A fitting tribute to the brave men (officers and enlisted sailors alike) of “The Silent Service), written by the very man who commanded them, the late great Vice Admiral Charles A. “Uncle Charlie” Lockwood, Commander, Submarine Force Pacific Fleet (COMSUBPAC) during WWII.
Speaking myself as someone whose paternal cousin (Clinton Orr, R.I.P.) served as a WWII submariner, I especially appreciate a book such as this one.
RANDOM STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS
--"We had many fine submarine captains but only one Lockwood."--ADM Chester Nimitz, in the Preface to VADM Charles Lockwood's "Sink 'Em All"
--"Bless 'Em All" was Aussie in origin?
Potency of Australian beer, heh heh!
--Ah, the infamous politically incorrect "J" word!
--The emotional burden of command:sending young men, who are like your own sons and younger brothers, to their deaths; "a twinge of sorrow and a period of soul searching"....no wonder his sailors nicknamed Lockwood "Uncle Charlie."
--Good on "Uncle Charlie" for recognising the importance and rejuvenating benefits of R&R! "The Germans initiated it in World War I, and no one ever accused them of pampering their men."
--Lookup: Battle of Cape Matapan
--"'the American Navy has requisitioned 30,000 kilts....So you Americans won't get caught with your pants down again.'" Haha, touché, First Sea Lord Fraser, ouch!
--"boat officer?" Is that anything like Chief of the Boat (C.O.B.)? Or maybe the O.O.D?
--"Three officers, hardly old enough to shave, had grown beautiful apostolic beards." Haha, nice.
--"Definitely was not the case" that the Allied ASW effort against the German U-boats in the Atlantic was successful; does the author means at that particular point in the war (mid-to-late 1942) or during the war as a whole?
--Lookup: R.E. "Dusty" Dornin and John H. "Babe" Brown, Annapolis football legends
--"Cominch" = Commander in Chief?
--Lookup: USS Sawfish's "friendly fire" sinking of Soviet freighters
—pp. 87-88: “The Moslems were very interested in American jazz and eagerly awaited surfacing at night, when the wardroom radio was turned on. They were so moved on one occasion that they asked if they might contribute a song of their own. Commander Sieglaff replied it would indeed be a pleasure to hear them, whereupon the two men broke into song — “From the Halls of Mon-te-zu-ma to the shores of Tripoli ...!” It developed that they had lived in a Marine camp in Australia and they were very proud of their knowledge of fine American songs.. It was with reluctance, mutual respect, and admiration that Tautog parted with the two agents when they were put ashore. “ Haha, classic! Goes to show that not all Muslims have been anti-American.
—p. 94: “Chappie turned over the forward torpedo room to the women and made all as comfortable as possible. Moon, the six-foot-two, ex-wrestling champion at the Academy, told me that the women said good-bye to him at Dutch with tears in their eyes and that the Russian skipper in his official report did not say his ship had been sunk by an American submarine. He merely said the trawler had been shelled by an unidentified submarine and that an American sub had taken off the survivors. Certainly, Moon must have been a very charming host.” Na zdaruvya!
—p. 102: “In the afternoon of September 20, Flight 321 arrived at Pearl from the South Pacific. Its distinguished passenger, about whose identity much secrecy had been observed, proved to be Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt. Admiral Nimitz had directed me to prepare quarters at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel and to see if I could find an Anglo-Saxon maid for her.” WTF, was Eleanor some sort of anti-Asian RACIST?!?!
—pp. 322-323: “Admiral McCain, who had been detached from duty in command of the Carrier Task Force, shoved off after lunch to catch a plane back to the U.S. He was apparently in good health — though always very nervous and much too thin — and certainly he was in highest spirits at the prospect of getting home now that the job was done. The news, therefore, which came a few days later, of his sudden death at home in Coronado, was a great shock to us all. A daring and skillful leader had gone to his rest. His was one of many deaths in the first few postwar years — Admiral Pete Mitscher, Lieutenant General Roy Geiger, Rear Admiral Dick Voge, among them — of leaders who carried tremendous burdens of responsibility during the war, with apparently no ill effects, only to pay the price of overstrain when the tension relaxed.” Rapid decompression, whether physical or mental, can be deadly.
—p. 336: “We have read much of so-called “push button” warfare, of intercontinental bombing by guided missiles fired over the North Pole, but more temperate and better-informed writers such as Dr. Vannevar Bush, say that intercontinental guided missiles are a long way in the future.” Funny how time slips away...VADM Lockwood wrote those words in 1951, and 6 years later, the Russians had the ICBMs up-and-running.
—p. 343: “Nothing brought more discouragement and discontent to our fighting forces, or was productive of more condemnation from them, than strikes back in the homeland. The war was inevitably prolonged thereby, exposing men in the forward areas to danger of life and limb for just so much more time. This callous disregard for our lives by fellow countrymen, deferred from the draft, drawing fantastic wages — plus overtime — was infuriating and should have been handled, we felt, by exchanging those ‘Fancy Dans’ (a term borrowed from General Bradley) with an equal number of men in the front lines.” Wow, labour strikes during wartime production, unbelievable!
—p. 348: Dr. Margaret “Mom” Chung, USC Med School alumna!
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Reviews with images
How the pacific submarine war was won by the guy guiding it.
This is the book that lets you see just how the American submarine force was organized and how it won the battle it fought. Easy to read and understand.
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David Walter
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