Hot Straight And Normal

Hot Straight and Normal is a submarine bibliography with over 6000 references to books, videos, articles and Internet sources. It is designed to assist reseachers, historians, students, teachers, collectors and others with an interest in submarines, their history, construction and use in wars worldwide. It's unique format of listing the books by title, will assists the researcher and casual reader alike in finding or searching for familiar words and subjects. Fiction book titles are also included. Each listing contains title, author, date published, publisher, page count, ISBN number and other informative descriptions if known. This is the only submarine bibliography currently in publication. The article index includes all articles in all issues of Naval Submarine League’s Submarine Review and Naval Institute’s Naval Proceedings magazine. There are Web sites and other Internet sources listed and even information on obtaining more information through the Freedom of Information Act. Also included is how to find materials inside government archives. Collected and edited by a former U.S. submariner and member of U.S. Submarine Veterans Inc.

A sailor’s extraordinary experiences on an American submarine in the Pacific are candidly reported in this eyewitness account of war from a torpedoman’s perspective. Robert Hunt managed to survive twelve consecutive war patrols on the submarine USS Tambor. During the course of the war, Hunt was everywhere that mattered in the Pacific. He stood on the bow of the Tambor as it cruised into Pearl Harbor just days after the devastation of the Japanese air raid, peered through binoculars as his boat shadowed Japanese cruisers at the Battle of Midway, ferried guns and supplies to American guerilla fighters in the Philippines, fired torpedoes that sank vital Japanese shipping, and survived a near-fatal, seventeen-hour depth-charge attack. For “exceptional skill and proficiency at his battle station” Hunt received a commendation from Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz. This WWII torpedoman’s account of the war offers the rare perspective of an enlisted seaman that is not available in the more common officer accounts.To capture and recount the progress of the Pacific War through Hunt’s eyes coauthors Robert Schultz and James Shell examined the young submariner's war diary, as well as crew letters, photographs, and captains' reports, and they also conducted hours of interviews. Their vivid descriptions of the ways in which sailors dealt with the stress of war while at sea or on liberty show a side of the war that is rarely reported. The fact that Hunt’s submarine was the first of a new fleet of World War II boats and the namesake of a significant class adds further value to his remarkable story.

WELCOME ABOARD THE U.S.S. HARDER... She was credited with sinking twenty Japanese ships, eight of them destroyers. Her captain, Sam Dealey, devoted son and loving husband and father, was a product of peace. Sam Dealey, deadly torpedo marksman and destroyer killer, was a product of war. Aboard the Harder there was no time for gloating over, her victories. Dealey himself never gloated. As we have said, his attack manners were calm. He indulged in no shouting, no fanfare of destruction. After his torpedoes hit, he went about the business of bringing his ship into a position of safety as rapidly as possible. He did not linger to rejoice at the sight of an enemy going down. In his veins ran the milk of human kindness, in his heart was a feeling of humility and humanity that could not find pleasure in the destruction of a beautiful ship and a hundred odd human beings—deadly enemies though they were. Perhaps he remembered the worlds of Captain Philip of the old battleship Texas at the Battle of Santiago, who called to his cheering crew as their Spanish adversary sank: “Don’t cheer, boys; those poor devils are dying.” While Dealey never said so, in so many words, one could conclude that he hated the job of killing but knew it had to be done and did his best to carry out his duty. “HIT ‘EM HARDER!”...was the ship’s motto, and she most certainly did. On April 13 1944, open season was declared by our Submarines against the destroyers of the Imperial Japanese Navy, and Comdr. Sam Dealey was at the forefront of the attack. The hunters had become the hunted and Dealey’s “down the throat torpedo attacks helped to sink the Rising Sun. He showed great courage, too, when rescuing Australian coast watchers from Borneo’s shores, and again, with no reading left on the Fathometer and surf breaking twenty yards ahead, holding Harder against a reef and under fire of snipers to save an American pilot.—Print Ed.

From the sinking decks of a navy cruiser to the cockpit of a doomed B-25 bomber, Ronald J. Drez takes us to the front lines of World War II. Through Drez's gripping narrative style, we meet twelve men, all ordinary soldiers, and learn what the war was like through their eyes, experiencing their own 'twenty-five yards of war.' The men in these pages represent all branches of the military who were sent on impossible missions, where they witnessed triumphs and tragedies. As a result of Drez's ten years of research and over 1,400 interviews, Twenty-Five Yards of War is a tribute to all of the soldiers who fought in World War II--those who walked away with amazing stories to tell, and those who did not make it home.

Today only a select few know firsthand what it is like to feel their ship shudder from the blast of their own guns, watch enemy guns flash back, and see friendly ships erupt in flames. Russell Crenshaw is one of those few. His riveting account of the savage night battle for the Solomon Islands in early 1943 offers readers a unique insider’s perspective from the decks of one of the destroyers that bore the brunt of the struggle. Russell Crenshaw was a gunnery officer on the USS Maury. His vivid, balanced, and detailed narrative includes the Battle of Tassafarounga in November 1942 and Vella Gulf in August 1943, actions that earned his warship a Presidential Unit Citation and sixteen battle stars. Crenshaw also discusses the impact of radar and voice radio, the shortcomings of U.S. torpedoes and gunfire, and the devastating effectiveness of Japan’s super torpedo.