Customer Reviews

Descent Into Darkness: Pearl Harbor, 1941: A Navy Diver's Memoir

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This really is a first-rate account of a process that has largely been ignored by writers and historians. I think it's a "given" that diving around sunken, fully armed and fueled battleships would be dangerous, but until I read this book I didn't realize just how MANY different hazards there were. For example, who would have known that it's dangerous to enter a previously-sealed but empty compartment that contains rust? (the formation of iron oxide [rust] depletes oxygen in the space)

The reader gets a firsthand account of the daily lives of salvage divers, and how frequently solutions to problems were devised on the spot. Rather unexpectedly, readers also get a firsthand description of what life was like "on the ground" during the Guadalcanal campaign.

Anyone wanting to know more about the Pearl Harbor attack really should read this book. Many people tend to think of the battle as being over when the last Japanese plane returned to its carrier; in truth, the battle had just BEGUN.

As a military diver I could easily identify with the techniques and characters in the book. While the techniques have been updated, the people haven't really changed. This book shows what life was/is like for a diver. Divers often work in extremely nasty environments with little to no visibility. Add to this the psychological effects of being among different things that you must identify by feel and you get a small glimpse of what it is like.

This type of diving is completely different from civilian SCUBA and this illustrates the type of mentality required.

This book will show you what it is like to really be a working diver.

All present and former divers owe a tremendous debt to gentlemen like Mr Raymer. They were truly pioneers whose accomplishments often went unreported and unrecognized.

An interesting rendition of an enlisted Navy diver's efforts to aid the war effort by helping to raise sunken battleships after December 7, 1941 in Pearl Habor, HI.

The editors at Presidio (if there were any) need to be given a kick in the backside for their lack of effort on this text.

Despite the editors' lack of attention, the author does an excellent job of relating an enlisted man's view of how the War looked, and explains how he coped with both the horrors of his work in attempting to help raise the sunken hulks of Battleship Row, make jury-rigged repairs off Guadacanal, and his successes and failures while "blowing off steam" while on Liberty. Maybe there's a bit too much about the liberty antics, but I'm sure that the author's successes in these efforts remain as important memories that he wished to share with readers.

Edward Raymer was in charge of a team of US Navy divers sent urgently to Pearl in the aftermath of that dastardly attack. Their first priority was to save as many men who were trapped in upturned hulls. Once that job was considered as complete as it ever could be, their tasks changed as salvage and recovery work got under way. On his retirement for the US Navy in 1996, he wrote this book about the tasks he had to undertake all those years ago.

Having finally found and read this book, I began by writing a review which explained the content and applauded the overall product but, as I was doing this I thought that many non-divers would fail to grasp the enormity of the tasks those brave men undertook in the immediate aftermath of Pearl Harbour.

Ii occurs to me that many people who are unfamiliar with the underwater world would think that those US Navy divers would only have to switch on a torch (and that the US Navy would have provided some very powerful diving torches) and everything underwater would be as clear as possible. Take it from me, there is no light in the world which penetrates oil and water so dark and thick with dirt that the diver cannot even see his instruments when they are pressed against his faceplate of facemask. The inside of a ships hull is a large dark space where no natural light penetrates. Add to that, two other vitally important factors; Firstly, these US Battleships were amongst the biggest in the world - so big that crew members frequently got lost. These divers had to find their way in (and out again!) without such an intimate knowledge of each vessel. Secondly, those ships were now badly damaged, upside down or on their sides. A ship's layout, therefore,which might have been familiar territory to one of the crew, now had to be memorised from blueprints and followed by Navy Divers after that layout had been completely changed - with their only method of finding their way around inside was by feel...

I have been an active diver for almost 40 years, have visited countless shipwrecks including the remains of HMS Royal Oak in Scapa Flow. I mention this to underline the simple fact that whilst I am able to appreciate the work undertaken by US Navy divers in the aftermath of Pearl Harbour 1941, I also have no concept of the filthy and dangerous conditions or the fear they must have had to overcome in order to complete the enormous task they were set. Certainly, if all diving were confined to such conditions, there would be no civilian divers at all!

I hope this personal element of my review will give the reader a better understanding of how truly magnificent this story really is. Magnificent, because of the achievements of Raymer and his men against all odds and in spite of the appalling conditions.

This is a story which will be enjoyed by diver and non-diver alike because it is well written and reveals much that was hitherto not known and, I for one, congratulate those men on a truly amazing achievement,

NM

There are several good books about the salvage operation that took place in Pearl Harbor following the Japanese attack in Dec, 1941. Daniel Madsen wrote an excellent book from a Historical Researchers point of View. VADM Wallin wrote a great account from the Operation's Boss point of view. But Raymer writes from a worker bee view point, a View from the Bottom. Wallin and Madsen both write that the divers worked out of a tin shack on the Ten-Ten pier, but Raymer describes the life and the people inside of that shack. Oxygen-arch welding was conceived late one night in the middle of a poker game to solve the problem of hazardous gas explosions caused by the Hydrogen welding that they were doing aboard the Nevada. The other books mention that the wrecked ships contained dead bodies, but Raymer describes what its like to be underwater, working in the dark and have a dead body bump into you. This book is a MUST for anybody doing a complete study on the Pearl Harbor salvage efforts. Wallin writes that the Pacific fleet had roughly 100 ships and 50 were in Pearl Harbor during the attack. But only 19 of those 50 were damaged, and only half of those were actually sunken and those that were sunken were sunken in calm protected shallow water. And All but three were returned to service before the end of the war. Raymer writes about how this was done.

I recieved Descent In to Darkness as a Christmas pressent from my sister. I could not stop reading the book. I have always been a huge history buff as well as a great interest in diving . Febuary of this year (2002) I went to Maui to visit my cousin. While in Maui I got my scuba certification. My last day we flew over to Pearl Harbor to see the USS Arizona. It was very moving because I had more of a conection to the Arizona due to Raymer's detailed report on Pearl Harbor and the Arizona in the salvage eforts to raise our Pacific Fleet.

In "Descent into Darkness", Raymer takes the reader into the waters of Pearl Hrbor just after the Japanese attack of December, 7, 1941. His view of the salvage operation, the largest of it's kind, is interesting and sheds light on issues like, "why were so many bodies left in the Arizona", "how did the ships get righted", etc. Raymer does a good job with this, his only book. He does lose the last star from me becuase I was looking for more info on the salvage, more on the sights and smells, everything. Instead Raymer spends a lot of time reviewing his nights of liberty in Oahu........I guess I can't blame the guy if I had to choose.

Coping with disaster through the eyes of a young Navy diver and team leader as he learns the true horrors of war that have fallen upon his country; and how he and his buddies managed to deal with floating corpses, hideous accidents, and impossible working conditions to improvise solutions and handle the stress at the same time.

The book gives a glimpse into military life as it was in the beginning of WW II, a far different life than it is today; when Oahu, Hawaii was not a vacation paradise crowded with tourists, but the lonely "rock" of sixty years ago, another far flung outpost in the Pacific in the war against Japan. The stories of liberty, while sometimes coarse in nature, will give the non-military reader an inkling of what goes through young men's minds when they are in a war zone and prompts humorous recollections for veterans of all eras.

The book is written with much humanity and conveys to the reader not only the actions of the participants but their emotional states as well. Sometimes seemingly short on details and sometimes a collection of incidents rather than a narrative history, the book still offers an illuminating view of an otherwise unknown chapter in the Pacific war. Authored by an aging veteran, the poignancy of the reminiscences published shortly before his death cannot be missed.

Coping with disaster through the eyes of a young Navy diver and team leader as he learns the true horrors of war that have fallen upon his country; and how he and his buddies managed to deal with floating corpses, hideous accidents, and impossible working conditions to improvise solutions and handle the stress at the same time. The book gives a glimpse into military life as it was in the beginning of WW II, a far different life than it is today; when Oahu, Hawaii was not a vacation paradise crowded with tourists, but the lonely "rock" of fifty years ago, another far flung outpost in the Pacific in the war against Japan. The stories of liberty, while sometimes coarse in nature, will give the non-military reader an inkling of what goes through young men's minds when they are in a war zone and prompts humorous recollections for veterans of all eras. The book is written with much humanity and conveys to the reader not only the actions of the participants but their emotional states as well. Sometimes seemingly short on details and sometimes a collection of incidents rather than a narrative history, the book still offers an illuminating view of an otherwise unknown chapter in the Pacific war. Authored by an aging veteran, the poignancy of the reminiscences published shortly before his death cannot be missed.

I have limited knowledge about the attack on Pearl Harbor from history books and documentaries, and wanted a new point of view to read to prepare myself for the epic movie "Pearl Harbor" coming out Memorial Day 2001. Needless to say, I could not put the book down. The book was written so easily for a layperson unfamiliar with ship repair, salvage efforts and the work the men on the back line, so to speak, to understand the techniques and personal fear and strength that these divers endured. Shocking visuals, heart break of death, pride in work, commitment to the job, danger and opportunity for technique advancement all are described so well by the author.