Customer Reviews

Silent Running: My Years on a World War II Attack Submarine

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Great read.

As the only prior reviewer who failed to give it five stars noted , it is written in a very straightforward style. Most of the discussions regarding emotions are off the boat. It is not Tom Clancey but rather an account of real heros, fighting an extremely dangerous war, 8,000 miles from home and often hundreds of miles from any friendly ship.

I found the book captivating but it does require the reader to put himself into the account rather than having the book reach out to the reader with pages of descriptions of fear soaked sweat dripping from frightened sailors.

It is a book about the true meaning of being a warrior at sea, combat leadership, life aboard one of the best attack submarines, wartime love and the emotional conflicts and the technology of the era.

The book is also about the endurance of the men who sailed on the submarines. Although the author does not dwell on the issue, due to the importance of their effort the subs were only allowed to remain in port for the few weeks it took to attend to the most critical reparis and replenishment. Then they returned to a very dangerous mission which began almost as they left port.

It's also a reminder of how much the strategy of submarine warfare has changed as our WW2 subs had very limited range and speed while submerged.

The author's story of their premature entry into Tokyo was great.

He only devotes a few words in the afterword to cover the balance of his distinguished military career which had seemed doomed by their prank trip to Tokyo.

This book is excelent. Reading this, I really got a feeling as to what it was like on a submarine in World War II. It includes action sequences that really make it feel like you were there, on the sub. Calvert is a genius. I highly suggest this book for ANYONE who is interested in submarines, WWII history, or Naval History. I really think you will love this book as much as I did.

This memoir is particularly well-written. It accomplishes the expected by displaying day-to-day life on a US submarine in WWII, but it does more by really capturing the voice of an innocent young man who still has a lot to learn about the world.

Calvert went on to quite a distinguished career in the Navy, but this book never hints at that, instead it paints a portrait of a very specific period of time in the author's life and doesn't bog the reader down with too much 20/20 hindsight and reflections, instead relaying the feeling of being in your early 20s and being involved in one of the highest-stakes contests ever fought in human history.

If you like memoirs, history, or WWII, this is a very well-told story that will appeal to you.

Silent Service was a true page turner for me and I found it difficult to put down in the two days I spent with it. Admiral Calvert does an excellent job in conveying the realities of life aboard a WWII attack submarine; the boring day-to-day routines, various navigational methods, the extraordinarily complex relationship between the submarine and it's crew, the adrenaline charged excitement of an attack, the terrors of a depth charging and the courage of the men who went into this exhausting, claustrophobic, unforgiving world with it's ever present threat of a ghastly death (twenty-five percent of American WWII submariners never returned from their last mission). Calvert's prose is engaging, informative and lucid; The book is divided chronologically into fourteen chapters of roughly twenty pages per, each addressing an aspect of his wartime experiences; from the USS Jack's commissioning in January of 1943 to his (mis)adventure in Tokyo immediately following the surrender. A brief afterword follows up these retrospections. I highly recommend this book to those interested in submarines and/or WWII.

The author takes you through his experiences during WWII from the Naval Accademy To VJ day. The events flow from one period to another in an orderly manner. I read this book in three days, not wanting to miss a line. Sometimes reading fast to find out what was happening next. He keeps you in suspense through each chapter and joins each in an orderly transition. As a WWII submarine man, I found the action accurate and reported with sincere modesty. I served with Vice Admiral Calvert in the USS SKATE SSN 578 including two cruises to the North Pole. It was an honor to serve with him and he is a credit to the Navy and the American tradition "get the job done." I would recommend this book to any WWII history buff. Raymond L. Aten, LT(SC) USN(RET)

This could have easily been a dull and difficult read, but Calvert was not a dull man. To the contrary, this story puts you right in the action. Just like the AAF's B-24 Liberator bombers, the naval subs were often just as dangerous to our soldiers as the enemy was. Especially at the beginning of their service, Calvert shares how the Jack had many problems with its engines, at one point nearly getting stranded with no operable engines. On top of that, they had to endure intense depth charging. With all of this action, it's hard to relax - even while in the comfort of an armchair.

More than just a military tale, however; Silent Running has a real human side. Calvert takes the reader deep into his personality, allowing us to share in his fear and his courage. It is also a story of love and a sailor's struggle to stay faithful to his wife while facing death in a cruel war far from home. As he prevails over all, we are shown the tremendous character and tenacity of the men and women that fought and won the "Greatest War".

If you like this book, you must rent/buy/watch Das Boot (The Boat) directed by Wolfgang Petersen. Although, it is told from the perspective of the German submarine crew, it is a great aid to visualizing the experience of 1930-40's submarine warfare conditions and technology. It is, also, considered one of the greatest WWII movies made to date.

I've read many novels that did not capture me as well as this one. The story is amazing. The author's ability to fill the work with that certain quality that makes you wish you were there is perfectly done. Set aside a few quality hours to zip through this book because you won't be able to put it down. Amazing!

VAdm Calvert's book is simply one of the best WWII submarine books ever written. It is both heartfelt and straight forward and lives up to one of the defining standards of the men who served on our fleet submarines in the Pacific; honest self criticism. WWII was a war full of hero's - this book lets us get to know some of them better.

I'm an avid reader of WWII naval history, and have read dozens of first-hand accounts of battles and other wartime experiences. This book stands out as perhaps the best I've ever read of this genre, mostly because of in reading this book you get to meet a man who is somebody that you can truly admire, Jim Calvert. As you read this book, you come to realize just how extrodinary this man truly is, and his narrative of his very distinguished wartime exploits are taken to a new level by the very personal revelations that he makes in his book about his falling in love in Australia (at the time he was a married man) and how his strength of character led him to make some important decisions about this situation. At the finish of Calvert's book, my overwhelming response was that our nation was lucky to have produced such a man - I only wish that in some small way that I could "measure up" in life as young Jim Calvert did when presented with the challanges of the Armageddon at Sea that was WWII and the challanges he faced in his personal life. This book truly transpires the traditional war story and is an insight into the life of a great American

Silent Running: My Years on a World War II Attack Submarine, by James F. Calvert, Vice Admiral, USN (Ret.), chronicles the nine battle patrols of the USS Jack during World War II. And he does a splendid job of it.

One thing I especially like about this book is that it's not all about the battles. Although, there is plenty of hair-raising submarine action to keep you turning the pages, the book also takes a candid look at not only James Calvert, who was just a young ensign at the time, but also the captain and the rest of the crew. Calvert doesn't hold any punches either. He honestly describes his fears and emotions. And I have read enough submarine books to believe that being hold up in a long steel tube a few hundred feet down in the dark ocean while the bad guys drop depth charges on your head has got to test the mental strength of any man. But James survived it all and rose up through the ranks from an expert Torpedo Data Computer operator to the Executive Officer of the USS Jack.

Now I normally don't like romance mixed in with my submarine action, but in this case, I made an exception. Going along with the author's candid honesty, he described how he allowed himself to become romantically involved with a young Australian woman, even though he had a loving wife and family waiting from him back in the States. Not good by any standard, but understandable considering the harrowing and often depth-defying missions the USS Jack undertook in its patrol area in the China Sea. Each patrol could have been his last, so all in all, a little romantic diversion is certainly not anything to get in an uproar about. The author does claim, however that his feelings for the young woman hardly went past that hand holding stage. Okay.

Then, of course, there was the famous American torpedo problem to deal with. The US Jack, just like a host of other US submarines, suffered the absolute despair and futility of quietly sneaking up on a dangerous enemy ship, carefully plotting a target solution, firing its torpedoes and then listening in horror as they exploded prematurely; and then, having to go deep and run like heck as the enemy destroyers came charging through the water with hate in their eyes, and American blood in their sights. Thank goodness we finally fixed that problem.

From beginning to end, I thoroughly enjoyed Silent Running.