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The story of America's little known war-within-a war -- that of the \"silent service\" -- U.S. submarine warfare during World War II.

The fate of the USS Flier is one of the most astonishing stories of the Second World War. On August 13, 1944, the submarine struck a mine and sank to the bottom of the Sulu Sea in less than one minute, leaving only fourteen of its crew of eighty-six hands alive. After enduring eighteen hours in the water, eight remaining survivors swam to a remote island controlled by the Japanese. Deep behind enemy lines and without food or drinking water, the crewmen realized that their struggle for survival had just begun. On its first war patrol, the unlucky Flier made it from Pearl Harbor to Midway where it ran aground on a reef. After extensive repairs and a formal military inquiry, the Flier set out once again, this time completing a distinguished patrol from Pearl Harbor to Fremantle, Western Australia. Though the Flier's next mission would be its final one, that mission is important for several reasons: the story of the Flier's sinking illuminates the nature of World War II underwater warfare and naval protocol and demonstrates the high degree of cooperation that existed among submariners, coast watchers, and guerrillas in the Philippines. The eight sailors who survived the disaster became the first Americans of the Pacific war to escape from a sunken submarine and return safely to the United States. Their story of persistence and survival has all the elements of a classic World War II tale: sudden disaster, physical deprivation, a ruthless enemy, and a dramatic escape from behind enemy lines. In The USS Flier: Death and Survival on a World War II Submarine, noted historian Michael Sturma vividly recounts a harrowing story of brave men who lived to return to the service of their country.

The untold story of two men—an American pilot and a German U-boat commander—whose clash off the coast of North Carolina brought the horrors of World War II to American shores.

On June 4, 1944, the course of World War II was forever changed. That day, a US Navy task force achieved the impossible--capturing German U-boat U-505. Called Operation Nemo, it was the first seizure of an enemy ship in battle since the War of 1812, one of the greatest achievements of the US Navy and a victory that shortened the duration of the war.

. . . until now how the Navy managed to instantaneously move from the overt legal restrictions of the naval arms treaties that bound submarines to the cruiser rules of the eighteenth century to a declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare against Japan immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor has never been explained. Lieutenant Holwitt has dissected this process and has created a compelling story of who did what, when, and to whom.”—The Submarine Review.

In March 1941, after a year of devastating U-boat attacks, the British War Cabinet called upon an intensely private, bohemian physicist named Patrick Blackett to turn the tide of the naval campaign. Though he is little remembered today, Blackett did as much as anyone to defeat Nazi Germany, by revolutionizing the Allied anti-submarine effort through the disciplined, systematic implementation of simple mathematics and probability theory. This is the story of how British and American civilian intellectuals helped change the nature of twentieth-century warfare, by convincing disbelieving military brass to trust the new field of operational research. -- Back cover.

World War II submariners rarely experienced anything as exhilarating or horrifying as the surface gun attack. Between the ocean floor and the rolling whitecaps above, submarines patrolled a dark abyss in a fusion of silence, shadows, and steel, firing around eleven thousand torpedoes, sinking Japanese men-of-war and more than one thousand merchant ships. But the anonymity and simplicity of the stealthy torpedo attack hid the savagery of warfare -- a stark difference from the brutality of the surface gun maneuver. As the submarine shot through the surface of the water, confined sailors scrambled through the hatches armed with large-caliber guns and met the enemy face-to-face.Surface and Destroy: The Submarine Gun War in the Pacificreveals the nature of submarine warfare in the Pacific Ocean during World War II and investigates the challenges of facing the enemy on the surface. The surface battle amplified the realities of war, bringing submariners into close contact with survivors and potential prisoners of war. As Japan's larger ships disappeared from the Pacific theater, American submarines turned their attention to smaller craft such as patrol boats, schooners, sampans, and junks. Some officers refused to attack enemy vessels of questionable value, while others attacked reluctantly and tried to minimize casualties. Michael Sturma focuses on the submariners' reactions and attitudes toward their victims, exploring the sailors' personal standards of morality and their ability to wage total war.Surface and Destroyis a thorough analysis of the submariner experience and the effects of surface attacks on the war in the Pacific, offering a compelling study of the battles that became \"intolerably personal.\"

From unpromising beginnings in March 1942, the submarine base at Fremantle became a vital part of the Allied offensive against Japan. Pushed back from the Philippines and the Netherlands East Indies, American submariners, accompanied by small numbers of Dutch, retreated to Fremantle on the remote west coast of Australia as a port of last resort. Far from their prospective patrol areas and their own supply lines, they had little reason to feel optimistic. Thanks largely to a welcoming civilian population, the morale of Allied submariners quickly improved, as did their effectiveness in fighting the enemy. The first arrival of American and Dutch submarines at Fremantle coincided with a period when Western Australians felt especially vulnerable. On 3 March Japanese Zero fighters bombed the towns of Wyndham and Broome, while the same day there were three Japanese submarine attacks on shipping off the Western Australian coast. With many locals convinced that a Japanese invasion was imminent, Allied submariners got an appreciative reception. While in relatively small numbers, submariners were widely perceived as an elite force not only within the navy, but more generally by those who admired their courage and commitment. Although the Australians had no submariners of their own, they supported the base through the mobilization of resources and labor. Joined by British submariners from 1944, Allied submarines made a total of 416 patrols from Fremantle during the course of the war, becoming the most active base in the Pacific after Pearl Harbor. Some of the most famous submarines of the Second World War – including USS Harder, USS Flasher and HMS Trenchant – operated out of Fremantle, and many of the submariners who sailed from that port made the ultimate sacrifice. The success of Fremantle's submarines depended not only on personal heroism, but cooperation between allies. From disastrous beginnings, the Allies overcame inertia and national suspicions to become a much more effective fighting force than their enemies. The Australian government provided unstinting support, while Australian commandos shared the perils of many submarine patrols. Meanwhile cooperation between American, Dutch and British submariners pioneered joint naval operations in the Pacific. This book documents not only the courage of submarine crews and the multinational cooperation that developed between Allies, but integrates the experiences of submariners on shore with their operations at sea. The promise of leave in Australia made the hardships and perils of lengthy war patrols more bearable. News that a submarine was ending its patrol in Fremantle inevitably created an expectant excitement among the crew on board. The hospitality and sense of belonging fostered by Western Australians became legendary among Allied submariners and remains central to their wartime memories. Many of those memories focus on relationships with young women, frequently sealed permanently through marriages. Many submariners also remember fondly the high alcohol content of Australian beer. Most of all, however, they recall the generosity of those civilians who welcomed them into their homes and hearts. At the same time, visiting submariners helped fill the emotional void created in many Australian families by absent sons, brothers, fathers and husbands fighting overseas. In an atmosphere of wartime austerity and rationing, the submariners also proved generous in sharing scarce resources with the local population. From the standpoint of morale, Fremantle became one of the most successful military outposts of the Second World War.