Hellions of the Deep [Hardcover]

Robert Gannon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1996 | ISBN-10: 027101508X | ISBN-13: 978-0271015088

Ultimately, World War II was the first war won by technology, but within only a few weeks after the war began, the U.S. Navy realized its torpedo program was a dismal failure. Submarine skippers reported that most of their torpedoes were either missing the targets or failing to explode if they did hit. The United States had to work fast if it expected to compete with the Japanese Long Lance, the biggest and fastest torpedo in the world, and Germany's electric and sonar models. Hellions of the Deep tells the dramatic story of how Navy planners threw aside the careful procedures of peacetime science and initiated "radical research": gathering together the nation's best scientists and engineers in huge research centers and giving them freedom of experimentation to create sophisticated weaponry with a single goal--winning the war.The largest center for torpedo work was a requisitioned gymnasium at Harvard University, where the most famous names in science worked with the best graduate students from all around the country at the business of war. They had to produce tangible weapons, to consider production and supply tactics, to take orders from the military, and, in many cases, also to teach the military how to use the weapons they developed. World War II grew into a chess match played by scientists and physicists, and it became the only war in history to be won by weapons invented during the conflict.For this book, Robert Gannon conducted numerous interviews over a twenty-year period with scientists, engineers, physicists, submarine skippers, and Navy bureaucrats, all involved in the development of the advanced weapons technology that won the war. While the search for new weapons was deadly serious, stretching imagination and resourcefulness to the limit each day, the need was obvious: American ships were being blown up daily just outside the Boston harbor. These oral histories reveal that, in retrospect, surprising even to those who went through it, the search for the "hellions of the deep" was, for many, the most exciting period of their lives.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 241 pages
• Publisher: Pennsylvania State University Press (April 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 027101508X
• ISBN-13: 978-0271015088
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #900,918 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book regarding torpedo but with some flaws, January 16, 2005

By 

Mr. A. Davies "Anders" (Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hellions of the Deep (Hardcover)

This book is an excellent reference source for anyone interested in the development of American torpedoes during WW2 and is highly recommended.

The reason for the four star rating is because the work contains some minor errors and is unclear in some more important areas. OK first the minor errors. Page 68 describes hydrogen peroxide as "H2O2O". Funny when I received my degree hydrogen peroxide was H2O2. Next the line drawing on page 42 illustrates what is known as a "steam" type torpedo and yet the illustration is labelled with an electric motor as being the propulsion unit even though the illustration contains no batteries. It does show the air and fuel flasks of a "steam" type torpedo and the description accompanying the drawing is consistent with a "steam" type torpedo. Actually, although small, the drawing shows what appears to be a turbine and bevel gear unit- again consistent with a "steam" type torpedo engine- even if they are labelled as an electric motor.

OK So much for the minor errors. I consider them unimportant as they in no way detract from the value of the book and any skilled reader can easily compensate.

The problem comes on page 48 where the Japanese "Long Lance" type 93 torpedo is described as being driven by "liquid hydrogen peroxide". Although not a US torpedo this book is so authoritative and well written that all its disclosures clearly carry weight. Given the state of the art in the 1930's I would tend to believe that compressed pure oxygen gas was used in the type 93(ie not H2O2) and indeed a number of web pages support this view. (search for yourself to check this out).

Unfortunately the author does not help matters as at page 135 he says "during the war the japanese skippers preferred the "oxygen" hydrogen peroxide torpedoes". Now although when hydrogen peroxide decomposes it does produce oxygen as well as high temperature steam it is a different chemical species to oxygen and within the naval world an "oxygen torpedo" is one that uses compressed O2 gas. A peroxide torpedo is a peroxide torpedo. I have been unable to track down the authors references for the peroxide Long Lance but from the book they do not appear to be primary sources. Given that the Japanese Long Lance had twice the speed and around five time the range of the best US torpedo and came as an almighty shock to the allies I would have preferred some more details from the author to support his views on the Long Lance.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good companion book to "Silent Victory" by Clay Blair., April 8, 2000

By 

Robert Levitt - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hellions of the Deep (Hardcover)

Silent Victory contains a fair amount of data regarding the torpedo problems experienced by the U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet Submarine Force during the Second World War. This book goes into considerably more detail regarding the background to those problems and their solutions--both bureaucratic and engineering--and how U.S. torpedo technology literally moved two generations ahead during wartime.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book about torpedo technology, March 20, 2000

By 

E. RABOSO GARCIA-BAQUERO (Madrid, Spain) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hellions of the Deep (Hardcover)

This is a magnificent book about the torpedo development in the US Navy. Mainly focused in the WWII period, the book details all the problems that plagued US torpedoes and the way they were solved. This is a great book. Every person interested in WW II naval technology, submarines or naval weaponry shall be delighted with it.