Customer Reviews

Spadefish: On Patrol with a Top-Scoring WWII Submarine

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

Spadefish was the only sub launched in 1944 to make the top five in almost every catagory. Interviews with many former crew members give an excellent view of life on board. She only went on five patrols before the war ended the most scary with Operation Barney in the Sea of Japan.Using FM sonar(very unreliable) to navigate mine fields entering and leaving for the first time since the loss of Wahoo.This sub had two dogs on board,Luau from commissioning and her pup Seaweed later on. Both stayed on until decommisioning. Spadefish only served two years and turned in a very impressive record. I highly recomend this book

This book recounts in great detail the exploits of the crewmembers of this WW II submarine. In fact, it reads much like a debriefing by revealing exact dates, times, and locations of the sub's exploits both in and out of combat. The author credits crewmembers by name and rank of the parts they played in essentially all of the sub's engagements. Anyone who enjoys reading about U.S. Navy heroics will enjoy this book. The author provides a valuable service by preserving a detailed history of one segment of undersea warfare.

There is a new genre surrounding the 'biographies' of WW2 submarines namely of incorporating as many of the crew members as possible in the review of wartime patrols. This can make the book lengthy and difficult to follow. The author manages to avoid the pitfalls.

It is a good read. I thoroughly enjoyed the book

This author has done a great job of balancing the interests of those who look for the facts and figures of history and those who see that history through the lives of those who lived it. He creates the sense of what those crew members accomplished and lived through without ever losing the focus on the fact that the numbers were amazing in themselves. Extremely well done!

I find this book very good reading. The author has interviewed many crew members and related their stories of the actions as they saw it. Recommended reading for those who wish to know what submarine warefare was like.

Author Stephen L. Moore is to be commended for the lengths he went to, doing the original research "spadework" for SPADEFISH. Also for the taut, well paced book which came about as a result. There are many personal anecdotes, both from Officers and Men which were on the 5 combat patrols USS Spadefish undertook from the first patrol's onset on 23 July, 1944 to the fifth patrol's conclusion 4 July, 1945. Actually Author Moore extended the boat's and crew's combined histories into the commissioning and even de-commissioning of the US Navy's second USS Spadefish, SSN 668 in 1996. "Spadefish" is well illustrated with photos, both privately held and Official US Navy photos, Moore even went the extra mile with maps, diagrams, and tables of enemy (mostly, anyway!) sinkings, he even explained the "alphabet soup" concerning the enlisted grades of US Naval hierarchy. This was a book I felt obliged to take my time with so I could savor every page! I recommend this fine book to anyone with an abiding interest in the US Navy's Submarine Campaign in the Pacific Ocean.

Overall thought the book was well written.

The author had access to enough history that allowed a good sampling of pictures, graphs, and maps, throughout.

Explanation's of early frequency modulated (FM) sonar, and it's use was well done.

Shipping was fast and the book arrived in excellent shape.
This made the purchase even better!
Very good read - hard to put it down! / well written. :-)

John Kreinbring

I bought this for a gift and my husband has enjoyed reading it. I like it when you are able to read a table of contents before purchasing a book.