Customer Reviews

Undersea Warrior: The World War II Story of "Mush" Morton and the USS Wahoo

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After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December, 1941, President Roosevelt instructed the armed forces to conduct "unrestricted warfare" on Japan. The Pacific fleet's submarines were left intact after the Japanese attack, and these boats were soon pressed into service hunting the Japanese fleet. Many of these early submarines were small, cramped, and ill-equipped to effectively fight the Japanese. To make matters worse, they were loaded with ineffective torpedoes, and these would plague the submarine service for months to come.

With the introduction of the Gato and Balao class submarines, the Americans finally had a boat capable of doing significant damage to the Japanese. One of the Gatos was named USS Wahoo and, in the course of a few short months, she would go down in history as perhaps the greatest American submarine to ever fight against the Japanese. Commanded by Marvin "Pinky" Kennedy, Wahoo initially proved to be only average, due to Kennedy's lack of aggressiveness and by-the-book attitude. She did possess an aggressive XO named Richard "Dick" O'Kane who didn't see eye-to-eye with Kennedy. On Wahoo's second patrol, a prospective commander named Dudley "Mush" Morton rode along. Morton saw first-hand Kennedy's lack of aggressiveness and fighting spirit. Once back from patrol, Morton expressed his views to the submarine commander. Kennedy was removed and replaced with Morton. What happened next was a thing of legend. Morton's aggressive nature was completely opposite from Kennedy's. Morton and O'Kane became a lethal combination in the control tower, with O'Kane responsible for firing the torpedoes. On one patrol, Wahoo sunk an entire 4-ship Japanese convoy. But, the problems with the unreliable torpedoes persisted, which left many potential victims still afloat.

O'Kane eventually received command of his own boat, the USS Tang, which, in time, would boast a combat record even greater than that of Wahoo. In October, 1943, while exiting the Sea of Japan, USS Wahoo was discovered and bombed by Japanese aircraft. Wahoo, along with Morton and 80 officers and men went down.

Author Don Keith has written an excellent book about the USS Wahoo and Mush Morton. He does a good job of describing Morton's early life in the Navy, including his service in China. Next, he moves on to a discussion of Wahoo under the command of Kennedy. The boat was not functioning well at all due to Kennedy's lack of aggressiveness. The best parts of the book deal with Morton's assumption of command and the highly successful 3rd, 4th, and 5th war patrols. An interesting Afterward is included which describes the efforts to find the Wahoo by both American and Japanese parties. It was discovered in 2006.

I highly recommend this fine book. Mush Morton was a hero in the truest sense of the word, and this book does a good job of describing his heroic efforts on the Wahoo. It's truly sad that Mush Morton has still never been awarded the Medal of Honor.

Dudley Walker 'Mush' Morton was the most famous American submarine commander of World War II. Commanding USS Wahoo, Morton pioneered radically new methods of submarine warfare in 1942/43 and received much public acclaim - and four Navy Crosses! - for several high-scoring patrols. A complex individual, Morton's outgoing personality and natural leadership qualities endeared him to his crew. A hard-charging warrior, Morton often threw caution to the wind. A bitter hatred of his Japanese opponents resulted in actions that, in today's world, would be viewed as war crimes. Don Keith examines this dynamic, larger-than-life hero in this fascinating - and long overdue - biography of "Mush the Magnificent."

Though he only commanded Wahoo for ten months, Morton ended up as the third most successful USN sub commander of the war...even though he and Wahoo were lost in October 1943. Morton was nominated for a Medal of Honor but the medal was never granted. In part, this was because Morton was quite outspoken and rubbed some Navy brass the wrong way. Others did not approve of his unorthodox combat tactics even though they resulted in sunken Japanese ships. Still others frowned on - or envied? - his celebrity status. Another factor for the non-award of the MoH may have been Morton's controversial action on 26 January 1943 when he ordered his gun crews to machine gun survivors of a sunken transport.

Author Don Keith does an excellent of bringing this fascinating warrior king to life. Though he had his faults, Morton was exactly the sort of hard-charging yet analytical and innovative leader the Silent Service needed in the early war years. His war record speaks for itself.

Keith is a skillful writer, UNDERSEA WARRIOR being a real page-turner. I have some reservations about the reconstructed conversations and actions in the book. On the other hand, I got so caught up in the action, I tore through Keith's book in a day.

Morton's commander, Admiral Charles Lockwood, once referred to him as "a natural leader and born daredevil." The life and times of that legendary commander and his fabled ship are appealingly chronicled in UNDERSEA WARRIOR. Recommended.

Mush Morton, hard-charging but canny in his approach to warfare, was one of the "celebrity" figures in World War II. And yet books that focus on Morton are hard to find...or don't exist? Why would this be?

At any rate, this book has a lot of style, a lot of storytelling brio. It is enormously readable. The focus here isn't on general combat tactics in the Pacific nor on sub technology (although these topics are not neglected in this book) -- the focus is on the man. Author Keith has an engaging style and while this is not a "hard" history book, the command of the topic here demonstrates that the exciting tales are girded by historical record.

This also would make a great gift for your sub-crazed loved one.

Having first "met" Mush Morton in Theodore Roscoe's definitive US Submarine Operations in World War II, I have been aware of Morton's exploits for almost sixty years. All of the war patrol stories have been previously reported by O'Kane, Grider, and Sterling among others, but this book's focus on the man, not the accomplishments makes it a valuable addition to the history of the silent service.

I found Morton's personal story so interesting that I have urged my wife to read it although she does not share my interest in military history. This is definitely a readable story even for people who are not military history freaks like myself. I did find one small error, at one point the author refered to George Grider as Roger Grider.

Very good book about the submarine service in the South Pacific I didn`t realize how many subs were lost during this period or lives lost. My best friend was lost when the USS Scorpin was lost in 1968. I spent 9 years in the NUclear Navy so this book was very interesting.

This is an excellent read on both Cmdr Mush Morton and the famous U.S.S. Wahoo. I found that it flowed so well that I could hardly put it down. Also, frankly, I felt the author was 'spot on' about the famous incident around the Buyo Maru. After all, as Sherman so aptly put it, "War is hell." If you, or whoever will read the book, enjoys submariner stories, they will love this!

Finally, a book to explain the mysterious Mush Morton! Don Keith is now the premier submarine history writer in the country. What makes the Mush Morton story so compelling is the fact that all he accomplished covered a time span of only ten months. This is a true 'can not put it down' read. Loved it!

I live in New London, CT and grew up with submarines. My father helped build submarines for 30 years and I have been on German subs, the Nautilus and the big boomers in addition to reading about every sub book published. This book is one of the best for detailed operational information. Lots of expansion of material found in other books. I enjoyed this book as it tells you things that others have left out.

I was the medical officer on the USS Proteus in Guam during the mid 1960s, and had the opportunity to visit the WW2 sub "Archerfish" when it visited Apra harbor. I have always found the history of the Navy and of WW2 most interesting, and this book was wonderfull. I plan to buy several other Keith books as a Christmas present to myself. Keith is a great author, and anyone will enjoy this book!

I could not put this book down. It is the second book by Don Keith I have read and it's a keeper.