Submarine Commander
A Story of World War II and Korea
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4.2 • 5 Ratings
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- $24.99
Publisher Description
A fascinating personal memoir of underwater combat in World War II, told by a man who played a major role in those dangerous operations. Frank and beautifully written, Submarine Commander's breezy style and irrepressible humor place it in a class by itself. This book will be of lasting value as a submarine history by an expert and as an enduring military and political analysis. In early 1943 the submarine USS Scorpion, with Paul R. Schratz as torpedo officer, slipped into the shallow waters east of Tokyo, laid a minefield, and made successful torpedo attacks on merchant shipping. Schratz participated in many more patrols in heavily mined Japanese waters as executive officer of the Sterlet and the Atule. At war's end he participated in the Japanese surrender, aided the release of American POWs, and had a key role in the disarming of enemy suicide submarines. He then took command of the revolutionary new Japanese submarine I-203 and returned it to Pearl Harbor. But this was far from the end of Schratz's submarine career. In 1949 he commissioned the ultramodern USS Pickerel, the most deadly submarine then afloat, and set a world's record in a 21-day, 5,200-mile submerged passage from Hong Kong to Honolulu. With the outbreak of the Korean War, the Pickerel was immediately sent to Korea to participate in secret intelligence operations only recently declassified and never before revealed in print. Schratz's broad military experience makes this a far from ordinary memoir.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Schratz served aboard three U.S. Navy subs during World War II, taking part in the sinking of several Japanese ships, rescuing downed pilots, laying minefields. From a natural, slightly off-center viewpoint, he conveys his fascination with submarine warfare and his deep respect for many of the men he served with, bringing them to life in scenes of combat and riotous shore leaves from Honolulu to Hong Kong. After the Japanese surrender, he was involved in the demolition of the former enemy's submarine fleet, and his comments on the attitudes and military way of life of his counterparts in the Imperial Japanese Navy are intriguing. The post-World War II section is less interesting but far from boring: In command of the U.S.S. Pickerel , Schratz set an undersea distance record in 1949 and a year later took part in photo-intelligence missions during the early months of the Korean War. Photos, maps.
