Submarine!

If Herman Melville had served aboard the USS Triton, he might’ve written Submarine! instead of Moby-Dick. But as fate would have it, that task fell to Edward L. Beach, a decorated U.S. Navy submarine officer and later the author of the bestselling novel Run Silent, Run Deep. In Submarine!, Beach doesn’t just tell sea stories. He opens the watertight doors of a secret world, inviting us into the steel bellies of America’s undersea fleet during World War II.

What makes Submarine! unique is its blend of firsthand memoir and composite storytelling. Rather than write strictly about his own missions, Beach gathers real-life experiences from several submarines—Trigger, Wahoo, Harder, Tang, and others—blending them into a chronological, unified narrative of the Pacific submarine campaign. The result is a thrilling, authentic, and highly readable account of a silent war fought beneath the waves.

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The Divine Devilfish

The Honolulu Star-Advertiser ran the story on June 10, 1955. There it was in black and white, plain as day: Commander Stephen S. Mann, U.S. Navy, was taking over Submarine Squadron 72. It might have just been another quiet military personnel notice to most folks reading their morning coffee over the paper, but for the men who served with Mann, it carried the weight of experience and the quiet authority of a man who had faced death and kept his boat afloat.

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TMC(SS) Edward Kalinoski

 

The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Chief Torpedoman Edward Kalinoski, United States Navy, for extraordinary heroism and distinguished service in the line of his profession during the tests of the escape device known as the “Lung,” in 1931. Chief Torpedoman Kalinoski was among the first to make escapes from the U.S.S. S-4 when that vessel was submerged to depths as great as 206 feet for the purpose of these tests. During the tests Chief Torpedoman Kalinoski courageously and voluntarily made many escapes from the vessel at a time when the “Lung” was not yet a fully developed or proven device and when any defect in its design, construction or in the manner of its use could have been accompanied by disastrous results. Chief Torpedoman Kalinoski has shown a very great devotion to duty in this work and his distinguished services have been of material assistance in the perfection of the “Lung” and in the determination of the best procedure to be followed in its use.

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