Customer Reviews

Presumed Lost: The Incredible Ordeal of America's Submarine POWs during the Pacific War

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

PRESUMED LOST is about our country's history and world history. It is also part of my family history. My uncle was part of that group that was prisoners of war. I have heard his side of the story along with the historical facts. We should give more honor than we do to the people who fight and some loose their lives for the freedom of the rest of us!

I devour any personal, historical accounts regarding naval and Army Air Force books, and I spotted this book at the D-Day Invasion Museum (WWII) in New Orleans, LA bookstore. This book is well researched with superb first hand accounts of the WWII Silent Service. The brave heros cited in this book indeed deserve the highest of recognition, reverence and heartfelt gratitude (certainly as do all veterans).

Unfortunately, I noted an error on page 85 regarding Louis Zamperini which cites his aircraft as a B-17(Boeing Flying Fortress). In fact, Zamperini's ill-fated bomber that was ditched in the Pacific Ocean was a B-24 (Consolidated Liberator). Where is the proof reader? "Zamp" is a famous 94 year old veteran and his story is well known. The author should either read Zamperini's book or endeavor to know the difference between these two WWII bomber aircraft. This error leads me to question if other facts are incorrect.

Another issue for me is the high number of abbreviations of naval personnel and submarine equipment. Examples; TDC, servicemen ranks such as MoMM3c,plank owner,etc. etc. The author assumes we know what all these abbreviations and jargon mean. For naval neophites who are not used to specific classifications and abbreviations, a simple appendix would be quite useful to the reader. Such explanatory appendix is quite elementary and should never be overlooked in a book of this specific nature.

Also, when discussing an aircraft carrier from any vintage, one must cite its naval CV designation as for instance, the USS Hornet(CV-8)sunk in October 1942 is not the same carrier as USS Hornet (CV-12)which was named to honor CV-8 and served the remainder of WWII.

Certainly these issues do not negate the personal stories and experiences and chronological history relayed here, as well as the incredible amount of research necessary to produce such a book. I believe the author, proof-reader and/or editor fell on their swords, perhaps due to lack of knowledge about all subjects therein, which ultimately results in the submission of less than first rate volume.

My Dad CW Kuykendll was the sole surviver of SS(284) Tullibee. And is stil alive today. The storys he has told me and he's five grandsons are almost unbeleavable.He is a true america hero, who has given he's all to are country, and would do it all over again.All he's freinds were lost that day in 1941,he still remembers every detail.I Love you Dad and think you for all you have done for are country.

I bought this book because my father was on one of these subs. While he never talked about his experience to us, as adults it opened a new insight into Dad. It is truly a piece of lost history. It is well written and accurate.

this is an excellently written account of the men who were in harms way in WWII. as i know one of the crew of the USS Griffen this is especially true.

Navy memoirs particularly books about submarines have been my favorite type of history/WWII subject to read. I had never read any of the authors books before however after viewing the subject matter and reviews for his book - Presumed Lost - on Amazon I took a chance and purchased the item. Within minutes of opening this book I was glad I did. Presumed Lost is extremely well written and packed with many first person narratives. Too many books today seem to rely primarily on earlier written books for its research and unfortunately what you sometimes get is a work that really sheds little new light on a subject. These experiences of US submariners who became prisoners of the Japanese has been touched upon before in other books however Presumed Lost really fleshes out and tells the whole tale. The author interviewed numerous survivors and expertly weaves their combined experiences into a story that describes the final fate of the lost boat and its survivors. On par with Hornfischers book Ship of Ghosts - I highly recommend this book. Aside from the writing the book also contains a dozen pages of little seen photos of the subs and their crews. If you have an interest in this subject I find it hard to believe you would be disappointed and I definitely plan to pick up the authors two other sub books in the future.

The definitive WWII US Submarine photo-history book is still waiting to be written. With so many photo-history books on Germany's U-Boats from publishers like Schiffer and Histoire & Collections I would love to see an author like Stephen one day take on a project such as this.

This is an extremely well written book. Anyone interested in the trials of POW's will appreciate this history. One of the survivors is a personel friend of mine and we have discussed his capture to a small extent and this book brought it to life.

Stephen Moore obviously spent hundreds of hours researching information for this book. If you have any interest in WWII and your looking for a book that is 100% fact this is the book.