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Title: War Beneath the Sea : Submarine Conflict During World War II by Peter Padfield ISBN: 0-471-24945-9 Publisher: Wiley Pub. Date: March, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (8 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Grossly tendentious; Highly partisan
Comment: This book gives a comprehensive account of submarine ops in World War II.Author being a renowned naval historian.Evolution of sub arm of leading naval powers is covered in detail especially doctrines which guided its employment.Padfield then goes on to give a sketch on the technical features of subs at the disposal of these powers.What I particularly liked was author's account of torpedo-aiming devices[vorhaltechner,TDC]developed by U boat arm of Kriegsmarine and Sub Command of US navy.Padfield has correctly pointed out the subs intially were not used the way it should have been used.This particularly applies to US navy.Mainly because naval staff was obsessed with Mahan's thinking of decisive fleet engagement involving capital ships with subs also pressed into attacking the same.IJN squandered its subarm making them serve as adjuncts to battle fleet instead of using them to assail AMERICAN SUPPLY LINES STRECHING out all the way from the western seaboard of US.Such a course of aCTION WOULD HAVE possibly scaled down the momentum of Adm Nimitz's Central Pacific offensive.I am appalled by how Japan ignored maritime security of its island empire.Like Britain Tokyo was vulnerable to naval blockade.Belatedly started sailing in convoys.But the convoy to be effective Japanese ought to know the disposition of US subs.This was not to be as American ciphers proved impenetrable which made evaasive routing difficult.As experience in both world wars have shown rerouting convoys was the best meathod for foiling sub attacks.Japanese were further handicapped by lack of radar.Hence ships escorting convoys were unable to locate surfaced subs. Japanese aircraft patrolling seaways never had RWR[radar warning receiver]which would have helped to detect emissions from target locating radars aboard US boats.Above faults compounded by reluctance of Japanese naval leadership to allocate destrs for escort duties.So the US subs came to exercise a stranglehold over Tokyo's seaborne trade. I must say much of American fatalities stemmed from the overconfidence of US subcommand.Padfield's account of U boat war is just a rehash of what had been written earlier by other historians and does not contain any fresh insights.Author's contention that U boat offensive to choke BritaIN'S SEABORNE TRADE HAD LOST ITS sting by mid 1941 ,I find difficult to concur.Rests his thesis on the succesful penetration of German naval enigma cipher which made rerouting possible around waiting U boat packs.While not belittling this development I feel Hitler's decision to divert boats to other theatres of war made a big impact on the course of campaign.MOre boats in the Atlantic wouldhave meant more eyes for locating convoys.Biggest flaw of this book is most of author's comments are ambigously couched.In the concluding portions of the book author has acknowledged the potency of German U boat arm;that it very nearly brought Britain to its knees.So is the case with atom bombing of Japan which Padfield justifies at the same time arguing that continuation of US sub campaign would have sufficed to bring its capitulation.Few of author's political pronouncements sound hypocritical especially on the build up of events climaxing in the outbreak of Pacific war.To conclude: book is biased ,subjective.
Rating: 4
Summary: Excellent account, Good analysis
Comment: I found Mr. Padfields book to contain some excellent accounts of the various submarine forces' efforts during the Second World War. I also thought that he does a great job of placing the 1st hand accounts within the larger strategic issues he examines.
My only criticism of the work is that he does not treat the US efforts in the pacific with anywhere near the same breadth of analysis that he gives the British in the Med. I found it hard to accept his arguments fully, as he rarely if ever gives alternatives to his positions.
Rating: 2
Summary: Good but not great
Comment: This book is pretty good but its not the best book I've seen.It only talks about the major events of the war and it does'nt have the tiny bits that nobody knows about thaat makes it interesting. I found some new stuff about the japanese but not that much. The major reason that I got this book was for the british and italian submarines which I could'nt find anything that I did'nt already know.Overall ehhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!
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