Solo or wolfpack? 2024 currently reading books

New year, new thread! What are you reading?

I’m (slowly) getting through the better known books. Finished The War Below: The Story of Three Submarines That Battled Japan by James M. Scott today. It focuses on a few well-known WWII boats with a sprinkling of other colorful stories. The last few Tang chapters are not for the squeamish. Interesting final chapter on the POWs’ experiences in the immediate aftermath of Japan’s surrender as well.

Halfway through Sink 'em All, COMSUBPAC's WWII memoir. It reads about as you would expect, a contemporary account from Australia, then Pearl. Lockwood goes out of his way to include the names of the skippers of all the boats he mentions, which at first is endearing but eventually become tedious.

I'm in the midst of (but really, not too far into) The Struggle for Sea Power: A Naval History of the American Revolution by Sam Willis. In ch. 7 there's a bit about David Bushnell and the Turtle, and the boat's attempted action against the British fleet. I've seen displays at museums or diagrams/pictures in books about this early/first American submarine, but somehow I'd missed previously that it wasn't just a concept construction, but they actually tried to use this machine to blow stuff up. There WAS an enormous explosion, apparently, but not where intended with its deployment. The boat was abandoned, subsequently found by the British, and burned. Who knew?? Okay, probably everyone else reading this, but I am feeling quite surprised as a result of reading about it being actually deployed! Always something more to learn...

Finally finished Poopie Suits & Cowboy Boots: Tales of a Submarine Officer During the Height of the Cold War by Frank Hood and his brother Charles Hood. This book covers the 'lifecycle' of the author's journey from decision to study through the NROTC program through his service period in the US Navy in the submarine warfare community. I enjoyed reading all the explanations of various naval terms, engineering solutions to various problems, and was greatly appreciative of the explanation of technical terms. There were also many funny personal and contributed anecdotes that give shape and color to the submarine personnel's life aboard (or training). It's also a snapshot of a time and place: the service and American society have both changed significantly since the early 1970s. However, as much as things change, they also stay amazingly the same I'm sure.

This is the second of the Hoods' books I've read, having read Sub Tales: Stories That Seldom Surface about a year ago. I'm sure I'll get to the other two books co-authored by these brothers. They continue to run a FB group and attend USSVI meetings (inasmuch as I know).

As a side note, I had an opportunity to visit the USS Bowfin (USS 287) and Pacific Fleet Submarine Museum at Pearl Harbor, HI last month. Absolutely terrific to see this Balao-class sub in such great shape. The interior layout reminded me so much of the USS Cod (USS 224), a Gato-class, rather than the other Balao-class I'd recently visited (USS Becuna USS-319), but all these boats got mucked with after the war and used in various ways before becoming museum boats, so my impressions are probably irrelevant. It is extremely well lit, almost too bright! The interior is largely painted white as well (hmm, interesting choice), but the result was allowing one to see well during a visit, if not quite authentic to the period. Pearl Harbor was even bigger than I'd imagined, and although my time was limited this visit, I hope to go back. I also visited the BB-63 Mighty Mo', but have left the Arizona and other museum areas of the historical Pearl Harbor for another time.

Finally got to, and could barely put down, Thunder Below!, Eugene b. Fluckey (aka "Lucky Fluckey"). I enjoyed the action/adventure tone the former commander of the USS Barb (SS-220) used as otherwise all the up/down periscopes and engagements involved in this story might've dissolved into one big mess. I also appreciated the perspective of then CO Fluckey's thinking about the introduction of rockets as weapons the subs could deploy and his rules for his own style of command. It was a very engaging book. I see why it is so often quoted by submariners.

Had the opportunity to visit the Museu de Marinha in Lisbon, PT last week. Of course there was something on subs! There was a small display celebrating the Portuguese Navy's Tridente class sub 209 PN diesel submarines. The German-built boats are manned by 33 crew and boasts a 60-day patrol capability.

The NRP Tridente was the first Portuguese sub to cross the Atlantic in 2012. NRP Arpao is part of the permanent NATO naval force. The display is in a small corner of the museum, and yet such an interesting part of the exhibits full of artifacts from the great age of naval exploration and types of sailing and rowing vessels on display in the great hall. I've been listening to Roger Crowley's Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire, so I had a rather nice blending of interests happen at this quiet, under-appreciated museum. Wish I'd had more time to explore the gift shop's title offerings: there was a large collection of naval history books for sale in many different languages.

My reading the last few weeks has taken me far away from the topic of Subs, but the news last week of the discovery of the USS Harder's (SS-257) wreck site by the Lost 52 Project inspired a desire to find a book related to the topic of that boat's large list of accomplishments. I found Through Hell and Deep Water by Charles A. Lockwood listed here on LT - and also at a local county library. I look forward to reading it soon!

Finally! Resolved my photo issues and am including a few photos here of 3 of the 5 subs I've been able to visit the past ~year:

The Holland Boats at the Paterson Museum:


The Submarine display at the National Naval Museum in Lisbon, PT:


The Pacific Fleet Submarine Museum at Pearl Harbor, HI: 52 Memorial and Bowfin, and a 2-man Japanese submarine

Finished The Deadly Deep: The Definitive History of Submarine Warfare, Iain Ballantyne, (Audible) 28h, 38m (752 pages). Listening to/Reading this book I felt as though I was given a big picture history of submarines while still getting to learn about details, such as individual boats/crews or missions. I also appreciated a more European perspective and a lot more detail about WW1 than I'd read about previously. The book is perhaps weakest at recounting Pacific engagements or Asian submarine history.

Decided to view WW2 from another angle: finished Steel Boat Iron Hearts, by Hans Goebeler. This is an unapologetic recollection of the cruises the seaman participated in with U-505, with a little bit of description about his experience after the boat's capture on June 4, 1944. It's a great work for details on how it felt to live on one of the U-boats and what the life of an enlisted sailor in the Kriegsmarine was like. The book was written so that the author could 'set the record straight' regarding inaccuracies he'd perceived in other historical works, and certainly displays the author's pride in his service. Glad I've read it, buckets in the torpedo room and all!

Learning from Experience by John F. Schank, (paperback) 60 pages.
Subtitled, "Lessons from the Submarine Programs of the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia."

This book is a very high level analysis on what might be called project management performance in 5 submarine programs (Ohio, Seawolf, Virginia, Astute, and Collins, with a few mentions of the Trafalgar, Vanguard, and SEA 1000 - but no analysis of these last 3). Very limited examples - this is clearly an introduction/summary document to frame program and project management/structure experience for future endeavors.

Am still poking around to see if I can find something more contemporary to describe AUKUS a bit. In the meantime I found a copy of The Submarine Six by Dr. Tom Lewis so I can enjoy a little down under WW1 and WW2 history.

I'm going to include The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel in this list. His invention of the diesel engine was a game-changer for the development of submarines, and technology that is still used today by most of the world's navies' subs (maybe all - but I'm no expert). The author took the trouble to place the development of the diesel engine within historical context of both social/political history and technological history, and that was a definite strength of this book.

Red Star Rogue, Kenneth Sewell (Audible) 12h, 15m (320 pages)

This book appeared on a Top 100 Submarine books somewhere, so when I saw it was "included" on Audible I queued it up. Finally got to it, and agree with many of the reviews, that it's hard to put down. It's well written, but I'm not a big conspiracy theory guy (in the gender neutral use of "guy"), so that part was a bit of an eye-roller for me. Nonetheless, this is the first book I've read/listened to that covered Soviet crew information or patrol patterns, and that was highly interesting. So I definitely got something from reading this book, but remain unconvinced by the author's argument. But he could be right, and someday when all the classified info in Russia and the U.S. is known we may see that he is ... but what a horrible thought.

In the meantime, Happy Holidays!