Combat Patrol

by Clay Blair Jr.

Book Overview

The incredible saga of U.S. submarine forces in the war against Japan. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0553122797
• ISBN13: 9780553122794
• Release Date: March 1978
• Publisher: Bantam Books
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The "good parts" of Silent Victory

This a shorter version of the book "Silent Victory: The U.S. Submarine War Against Japan". It concentrates on the patrol narratives, and a lot of the reference material is left out. So if you just want to read about the patrols, this is the book for you. Anyone who is involved in weapons procurement, design, testing, etc. should read the descriptions of the early torpedo problems. I have spent my career doing R & D on weapons, so the sections describing the torpedo problems hit home. The short description of the problem is that the torpedoes were not adequately tested because the Bureau of Ordinance didn't think it was necessary, and in the early years of the war a lot of the torpedoes did not work. It is likely that some US subs were lost because of the bad torpedoes, certainly many opportunities at sinking Japanese shipping were lost. Whenever some manager tries to cut back on testing I slap this book down and tell them to read it. They don't of course, but at least I can say I tried to warn them.