This is a complete history and record of the American submarine service in World War II. Roscoe starts with Pearl Harbor and follows all the developments in the boats, strategy and equipment. Initially the US Navy had problems with their Mark 14 torpedoes and the Submarine captains could not get the navy to study and rectify the issue. Using a faulty torpedo meant that many Japanese vessels escaped damage and put US subs in danger unnecessarily from enemy escorts.

He covers the various uses of the submarine such as rescue of shot down airman, pre invasion surveys of island coasts, supplying arms and supplies to guerillas, rescuing people from Japanese held islands, surveying mine fields and much more.

While telling the overall history of the sub war in the Pacific, Roscoe fills the book with anecdotes from patrols using the captains' official reports as his source. He also documents every American submarine loss with details if known. He also includes charts to illustrate the loss of Japanese cargo shipping and Naval losses. His conclusion is that japan was starving because by July 1945 the country had few cargo ships left and and the few tankers that were still afloat could not be protected if they attempted to bring oil to Japan. There was little fuel left for aircraft or ships.

He makes a good argument that Japan would have had to surrender soon and in fact the Emperor and the civilian members of the government were in favour of surrender but the militarists in the government refused to give in. They could have prevented the suffering released by the Atomic bomb on their people. ( )