United States Submarine Operations in World War II

by Theodore Roscoe

The complete and dramatic story of how the U.S. Navy's "Silent Service" helped win the most extensive underseas war in history. This ‘standard’ in the study of submarine warfare. first published in 1949 and repeatedly reprinted, remains the basic primer for those interested in the U.S. Navy's submarine war against the Axis in World War II. Based on war patrol reports, action reports, and other wartime (then) classified information, the data for work was constructed by a team led by Rear Admiral R. G. Voge, USN, who captained the USS Sealion and the USS Sailfish. The author wrote the book utilizing the compiled data with clearly extensive support from the U.S. Navy. Enduring enough to be nicknamed ‘SUBOPS’, this well-regarded publication was commissioned by the Bureau of Naval Personnel and although not without error or fault, remains one of those books that are routinely listed as source material for almost any/all submarine works dealing with the Second World War.

Genres: History, Military Fiction, World War II, Naval History, Military History

581 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1949

About the author

Theodore Roscoe (1906–1992) was an American biographer and writer of adventure, fantasy novels and stories. Roscoe's stories appeared in pulp magazines including Argosy, Wings, Flying Stories, Far East Adventure Stories, Fight Stories, Action Stories and Adventure. A collection of his stories, The Wonderful Lips of Thibong Linh, was published by Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc. in 1981.

Roscoe was commissioned by the United States Naval Institute to write the detailed and massive histories United States Submarine Operations in World War II (1949) and United States Destroyer Operations in World War II (1953). He subsequently wrote several other books on naval history including The Trent Affair, November, 1861: U.S. detainment of a British ship nearly brings war with England (1972).

Reviews

[Richard Balassaitis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everything you wanted to know about United States submarine operations in World War II (and plenty more.) From our overextended beginnings to the demise of Japanese shipping by the end of the war, the story is told with a lot of fascinating human interest stories thrown in. A classic.

[Travis]

Excellent breakdown of WWII U.S. Navy submarine force operations from the men who were there. The foreword from Fleet Admiral Nimitz alone is worth the price of the book.