Edward L. Beach (1918–2002)

This story of a submarine commander’s exploits in the Pacific campaign of WW2 was very well told . Clearly the author knows his stuff. But by the time I reached the end, I’d forgotten that the story was being told in the first person because it was a transcription of an interview or statement of some kind… not sure that that narrative device worked for me. The vivid first-person narration was sufficient. I was also glad to find this interesting because I’ve been very burned out on WW2 literature; perhaps the novelty of the Pacific campaign or the submarines was what kept me going.… (altro)

This book, a recent gift from a friend, marks Edward "Ned" Beach"s first foray into the world of writing back in 1952. "Submarine!" is a non-fiction account of submarine warfare in the Pacific during World War II. Beach would become famous with the publication of his first novel, "Run Silent, Run Deep" a couple of years later (along with the release of the eponymously titled movie starring Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster), but "Submarine!" is a collection of true sea stories about the submarine war, some of them autobiographical.

Published by Holt, the book curiously bears six different copyright dates--perhaps some of the accounts have appeared elsewhere. My copy has 18 chapters, preceded by a forward penned by Vice Admiral Charles Lockwood, who, as Commander, Submarines, Pacific Fleet (COMSUBPAC)sent Beach and the boats he writes about on their patrols across the Pacific. Each chapter's title is a submarine's name, with USS Trigger (SS-237) dominating the chapter count with eight, all of which recount the several war patrols Beach experienced in her. Two more chapters, those for USS Tirante (SS-420) and USS Piper (SS-409) detail Beach's remaining war patrols after the author detached from the Trigger. Piper was a late-war construction submarine that was on its first war patrol under skipper Beach that was in Japanese waters when the war ended.

The remaining 8 chapters of the book are a veritable "Who's Who" of famous boats and captains, to include USS Wahoo (SS-238) under LCDR Dudley "Mush" Morton, USS Harder (SS-257) under CDR Samuel Dealey, and USS Tang (SS-306) under LCDR Richard "Dick" O'Kane. All of the book's accounts show Beach using his considerable war experience and knowledge of the officers and sailors of these boats to place his reader aboard each of the boats mentioned, a characteristic Beach was to repeat in his later fictional works. Indeed, one is hard-pressed to differentiate these sea stories from the ones from the pages of "Run Silent, Run Deep" and the later "Dust on the Sea".

It is perhaps inevitable that comparisons are made between "Submarine!" and Theodore Roscoe's classic "Submarine Operations in World War II", published three years before Beach's publication. Roscoe's tome is more comprehensive in that it repackages COMSUBPAC's official history into a shorter format. Roscoe does share some of the personal interest information from the many submarine patrol reports available to the COMSUBPAC historian. However, Beach's account rings more authentic, especially those chapters associated with the boats he sailed in: Trigger, Tirante, and Piper. The war became very personal for Beach with the loss of Trigger on its third patrol after Beach left her, and this tragedy too is most evident in the pages.

"Submarine!" is a great read from a soon to be famous author and submariner, and it is well worth your reading time.… (altro)