I have approximately 150+ books on WW2 (u-boats and fleet boats) submarine warfare and I am constantly adding to my library. I also have copies of the war patrol reports of 34 US boats...and I am adding to that as well.
Currently reading Stephen L. Moore's
Spadefish: On Patrol with a Top Scoring World War II Submarine, an infinitely readable account of US submarine warfare. Moore uses many
Spadefish veteran interviews coupled with extensive use of
Spadefish's war patrol reports. I have copies of those patrol reports and Moore does a wonderful job with his narrative. This book covers
Spadefish's career from launching, fitting out, commissioning, shakedown, five patrols through to her mothballing at the end of the war. Cannot recommend this book enough...easily compares with Dick O'Kane's classics,
Wahoo and
Clear the Bridge.
I just finished Mike Ostlund's
Find 'Em Chase 'Em Sink 'Em: The Mysterious Loss of a WWII Submarine Gudgeon. Ostlund had an uncle that was lost on
Gudgeon and thus drove his mission to find out about his uncle's sub and attempt to find the location of
Gudgeon. Again, extensive interviews with veterans who served on
Gudgeon before her final fateful patrol are used to fill-in the details. The book is written in two parts with the first having chapters dealing with all 12 of the sub's war patrols and the second part detailing Ostlund's detective work in locating his uncle's final resting place. Ostlund's detective work rivals that of Sherlock Holmes with elementary reasoning...something that it hindsight seems to have clearly eluded the US Navy. Highly recommended as well.
On deck is Kenneth Ruiz's submarine memoir
Luck of the Draw. I am looking forward to reading that immensely.
