It's an exellent book which gives a deep insight about the submarine war in the Pacific Region.

It covers strategie, tactics from both sides (also the faults which have been done)and a hell of details from each war theatre.

It's a must to read for each person interested in submarines (historical, Silent Hunter Enthusiasts etc.)

What a read! I know it's history, but this is a page turner. The author just keeps bringing it on. I was impressed with the obvious volume of research, but the truly impressive thing is that he keeps your interest all the way through. An outstanding and extremely readable account of an underpublicized arena of WW II.

This is, quite simply, an outstanding history book. The depth of research done by the author is amazing. It is a blow by blow, patrol by patrol account of how these brave men put the Japanese war machine out of business. It is also exceptionally well written and extemely readable. It's one of those very few books that you can, literally, open up to any page, start reading, and become consumed with interest. This book belongs on any WWII naval bookshelf, and is, I believe, the definitive account of the Pacific Submariners' war.

The is book has it all and says it all about the Use of Sumarines in the Pacific during WW2.
The good points about the book:
1. It complete describes every aspect of Submarines - torpedoes - engagements - personnel - strategy.
2. It gives a comprehensive amount of detail about the Commanders and Officers who fought in the Submarines - who did well and who didn't and why.
3. It gives a great amount of detail about the personnel feuds - the attitudes of the Sumarine Admialty in Hawaii - and In Australia. Their pettiness is detailed as well as their greatness. Both get equal measure.

The Weak points: All of the above detail gets a bit tedious and repetitive.

The real eye opener for for me was the fact thatin WW@ it was the submarines that did most of the damage to the Japanese Navy and they eliminated the merchant Marine - with one arm tied behind its back. The torpedoes they used on the boats were a failure for the first 15 months of the war. In reading the details of this issue - it is amazing that even with such incompetence in the Bureau of Naval Ordinance and with some doltish Admirals - that we did actually win the War.

Read the book and find out how we did it. Warts and all.

This is a very detailed rundown of the USN's silent service during the Pacific war, and is a must if you are interesetd in the submarine operations, from a US perspective.

Blair also exposes, compared to post war analyses, the over, and dubious claims of ships sunk by the submariners, and a comparson with the U boats will reveal that the latter was much, much more successful, despite the lack of air and surface support, and its codes being cracked and read.

A comparison of Blair's 2 volume work on the U boats with this work will reveal his blatant biases against the Germans, no doubt a case of the inferiority complex.

This is certainly a detailed and worthy survey of the US submarine war in the Pacific Theatre during World War II. It offers a great deal of information, much of which characterizes the area commanders with their personal goals, squabbles, and jealousies. It develops the story over the full reach of the war, from the frantic days following the attack at Pearl Harbor, the mostly ineffective first retaliations early in the war, the gradual build up of strength and experience in 1943, to the domination of the wolf packs and strangulation of Japan late in the war. The abominable ineffectiveness of American torpedoes and the denial and difficulty in remedying the problems with exploders and depth control are detailed. So are other interesting topics such as the replacement of skippers who failed to fulfill their assignments with the aggressiveness and tenacity required. All the various tasks assigned to fleet subs during the war are revealed as well and the different techniques encouraged in the various areas of operation. The role of the cryptologists and their essential efforts is also detailed. All this is good stuff and maybe the book deserves more than three stars. But I was overwhelmed by the shear tedium of patrol after patrol after patrol summarized with minimal detail or apparent purpose. This data could have been presented in table format with ease and clarity. The result is that the significant events, famous exploits, and heroic individuals are lost in this muddle of repetitive summaries. By book's end, it is difficult to separate the gallant from the routine. If it were not for signposts along the way from events familiar to me, it would have been even less differentiated. I've read of the Wahoo, Tang, Rasher, and Barb previously in excellent narratives, so their events stood out, as did the Tautog, Drum, and Cobia, subs I've visited. Otherwise, this narrative would have been even less discerning. An unusual style in military narrative employed here is another negative; the author chooses not to associate rank with individual's names. With the significance of rank in the military, this is detractive. I think the author would have served the story better with dramatic examples of incidents that characterize the heroic service performed by these crew and to feature leading events. Instead readers must try to discern this on their own.

This is certainly a detailed and worthy survey of the US submarine war in the Pacific Theatre during World War II. It offers a great deal of information, much of which characterizes the area commanders with their personal goals, squabbles, and jealousies. It develops the story over the full reach of the war, from the frantic days following the attack at Pearl Harbor, the mostly ineffective first retaliations early in the war, the gradual build up of strength and experience in 1943, to the domination of the wolf packs and strangulation of Japan late in the war. The abominable ineffectiveness of American torpedoes and the denial and difficulty in remedying the problems with exploders and depth control are detailed. So are other interesting topics such as the replacement of skippers who failed to fulfill their assignments with the aggressiveness and tenacity required. All the various tasks assigned to fleet subs during the war are revealed as well and the different techniques encouraged in the various areas of operation. The role of the cryptologists and their essential efforts is also detailed. All this is good stuff and maybe the book deserves more than three stars. But I was overwhelmed by the shear tedium of patrol after patrol after patrol summarized with minimal detail or apparent purpose. This data could have been presented in table format with ease and clarity. The result is that the significant events, famous exploits, and heroic individuals are lost in this muddle of repetitive summaries. By book's end, it is difficult to separate the gallant from the routine. If it were not for signposts along the way from events familiar to me, it would have been even less differentiated. I've read of the Wahoo, Tang, Rasher, and Barb previously in excellent narratives, so their events stood out, as did the Tautog, Drum, and Cobia, subs I've visited. Otherwise, this narrative would have been even less discerning. An unusual style in military narrative employed here is another negative; the author chooses not to associate rank with individual's names. With the significance of rank in the military, this is detractive. I think the author would have served the story better with dramatic examples of incidents that characterize the heroic service performed by these crew and to feature leading events. Instead readers must try to discern this on their own.

Picking the book up for the 1st time can be intimidating...(must weigh 5 lbs). Well written, engaging, slips the technical details in an easy to swallow form for military history neophytes. Does not pull punches when he switches from fact to his opinion on war patrol performances. Keeps footnotes to minimum, almost like reading a novel rather then history.

Picking the book up for the 1st time can be intimidating...(must weigh 5 lbs). Well written, engaging, slips the technical details in an easy to swallow form for military history neophytes. Does not pull punches when he switches from fact to his opinion on war patrol performances. Keeps footnotes to minimum, almost like reading a novel rather then history.

When someone who "been there, done that, got the T-shirt" writes about the branch of the Navy in which he served, you ought to pay attention. When an historian with Blair's writing chops outdoes military historians like Samuel Eliot Morrison and Ned Beach in providing a nearly day-to-day saga of life and death in the Pacific Fleet's Submarine Service, you have a book to savor, that will function as a definitive work of its kind.

Blair does not hesitate to call a spade a spade. Although I don't feel he was nearly hard enough on Admiral Lockwood's intransigent refusal to believe what his skippers were telling him and his obvious belief that "wishing will make it so" with regard to the Mark VI magnetic exploder's ongoing problems (the exploder which Lockwood had helped design), Blair paints a rare picture of the senior leadership as men rather than the paladins most histories of the Pacific war make them out to be. He also takes some of the lustre off the portrait of Mush Morton as the Sub Skipper sans Peur painted by the men who actually served aboard Wahoo; men like Dick O'Kane, George Grider and Jack Griggs - an action I personally feel Mush does not rate. Mush Morton is the avatar, the independent-thinking hard-charger whose service set the standards that American submarine captains are expected to meet even today. Blair's service as an enlisted quartermaster in Guardfish was near the end of the war, after the Silent Service had gutted the Imperial Japanese Navy and the war was all but won by America. I'm not sure he understands what it was like to be a submariner earlier in the war; he certainly does not have a captain's point of view on the matter. That's one reason I don't give this book five stars.

Those complaints aside, Blair's research is impeccable and he draws very clear portraits of the boats, the campaigns, the skippers and senior officers, the problems that were encountered and how they were solved. If he sometimes fails to grasp the minds of the skippers who won the war for the United States, that's not a fatal flaw. The book ought to be required reading for all students of World War II in the Pacific. It goes far in explaining how a force comprising 2% of the U.S. Navy's strength destroyed 50% of the Japanese naval and merchant fleets and paved the way to victory by the United States.

When someone who "been there, done that, got the T-shirt" writes about the branch of the Navy in which he served, you ought to pay attention. When an historian with Blair's writing chops outdoes military historians like Samuel Eliot Morrison and Ned Beach in providing a nearly day-to-day saga of life and death in the Pacific Fleet's Submarine Service, you have a book to savor, that will function as a definitive work of its kind.

Blair does not hesitate to call a spade a spade. Although I don't feel he was nearly hard enough on Admiral Lockwood's intransigent refusal to believe what his skippers were telling him and his obvious belief that "wishing will make it so" with regard to the Mark VI magnetic exploder's ongoing problems (the exploder which Lockwood had helped design), Blair paints a rare picture of the senior leadership as men rather than the paladins most histories of the Pacific war make them out to be. He also takes some of the lustre off the portrait of Mush Morton as the Sub Skipper sans Peur painted by the men who actually served aboard Wahoo; men like Dick O'Kane, George Grider and Jack Griggs - an action I personally feel Mush does not rate. Mush Morton is the avatar, the independent-thinking hard-charger whose service set the standards that American submarine captains are expected to meet even today. Blair's service as an enlisted quartermaster in Guardfish was near the end of the war, after the Silent Service had gutted the Imperial Japanese Navy and the war was all but won by America. I'm not sure he understands what it was like to be a submariner earlier in the war; he certainly does not have a captain's point of view on the matter. That's one reason I don't give this book five stars.

Those complaints aside, Blair's research is impeccable and he draws very clear portraits of the boats, the campaigns, the skippers and senior officers, the problems that were encountered and how they were solved. If he sometimes fails to grasp the minds of the skippers who won the war for the United States, that's not a fatal flaw. The book ought to be required reading for all students of World War II in the Pacific. It goes far in explaining how a force comprising 2% of the U.S. Navy's strength destroyed 50% of the Japanese naval and merchant fleets and paved the way to victory by the United States.

Clay Blair's book is one of the greatest single books to keep in your library if you decide to devote your education to matters of the Pacific Theater in WWII. It is a hefty book, packed to the gills with technical details, and enough names to make you think that thousands of small towns and US cities gave their entire citizenry to sub warfare. And in some towns this was almost the case. Many people think that the sailors and other personnel who served on submarines were chosen because they were physically smaller than other fighting men. Not so, and for proof you could do no better than look at author Blair, who in his prime stood a good six feet three, longer than many submarine bunks. He is modest about his own service and prefers to take the larger view.

The drawbacks to the book is that it is heavy and even though it's a quality paperback, you have to use it with care. But the brave men who died on their various missions to defeat Japan live on in this book, and thus every time you consult this book, you light a little vigil for their souls.

One of the deadliest weapons used in naval warfare during the two World Wars was the submarine. In the Atlantic, Germany's U-boats did extensive damage to Allied shipping and twice threatened to starve Britain. In the Pacific, the Japanese submarine force, tied to a rigid doctrine of stalking enemy capital ships, scored a few outstanding kills of carriers and the USS Indianapolis but did little to harm Allied cargo ships.

In Clay Blair, Jr.'s Silent Victory: The U.S. Submarine War against Japan, reissued by the U.S. Naval Institute (the same publishing company to release a Tom Clancy novel) after several decades of being out of print, is a fascinating and detailed look at the officers, sailors and submarines of the Silent Service and their nearly four-year-long campaign against Japan's Imperial Navy and her Merchant Fleet.

Blair, himself a former submariner, pulls no punches and details the many difficulties faced by the American submarine force. Sub skippers who in peacetime were among the best often failed the test of battle. The S-class boats were too slow, had fewer torpedo tubes than the newer T and Gato-class fleet boats. Like Japan's submarine force, targeting priority was on capital fleet units (battleships, carriers and cruisers). Worst of all, the Mark XIV torpedo, the Navy's wonder weapon, proved to be less than wonderful until Admiral Charles Lockwood, Commander, Submarines, Pacific Fleet (ComSubPac) and other officers fixed several defects in the arming mechanism.

But once the Navy fixes most of its personnel- and torpedo-related problems and unleashes the Silent Service against Japanese merchant shipping, the efforts of admirals such as Lockwood, Ralph Christie, James Fife, Robert English (Lockwood's predecessor as ComSubPac before his death in a plane crash) and Richard Voge pay off as hundreds of Japanese freighters, troop transports and, more critically, tankers go to the bottom of the Pacific, crippling the island Empire's ability to sustain its war effort. In conjunction with the loss of island territories to the Allied soldiers and Marines advancing from several directions and the bombing campaign that got underway in 1944, the submarine force had placed a stranglehold on Japan's economy, doing to the Japanese what the Germans had failed to do to Britain.

Highly detailed and full of colorful characters and suspense-filled descriptions of undersea warfare, Silent Victory is a must-read for any buffs of naval warfare and World War II history. Interestingly, this book was cited as one of the sources of information for MicroProse's classic World War II submarine simulations "Silent Service" and "Silent Service II."

Silent Victory provides us with numerous valuable insights about the lives of submariners who helped subdue a belligerent maritime power. Interspersed with technical data and submarine tactics within the book are the travails and triumphs of the officers and men who fought the undersea war in the Pacific theatre.

Three things struck me while reading this book:

(1) Submarines are of relatively little value if their primary weapon, the torpedo, is ineffectual. Torpedoes, being self-contained and self-propelled weapons systems, must operate reliably under all conditions. Although boats that were then in use had been armed with naval guns, using such rifled weapons required submarines to operate on the surface, thereby largely negating the boats' stealth capability.

Silent Victory describes in detail how the various torpedo problems encountered by the fleet were eventually addressed. The book also paints a poignant portrait of the quandaries submariners faced due to the initial lack of torpedoes in the theatre, the highly disappointing performance of the torpedoes due to design defects, and the resulting negative impact on morale whenever a textbook approach on unsuspecting targets resulted in no sinkings.

(2) With the benefit of hindsight, Mr. Blair points out that the strategic interdiction of Japanese commerce could have dramatically abbreviated the war had the military brass thought of positioning submarines in the Luzon Strait, where numerous convoys and men-of-war transited. Copious accounts of submarines being sent to areas where warships were detected (usually through code-breaking) and then returning home empty-handed are found throughout the book; it is impossible to wade through these accounts without experiencing a sense of frustration.

(3) Clearly, the Imperial Japanese Navy was largely unprepared for the unrestricted submarine warfare imposed by the US on Japanese shipping during the war. Japanese convoys and merchant ships frequently sailed unescorted. Japanese destroyers, in their efforts to destroy US boats, were by and large hampered by ineffectual depth charges. Furthermore, Japanese submarines, which could have served as escorts to these hapless convoys, inflicted little damage on US ships.

From a strategic standpoint, submarines are 'cheap' - unlike a surface ship such as a cruiser, a submarine requires a much smaller crew to keep her in operation (even with a skeleton crew, her ability to inflict damage is relatively unimpaired); the intrinsic minimalism of submarine design meant that repairs can be promptly made while in port; and the asymmetry inherent in submarine warfare made submarines truly effective as offensive weapons during WWII.

As mentioned in other reviews, this is the most comprehensive book about submarine warfare during the Pacific War. I might add that Silent Victory is a good jump-off point for further reading about the subject. One should note, however, that Mr. Blair depended heavily on US sources for his material, although this does not diminish his efforts in any way.

The title says it all, indeed: there's no better book on this subject available, nor a more detailed one. Are you looking for details about what happened during which cruise? Do you want to share the worst scares of WWII US submariners? The greatest successes? Do you want to know who was behind the decisions taken? Who took care of the torpedo problem? Which kind of help intelligence provided? Which boat sank what? What happened to the book's "heroes" later, in real life?

Well, it's all in there, plus detailed tables, numbers, all you could possibly want. If you're interested in this subject, or at least in WWII, there will be no better book, don't hesitate to buy it!

My only criticism, though, is readability. Don't misunderstand me, it's well written, but there is too much of everyting, simply. Too many names of unknown one-time submarine commanders, too many names of less important staffers, and so on. And while the book's chronological order of events may be the most obvious choice, it further dilutes information about specific persons. You will frequently wonder "Captain XYZ, my God, who was that? I've read that name before, but in which section?" It's no easy-to-read childrens' book, that's for certain. Others than naval enthusiast might better be advised to look elsewhere...

Along with Theodore Roscoe's United States Submarine Operations in World War II, this is THE standard for books on U.S. submarine operations during WWII. It gives some background on areas such as Ultra as well as administration, in-service politics, (e.g., the arguments with the Navy's Bureau of Ordnance regarding torpedo failures), and leadership relating to submarines during the war.