The Last Patrol

by Harry Holmes

The Last Patrol is an operational history of the fifty-two United States submarines lost during the Second World War.
The Submarine Service of the U.S. Navy suffered the highest percentage of losses of any branch of the American armed forces with almost one in five vessels failing to return. However, the achievements of United States submarines are legend as their crews, while representing only two per cent of Naval personnel, accounted for over fifty-five per cent of Japanese shipping losses. The Japanese merchant marine was second to none and vital to the fighting potential and economy of that island nation, but by 1945 it had ceased to exist as the submarines succeeded in near total destruction.
Of the submarines which were reported as 'Overdue presumed lost', some were famous with high scores and commanders renowned for their audacious attacks, while others were less well-known and were lost before they could make their mark in history. Nevertheless, submariners have a great camaraderie and each loss was felt deeply throughout the Service.
This is the story of those submarines, the successes, their failures and their final dive when the sea closed over them forever.

224 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1994

Reviews

[JD]

The book is about the 52 submarines the US Navy lost during World War 2. The submarines are presented in the chronological order in which they were lost and there is a short description of their launch date, commanders and war patrols included with all the ships attacked and sunk. The book is a bit dated though (published 1994) and there are some inaccuracies here and there, the big one for me being the USS Wahoo sinking of the Buyo Maru which in the book is named as a Japanese troopship which was actually a ship carrying Indian POW's which were mistaken for Japanese troops and machine-gunned in the water by the Wahoo crew.

[Robert Hepple]

First published in 1994, The Last Patrol gives a brief portrait of the operational history of each of the 52 submarines lost by the USN in WW2. the accounts are given in order of the date of loss, and each account is illustrated with at least one photo of the boat in question. In fact, some a few of these boats had such a short life that only one photo is known to exist, usually of the launching ceremony. Others, like the famous 'Seawolf' or the 'Tang', have numerous photos to choose from allowing photos illustrating changes appearances after refits to be included. Only the briefest technical details are included - understandably so, as this is an operational history. Very readable throughout.

[Kevin Barnes]

I was impressed with the material that was presented in this book. No Hollywood drama scenes, just the bare facts as we know them. I would love to see a book like this for the Imperial Japanese Submarine Forces during WWII. I feel this book honors the US Submarine Service. Thank You.

[Tim Carswell]

Gives you good insight on how some submarines got lost and where in WW2

[Norman]

An excellent account of the submarine losses of the United States Navy in World War II. I love the details of the careers of these vessels and their exploits. As is normal with such accounts it has many tales of daring and heroism. Although all of these vessels were war losses it is apparent that at least one was lost to 'friendly fire' and that others were victims of their own torpedoes going astray. There is not doubt that the USN had major problems with the reliability of it's torpedoes at the start of the war. There is no doubt that Japanese losses would have been heavier and perhaps the losses of US submarines would have been fewer had this not been the case.
An excellent read and a good companion to Commander Edward L. Beach's history of US submarine operations in WWII, 'Submarine!'. Both of these books give the facts behind the fiction of Beach's fictional masterpiece 'Run Silent, Run Deep' which was the subject of an excellent Hollywood movie.