Thank you sir! Getting my summer reading list in order, and these looked like something interesting.
Edit: added both to my shopping list on Kindle.
Edit: added both to my shopping list on Kindle.
The Gato and Balao boats weren't the ones that gave subs the nickname "Pig Boats," but it wasn't exactly a cakewalk. I've read several memoirs by WWII USN officers who were in the Silent Service, and it took a special kind of sailor to do that job.
I remember one who said that his time in the boats made him glad he wasn't a smoker, after watching the nicotine fiends after an extended submersion. He said by the end of a long dive, it didn't matter how much you needed a smoke, because there wasn't enough oxygen in the boat to keep one lit. Oy vey.
Many years ago, I as involved in HAM radio and a member of the Muskogee club. There was some type of contest, with HAMs operating from subs around the country, and international if I remember correctly. We operated around the clock, and it didn't take long for me to decide I wasn't cut out for that confinement. Much respect for the men, and I guess women now, that help in our defense in that realm.
I went through that Soviet sub that was parked by the Queen Mary out in commiefornia. For the life of me I can't figure out how 63? crew members stayed in that thing for weeks or months on end. Some of them used torpedoes for bunks. It was a nuclear sub and the size was small! Not at all what you get from the movies. What really got me was the complexity. The piping and valves were amazing.
We've been to see the USS Batfish as well. Loved going through it and hope to go back again. However, I need to lose some weight because there was one hatch where one could go down into a lower deck, but I couldn't have made it through.
Terry's Pics of USS Batfish
Terry's Pics of USS Batfish
As always, some great pics!
IIRC, on the USN boats in WWII, as they used up their torpedoes, they would string up hammocks where the fish had been, converting it into bunk space just to give the men a little more room. I can't recall where I read that, though.
I had a book that I no longer have that was about some of the top secret missions of the submarine service. Some of which were still covered by non-disclosure agreements to this day. The author obtained enough information to write the book by those that served dropping info to him without claiming ownership.
Yeah, that sounds like a non fiction thing, but the author put clif notes and other documentation to make it real.
If half was true, there was still some examples of heroics that boggle the mind.
Yeah, that sounds like a non fiction thing, but the author put clif notes and other documentation to make it real.
If half was true, there was still some examples of heroics that boggle the mind.
How about a sub that actually attacked the Japanese mainland? The USS Barb crew went ashore and planted explosives under the rails of a rail line close to the shore. Yeppers, they "sunk" a Japanese train.
I wonder how they calculated its tonnage?
I've been to the batfish a couple of times. I've been wanting to go again. At least the old girl still floats!
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