The Sen-Toku Raid [Paperback]

John Mannock (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2005

The Allied invasion of the Philippines signals the beginning of the end for Japan. In a desperate gamble, a renegade admiral launches the Sen-Toku class submarines-designed to carry kamikaze aircraft and manned torpedoes-on a desperate mission to strike Washington, D.C.

Underwater Demolition Team operative Lieutenant Charlton Randall and a rag-tag band of Allied soldiers and guerrillas have one choice: destroy the sea base housing the Sen-Toku submarines-or die trying.

Editorial Reviews

Review

John Mannock delivers heart-stopping action. (Joe Buff, author of Tidal Rip)

Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Signet (March 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451214404
• ISBN-13: 978-0451214409
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,431,022 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Book By Mannock!, April 4, 2005

By 

Melvin Hunt (Cleveland,, Texas United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Sen-Toku Raid (Paperback)

This book begins with the U.S, Navy's Underwater Demolition
Team preparing for the Phillipines invasion by the American forces.They recon enemy positions,find and pinpoint Japanese
machine gun nests,and clear the beaches and waterways of mines.
When the invasion begins the backbone of the Japanese forces
are broken.Because the tide of battle is against them the forces
of Japan decide to launch a desperation attack on the mainland United States.They will use a Sen-Toku submarine.This submarine is built to carry kamikaze fighter planes,and manned Kaiten
torpedoes.
A group of Allied soldiers are shot down and crash land on an island.After moving to an adjoining island they discover this plot.It becomes their duty to destroy this submarine base and stop this suicide invasion of Washington D.C.Quite a battle erupts between these Allied soldiers and the Japanese soldiers on this island.
This is a very good book that you will enjoy reading. There is a surprise twist in this plot that makes this story even better.This is a book that you will remember.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Think "Guns of Navarone" in the Pacific, November 14, 2006

By 

Whoop2Do "Whoop2Do" (Gaithersburg, MD USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Sen-Toku Raid (Paperback)

This was my first novel by John Mannock and based upon my experience, it won't be my last.

This was a pleasant little romp. My intial impression was that this would be naval military history (with which I'm not that enamored), however, I was quickly proven wrong. Mannock's little tale neatly enmeshes all aspects of the Pacific campaign - air, land and sea - and does so in a manner that will not confound the casual military buff, nor put-off the more earnest historian.

In my mind's eye, it was easy for me to imagine this book being filmed in the heyday of the big budget WWII adventures a la Guns of Navarone... I could easy cast Gregory Peck, David Niven etc into the roles of the multifarious band that is at the heart of the tale. And, indeed, the ersatz commando group formed over the course of the novel represents just about every major Allied faction. Somewhat uncomfortably for me, the author seems to rely too much on superficial stereo-types (The gruff Aussies, the stuffy British officer, the almost supernatural stalking abilities of natives - both Asian and American, etc, etc).

Indeed the only detraction from this novel getting 5 stars from me was the almost Hollywood quality of the action. A small squad-strength group of Allies hold off and decimate almost a full regiment of Japanese SNLF troops? Eh, pushing it just a little - but the author doesn't give you time to question the plausibility of such happenstances too long.

Oh, and there is a nice little twist near the end... I had to re-read certain sections to see if the author cheated and delightfully found that he had not, he had merely been clever.

A nice read!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars High Quality WWII Fiction With Facts, June 23, 2006

By 

H. J. Rossi (Shawnee Mission, KS USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Sen-Toku Raid (Paperback)

John McKinna, writing as John Mannock, captures the reader with a fast-paced yarn, but it is interlaced with many facts about the Japanese techniques and strategies in their attempts to thwart Marine landings in the Pacific. As a former USMC NCO, I appreciated his well-crafted word picture of those desperate times.

In general, John does an excellent job of character development, but I felt he outdid himself in this novel, and here is an example: By reason of seniority, the attacking party was lead by British Major Harold Horwitch, a sometimes overbearing officer but nonetheless, a skilled veteran of many campaigns. On page 353, Horwich muses about two men in his attacking force......"Foster and Mulgrew were both irredeemable, convict-class vulgarians, like all Australians, but Horwitch admitted to himself that they knew their business when it came to jungle fighting."

I laughed out loud. Mannock had captured the mustache-twisting, oppressively proper Brit officer who still in all, correctly evaluated two excellent Aussie war-fighters. First class wordsmithing in my opinion.

Overall, a great read.