Unrestricted Warfare: How a New Breed of Officers Led the Submarine Force to Victory in World War II - Hardcover

by James F. DeRose (Author)

Unrestricted Warfare reveals the dramatic story of the harsh baptism by fire faced by U.S. submarine commanders in World War II. The first skippers went to battle hamstrung by conservative peacetime training and plagued by defective torpedoes. Drawing extensively from now declassified files, Japanese archives, and the testimony of surviving veterans, James DeRose has written a fascinating account of the men and vessels responsible for the only successful submarine campaign of the war. They clearly charted a new course to victory in the Pacific.

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR UNRESTRICTED WARFARE

""James DeRose has done an excellent job-- surprisingly so, in view of his lack of true WWII submarine experience. He obviously contacted everyone he could find who served on one of the three boats he concentrated on, and he read, as well, everything he could find that was written about them. . . . DeRose shines by his interpretation of events as the Japanese must have seen them. . . . His reconstruction of how Wahoo came to her end may well be pretty close to correct. . . . He does the same with Tang.""-CAPTAIN EDWARD L. BEACH, USN author of Submarine! and Run Silent, Run Deep

""An outstanding addition to the literature of the Silent Service. . . . The depth of research is wonderful. . . . This is fine history . . . that rivals Blair's Silent Victory.""-PAUL CROZIER, sitemaster, ""Legends of the Deep"" (www.warfish.com) Web site on the USS Wahoo

""I knew all of the book's main characters quite well. . . . I am also completely familiar with submarine operations in the Pacific. With that background I couldn't fail to thoroughly enjoy DeRose's book. It is well written and has the right feel.""-CHESTER W. NIMITZ JR., rear admiral, USN (Ret.)

""Sail with American submariners into tightly guarded Japanese home waters; undergo the horror of a depth charge attack; experience the thrill of victory with some of the U.S. Navy's ace submarine skippers. All this--and much more--is contained in James F. DeRose's compelling Unrestricted Warfare. No one interested in the naval side of World War II should be without it.""-NATHAN MILLER author of War at Sea: A Naval History of World War II

Front Jacket

At the outbreak of World War II, the performance of America's growing submarine fleet was handicapped by the conservative peacetime training of its commanders. Avoiding risk and evading detection by the enemy were emphasized over engagement in combat. A new type of aggressive, daring leadership was needed. Unrestricted Warfare dramatically documents the transformation of the "Silent Service" into the deadliest fighting force in the Pacific theater.The initial focus is on Dudley "Mush" Morton, who virtually seized command of the submarine Wahoo, breaking ingrained patterns of tentative leadership. Morton devised combat techniques so effective that they set the standard for every other sub patrolling in harm's way. Handicapped by torpedoes that frequently failed to detonate, Morton risked a down-the-throat shot at an oncoming destroyer and conducted slashing surface battles won by fire from Wahoo's deck guns. Following his furious attacks on a four-ship convoy, Morton returned to port with a broom affixed to the periscope shears: clean sweep. His motto, famous in the submariner's elite fraternity, was the terse "Shoot the Sunzabitches." Wahoo sank seven ships in ten days on her next patrol, and six ships on her last. Dubbed a "one-boat wolfpack" by navy brass, Wahoo sailed into the Sea of Japan on her seventh patrol, never to return. Yet, before the tragic loss, Morton had unleashed a final devastating salvo in the form of the officers who apprenticed under him. In an intriguing feat of investigation, author James DeRose traces the legacy of Wahoo through the officers who served under Morton. Many went on to their own commands on such subs as Flasher, Grayback, and Tang. They followed Morton's aggressive philosophy aboard their subs, while developing their own tactics. DeRose, in particular, follows the exploits of the absolutely fearless Medal of Honor--winner Dick O'Kane and the more prudent, often overlooked George Grider. Only Flasher would survive the war, and Tang's heartbreaking loss is poignantly told.

In exploring the decisive impact of Wahoo's officers on submarine combat, Unrestricted Warfare vividly re-creates the daring deeds of this new breed of hunter/killer commanders. Readers will experience a bravado torpedo attack made in hull-scraping shallow water, and emergency dives to rivet-popping depths while evading a barrage of depth charges in "Ashcan Alley." By reconciling wartime combat reports, personal memoirs, and declassified postwar documents from both the United States and Japan, DeRose provides a definitive account of the undersea warriors who waged a new brand of warfare in the Pacific theater of World War II.

Back Jacket

Unrestricted Warfare reveals the dramatic story of the harsh baptism by fire faced by U.S. submarine commanders in World War II. The first skippers went to battle hamstrung by conservative peacetime training and plagued by defective torpedoes. Drawing extensively from now declassified files, Japanese archives, and the testimony of surviving veterans, James DeRose has written a fascinating account of the men and vessels responsible for the only successful submarine campaign of the war. They clearly charted a new course to victory in the Pacific.

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR UNRESTRICTED WARFARE

"James DeRose has done an excellent job-- surprisingly so, in view of his lack of true WWII submarine experience. He obviously contacted everyone he could find who served on one of the three boats he concentrated on, and he read, as well, everything he could find that was written about them. . . . DeRose shines by his interpretation of events as the Japanese must have seen them. . . . His reconstruction of how Wahoo came to her end may well be pretty close to correct. . . . He does the same with Tang."-CAPTAIN EDWARD L. BEACH, USN author of Submarine! and Run Silent, Run Deep

"An outstanding addition to the literature of the Silent Service. . . . The depth of research is wonderful. . . . This is fine history . . . that rivals Blair's Silent Victory."-PAUL CROZIER, sitemaster, "Legends of the Deep" (www.warfish.com) Web site on the USS Wahoo

"I knew all of the book's main characters quite well. . . . I am also completely familiar with submarine operations in the Pacific. With that background I couldn't fail to thoroughly enjoy DeRose's book. It is well written and has the right feel."-CHESTER W. NIMITZ JR., rear admiral, USN (Ret.)

"Sail with American submariners into tightly guarded Japanese home waters; undergo the horror of a depth charge attack; experience the thrill of victory with some of the U.S. Navy's ace submarine skippers. All this--and much more--is contained in James F. DeRose's compelling Unrestricted Warfare. No one interested in the naval side of World War II should be without it."-NATHAN MILLER author of War at Sea: A Naval History of World War II

Author Biography

James F. DeRose, a Sloan Fellow, Stanford Business School graduate, and thirty-two-year IBM veteran, is the author of the Wireless Data Handbook, Fourth Edition(Wiley). Roger W. Paine Jr., Rear Admiral, USN (Ret.), served on the first five war patrols of Wahoo, rising to Executive Officer.