Unrestricted Warfare : How a New Breed of Officers Led the Submarine Force to Victory in World War II

by DeRose, James F.

• ISBN13: 9780471384953
• ISBN10: 047138495X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-10-16
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

Unrestricted Warfare reveals the dramatic story of the harsh baptism by fire faced by U.S. submarine commanders in World War II. The first skippers went to battle hamstrung by conservative peacetime training and plagued by defective torpedoes. Drawing extensively from now declassified files, Japanese archives, and the testimony of surviving veterans, James DeRose has written a fascinating account of the men and vessels responsible for the only successful submarine campaign of the war. They clearly charted a new course to victory in the Pacific. ADVANCE PRAISE FOR UNRESTRICTED WARFARE "James DeRose has done an excellent job-- surprisingly so, in view of his lack of true WWII submarine experience. He obviously contacted everyone he could find who served on one of the three boats he concentrated on, and he read, as well, everything he could find that was written about them. . . . DeRose shines by his interpretation of events as the Japanese must have seen them. . . . His reconstruction of how Wahoo came to her end may well be pretty close to correct. . . . He does the same with Tang."-CAPTAIN EDWARD L. BEACH, USN author of Submarine! and Run Silent, Run Deep "An outstanding addition to the literature of the Silent Service. . . . The depth of research is wonderful. . . . This is fine history . . . that rivals Blair's Silent Victory."-PAUL CROZIER, sitemaster, "Legends of the Deep" (www.warfish.com) Web site on the USS Wahoo "I knew all of the book's main characters quite well. . . . I am also completely familiar with submarine operations in the Pacific. With that background I couldn't fail to thoroughly enjoy DeRose's book. It is well written and has the right feel."-CHESTER W. NIMITZ JR., rear admiral, USN (Ret.) "Sail with American submariners into tightly guarded Japanese home waters; undergo the horror of a depth charge attack; experience the thrill of victory with some of the U.S. Navy's ace submarine skippers. All this--and much more--is contained in James F. DeRose's compelling Unrestricted Warfare. No one interested in the naval side of World War II should be without it."-NATHAN MILLER author of War at Sea: A Naval History of World War II

Author Biography

James F. DeRose, a Sloan Fellow, Stanford Business School graduate, and thirty-two-year IBM veteran, is the author of the Wireless Data Handbook, Fourth Edition(Wiley). Roger W. Paine Jr., Rear Admiral, USN (Ret.), served on the first five war patrols of Wahoo, rising to Executive Officer.

Table of Contents

Foreword	vii
Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	1	(6)
Prologue	7	(8)
PART I FIRST-YEAR FAILURE	15	(52)
Day of Infamy	17	(9)
A Stumbling Start	26	(9)
Warriors Gather	35	(9)
Frustration	44	(9)
Intrigue	53	(14)
PART II MORTON LEADS THE WAY	67	(74)
Everything Clicks	69	(8)
Success and Excess	77	(19)
Days of Fury	96	(15)
Luck Falters	111	(10)
Luck Vanishes	121	(14)
Loss of Wahoo	135	(6)
PART III WAHOO'S WAR CONTINUES	141	(120)
O'Kane in Charge	143	(7)
The New Avenger	150	(8)
Reluctant Lifeguard	158	(11)
Prize Patrol	169	(16)
New Preparations	185	(4)
Torpedo Troubles in Ashcan Alley	189	(12)
Fortune's Crest	201	(11)
Catastrophe	212	(14)
Submarine Sweep	226	(17)
Final Victory	243	(18)
Afterword	261	(12)
Appendix I: Top Skippers of World War II:Tonnage Credited	273	(2)
Appendix II: Top Skippers of World War II: JANAC Assessment	275	(2)
Appendix III: Top Skippers of World War II:Tonnage Percent Overestimated	277	(2)
Appendix IV: Wahoo Sinkings and Tang Sinkings	279	(6)
Chapter Notes	285	(8)
Sources	293	(4)
Index	297