was greatly influenced to follow in his father’s footsteps and to become both an officer and a writer. From his youth in Palo Alto, California during the Great Depression to his service in the Pacific in the war against Japan to the epic submerged circumnavigation of the globe in early 1960 commanding one of the early nuclear powered submarines, Ned Beach’s career encompasses a revolutionary period in American naval history. Not only did he experience it, he wrote about it. This book tells the story of his remarkable life, career and writing.
Leadership is a most demanding undertaking. How do some people make it seem so simple, so natural and instinctive? In the age-old debate as to whether leaders are born or made, Thomas contends that the answer is both. Great leaders throughout history were born with certain capabilities. Preparation honed those capabilities. Then that ability and preparation were combined with a will to lead. When circumstances demanded, the great leaders of history pulled these attributes together to create results that drove the course of history. While leaders are present in every aspect of human undertaking, we chose to illustrate each of the components of leadership through the most dramatic and demanding of all human undertakings—war and the preparations for war. Wartime leaders are leaders “writ with a darker pen.” Wartime challenges are, because of the life and death nature of the affair, more monumental and exacting. In the selection of individuals to illustrate each point, we chose wartime leaders as well as those who guided their subordinates and organizations in preparation for combat. Further we chose American leaders with a distinct and obvious bias towards the navy and Marine Corps. Multiple reasons led us to our approach for Leadership Embodied. First, a biography is perhaps the most effective method for imparting leadership lessons. Simple listings of prescriptive traits or descriptive qualities are patronizing and, frequently, boring. Second, our biographical examples are familiar to most—or at least they should be. Finally, all of these historical selections have dramatically shaped today’s institutions, practices, and customs within the naval services. These are not marginal figures with marginal influence. The individuals included, and their respective leadership attributes, should be required reading for any student of leadership. Each has a particular lesson for midshipmen on their journey to becoming a navy or Marine Corps officer. This book does not promise to be a panacea. There is no short cut. Leadership does not follow a prescribed path. We study examples to inspire us to become better, to be strong when it is easy to give in, and to know others have gone before us and faced insurmountable odds. Leadership, as an ill-defined social science, crosses boundaries with several disciplines including sociology, psychology, philosophy, and history. We have selected a method that combines the psychological “profile” of effective leaders and the historical context of the impact their leadership brought to organizations and events. Our hope for this book is that these case studies illustrate the basic elements—in themselves the very essence—of leadership. It is through inherent talent, arduous preparation, and practical experience that we become capable leaders. The reader brings the first to the table; then we offer a small token in the second pursuit; and circumstances enable the third.
Mary Lee Coe Fowler was a posthumous child, born after her father, a submarine skipper in the Pacific, was lost at sea in 1943. She set out to learn not only who her father was, but what happened to him and his crew, and why. This memoir reveals what she eventually learned, which includes the perils and hardships of submarine service in wartime.
