War Under the Pacific

By Time Life Books World War II series

I don’t really care for the sea but I am a fan of submarines, or Unterseeboot as they were called in German. This volume is mostly about the US side of the war and like the title says, stays in the Pacific. A photo essay at the beginning covers the evolution of the submarine from the civil war to WWII. Very interesting. The chapters cover the sorry state the US submarines were in at the start of the war and the bureaucracy the officers had to cut through to get a working torpedo made and distributed to the front lines.

Japanese submarines and their mariners are covered in another chapter. Reading how successful the US became it is quite a contrast to the Japanese and how they didn’t use their force very well. See Japan at War for more on this.

You also get views from the periscope and learn about skippers who gave their all for the war effort. Like some of the other volumes of Time Life books, this one has a photo essay that is of paintings that were done to depict the submarine battles. Many of the other volumes show paintings done to show air battles, or to commemorate solders or experiences from the war. They are an interesting touch and usually more emotional than the photographs.

At the end of the book is an appendix of all the subs that fought in the Pacific (on the US side) and their disposition. Interesting to flip through.