War in the Boats: My World War II Submarine Battles [Paperback]

William J. Ruhe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1996

includes a Foreword by Tom Clancy.

"Reality and intensity are the chief watchwords of this unique and highly personal memoir of World War II submarine combat in the Southwest Pacific."--Seapower

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Action packed....A fitting and worthy tribute to the U.S. Navy....Extremely well written." -- The Naval Review

"The human side of submarine warfare....Exciting reading..." -- Washington Times

In 1942, fresh from the U. S. Naval Academy, young ensign Bill Ruhe went to war in the Pacific in submarines, or "boats" as they were called by the men who sailed them. War In The Boats: My WWII Submarine Battles grew out of a journal he surreptitiously kept, recording eight tense, action-filled patrols against the Japanese in the South Pacific. With the variety of his missions and types of boats he served on, Ruhe's experiences encompass those of almost every U. S. submariner in the Pacific theater. War In The Boats chronicles not only the progress of the war, but also the effect submarine warfare had on a tightly knit group of men. While War In The Boats is one of the most detailed descriptions of factual naval warfare, the combat actions never overshadow the impact they had on the combatants themselves. War In The Boats is a unique "window in time" into one of the fiercely fought, critically important, yet largely unknown, aspects of war in the Pacific. -- Midwest Book Review

From the Publisher

The journal from eight action-filled patrols in the South Pacific --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 302 pages
• Publisher: Brasseys Inc; First Brassey's Five-Star edition edition (August 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1574880284
• ISBN-13: 978-1574880281
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,780,462 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Salty-an excellent sea story, June 11, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: War in the Boats: My World War II Submarine Battles (Hardcover)

Capt. Ruhe captures the essence of the submarine officer. The frustrations, hardships and ultimate glory of the silent service are powerfully captured on every page. The patrol accounts make you feel as if you were there. Ruhe details all his daily concerns, both as a junior officer, and as the Executive officer. You get a good feel for his leadership style, and those of the other wardroom officers. I only wish he had included some of their accounts of different incidents to get a broader feel for the story. The prose is easy to read and spiced with homey wartime era ancedotes and subtle humor. I Recommend it to all Navy officers, especially Submariners and any WWII history buffs

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars History from the deep!, June 15, 2007

By 

Toe Tag (Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: War in the Boats: My WWII Submarine Battles (Memories of War) (Paperback)

War in the Boats is a classic in the field of submarine history and World War Two history. It's a good read, highly entertaining, and filled with information about the war from the first person perspective of a young officer in the silent service.

Inside you'll find spine-tingling stories of what it was like to serve on a diesel boat in the war. The tight confines, harsh conditions, interesting flushing systems for toilets (let's just say you didn't want to plug the bore of this breach feed weapon), stunning bravery, chance and a depth charge so close light was seen through the ship's hull.

This book really puts into perspective the dangers of submarine warfare in the war and does a very nice job of presenting the history of the Pacific war without bogging the reader down.

This book easily compares well to it's contemporaries such as RADM Dick O"Kane
s Clear the Bridge and Galltain's Take her Deep!

But enough! I'll ruin the book for you if I tell you more.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars best of the ww2 sub journals, December 15, 2010

By 

Steven DeGalan - See all my reviews

This review is from: War in the Boats: My WWII Submarine Battles (Memories of War) (Paperback)

I've read almost all the WW2 submarine journals and this is my favorite. Ruhe is an accidental submariner and I think that is the charm of this book. Plus this is written well after the 1960s "The war was such a great thing" books of my childhood. Thus it is free of the racism and patriotic dogma of that generation of diaries.