The Bravest Man: Richard OKane and the Amazing Submarine Adventures of the USS Tang By William Tuohy

William Tuohy ð 5 Read & Download

“There’s no margin for mistakes in submarines. You’re either alive or dead.”
–Richard O’Kane

Hailed as the ace of aces, captain Richard O’Kane, winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor for his consummate skill and heroism as a submarine skipper, sank more enemy ships and saved more downed fliers than anyone else.

Now Pulitzer Prize—winning author William Tuohy captures all the danger, the terror, and the pulse-pounding action of undersea combat as he chronicles O’Kane’s wartime career–from his valiant service as executive officer under Wahoo skipper Dudley “Mush” Morton to his electrifying patrols as commander of the USS Tang and his incredible escape, with eight other survivors, after Tang was sunk by its own defective torpedo.

Above all, The Bravest Man is the dramatic story of mavericks who broke the rules and set the pace to become a new breed of hunter/killer submariners who waged a unique brand of warfare. These undersea warriors would blaze their own path to victory–and transform the “Silent Service” into the deadliest fighting force in the Pacific. The Bravest Man: Richard OKane and the Amazing Submarine Adventures of the USS Tang

Another great book on WWII submarines. If you are interested in this area, I see no reason why you would not like this. The pace was fast and the narrator did a great job.

9780891418894 This is my all-time favorite WWII story. It reads like an action novel. The submarine service was an incredible group. 9780891418894 O’Kane, winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor, learned many of his aggressive tactics from his time as exec on the Wahoo under the command of Dudley “Mush” Morgan. Morgan did all sorts of things that most commanders considered fool-hardy including steaming on the surface during daylight when within flying distance of Japanese bases. Everyone else remained submerged during daylight, hunting only at night. He also had the temerity to define “reconnoiter” as going right into an enemy held harbor. They managed this incredible feat using a child’s atlas; the maps supplied to them by the Navy showed only indentations in the coast of New Guinea. It just happened that a crewman had purchased a child’s atlas in Australia as a present for his son which contained a foldout map of Australia and clearly showed the location of a Japanese base at Wewak.

One of the most controversial acts of a commander during wartime occurred while O’Kane was exec on the Wahoo . They had just successfully torpedoed a large troopship and Morgan ordered the sub to machine gun the lifeboats forcing the troops into the water. he rationalization was that these were troops headed to reinforce other Japanese engage in battle against U.S. forces. Many were killed and Morton said later that the troops had opened fire on his sub. O’Kane said the sub had fired first on the troops, and his recollection would seem to be more accurate since as it turned out, the troops were not Japanese but rather Indian POWs being taken to Japan (this fact was not mentioned by the author in his overly hagiographic account of the episode) and it’s unlikely they would have shot at the sub, especially as they were unarmed prisoners, although I’m sure their were many armed Japanese troops aboard as well. Nevertheless, had this been an action undertaken by a Japanese or German sub against supposed American troops, the commander would have been charged, no doubt, with war crimes. Clay Blair, the doyen of submarine historians, says the sub fired first. War sucks, either way. I suppose I would be a disciple of Sherman and all out war. The idea of war with rules does seem to be a bit oxymoronic. **

[There is a fascinating novel, An Operational Necessity http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/..., that is loosely based on a WW II incident in which the U-852 sank an allied freighter, the Peleus, and then machine-gunned the survivors in order to evade detection. The account is handled with sensitivity and, so far, have proved to be quite thought-provoking. The officers were tried in court. The captain and senior officers were shot for war crimes.] Review to follow. More information at http://www.uboataces.com/articles-war....

Tuohy discusses the “skipper problem.” In the early stages of the war, submarine captains were chosen from the ranks of those who had been trained during peacetime. It had been the conventional wisdom to have subs used as reconnaissance ships and to stay out of harms way, spending most of the time underwater, rarely on the surface. This meant they usually returned from patrol with no kills. Ironically, the execs, much younger, sometimes had more actual war experience and it was these execs (O’Kane being a splendid example) who developed changes in tactics. Morgan deliberately ignored the conventional wisdom, stayed surfaced and attacked aggressively. He, and his exec, O’Kane, were very successful, (the Wahoo under Morgan was later lost at sea) and soon skippers who returned from patrol with no or few kills were replaced after two patrols.

It wasn’t just a “skipper” problem. Differences in tactics and strategy, not to mention personal animosity led to command altercations and petty decisions based on personal differences rather than what might be good for the submariners. Clay Blair in his definitive work on submarine warfare in WW II lays blame for lackluster results in 1942 squarely on the commanders. They fought over where R&R sites should be located (Carpenter wanted them away from the temptations of cities) to who might have written a little poem poking fun at the admirals at Pearl Harbor (the author, the skipper of the Haddock almost lost his command for distributing “subversive” literature) to where the command should be located (it was split between Freemantle, Pearl Harbor, and Perth) not to mention MacArthur who wanted to use subs only to deliver small groups of special forces rather than use them to sink ships.

And let’s not forget the infamous torpedo problem. The Navy’s Ordnance Bureau refused to listen to skipper’s complaints about their torpedoes which they claimed were failing at a rate of 43%. Both the depth settings (discovered later to be because they were tested with water, which is lighter than TNT, in place of the warhead) were off by about 11 feet, and the magnetic exploders were defective. Regretfully, it was the commanders at the highest levels, several of whom at done stints at the Ordnance Bureau, who refused to let the skippers test the torpedoes or change settings. The issue came to a head when Admiral Lockwood took evidence of the faulty torpedo magnetic exploders to Admiral Nimitz who then ordered them to be disconnected. Admiral Christie in Freemantle, who had been instrumental in design of the magnetic exploder, told skippers leaving Freemantle they were required to use the magnetic exploder. So when in Crhstie’s command area, the skippers had to engage the exploder; when in Lockwood’s (large area west of Pearl Harbor) they had to dismantle them. Ridiculous.

After devoting about a third of the book to O’Kane’s experiences with Mush Morgan, the author steps back and takes a look at his experiences at the Naval Academy and family. One of the things I really enjoyed about this book was the analysis of family pressures and an analysis command relationships. I also enjoyed the detail related to construction of a sub and the latitude granted each construction firm and skipper to make design changes. Interesting.

O’Kane was assigned to new construction: the Tang. He had a fetish for training and he tested the new sub as well. The normal test depth was 425 feet. He took her gradually down past the stop point on the depth meter, 600 feet and that dive of an estimated 625 feet was considered the deepest ever recorded for a U.S. submarine that survived. At each depth where a fitting broke, or a leak occurred, he returned to the surface and back to the shipyard, where the item was replaced and/or strengthened; then he went back and dove deeper. Scared the shit out of the crew, but the dives provided valuable information and confidence in the boat that was useful later.

Behavior under depth charging was of great interest to the Navy, and the experience of the Puffer became a textbook case for learning how men held up under extreme stress. The sub had remained under for 39 hours with the AC shut off to quiet the ship. Psychological examination revealed something surprising. It wasn’t the leaders who saved the ship, but those who were hardly noticed when things were operating normally: The worriers and the hurriers all crapped out, leaving the plodders to bring the ship home.” Clearly, the only way to judge a man’s value was wait until he was seen under stress before making final judgment. (Tuohy borrows quite liberally and perhaps excessively from United States submarine operations in World War II. By Theodore Roscoe, You can see the appropriate context at http://books.google.com/books?id=5lTI... pages 275-280)

Very interesting book and I have gone on too long as I tend to do.

** There is a competent summary of the action against the Boyu Maru troopship at http://www.warfish.com/patrol3con.html. The Wikipaedia has an excellent summary of the wartime patrols of the Wahoo at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Waho... 9780891418894 I started this excellent history on December 7th, fittingly the 77th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, a day which shall life in infamy. An excellent work that traces US submarine warfare in WWII, the author follows the exemplary service of Richard O'Kane and those with whom he served. I listened to E.H. Jones read the book, and he did a great job despite a couple mispronunciations, including Nuke-u-ler instead of Nuclear. He has a great voice for a military story. By reading this book, you will get a fantastic insight into the details of submarine warfare in that conflict.

The reader might also consider Sink 'Em All by Charles A Lockwood, Silent Service of World War II, and Thunder Below by E. Fluckey, all contemporaries of Mr. O'Kane. I think it would be interesting to get their perspectives on the same events. 9780891418894 Awesome narrative history of life on a submarine in the Battle for the Pacific in WW2. Awesome story about an awesome man!

Listened to the unabridged audiobook on Audible.com. 9780891418894

Very good book about WWII submarine operations. 9780891418894 Clearly they were the Greatest Generation! 9780891418894 This book is a superbly written chronicle of World War II US Navy submarine warfare in the Pacific. It is a very well researched history book, yet reads like an adventure novel. I literally could not put it down. Lots of interesting trivia about life on the submarines during WWII, technical details, and stories of incredible heroism such as the sacrifices of Capt. Cromwell and Cdr. Gilmore. Highly recommended to anyone interested in the history of WWII submarine warfare. 9780891418894 A good WWII two book about subs, which I had never read about before. I was very impressed not only by there service but the amount of damage they did to transport ships. Which actually was huge. The man the book was about. Richard O'Kane , was the skipper with the most kills. This book was not just about him but the sub Fleet as a whole good and bad, from top to bottom. A very telling story that is still going on today with men in Washington. People with there own agendas. Then there are those who are not in combat but think they know how it should be done from there office , not all of these men are or bad some were good they listened made judgements based on what feed back they got back from the men who were out there. All of the men who came back or not are heroes to me I. Had never known about there historic ways. God rest to the men of the keeper's of the sea. 9780891418894 The Bravest Man is an excellent book. It is about the courageous US submarine captain Dick O'Kane, who captained a highly successful submarine in the Pacific during World War Two. It is a fascinating story about an incredibly bold man. The author does a tremendous job explaining why Captain O'Kane's crew respected and loved him so much. I highly recommend this book for everyone, especially those you enjoy reading American History, World War Two History and biographies. 9780891418894