Escape from the Deep: A Legendary Submarine and Her Courageous Crew | 
| Author: Alex Kershaw
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Category: Book
List Price: $26.00
Buy New: $16.66
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Avg. Customer Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 1867
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.1 x 1.2
ISBN: 0306815192
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.5451
EAN: 9780306815195
ASIN: 0306815192
Publication Date: April 28, 2008 (New: Last 30 Days)
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Product Description
By October, 1944, the U.S. Navy submarine Tang was legendary-she had sunk more enemy ships, rescued more downed airmen, and pulled off more daring surface attacks than any other Allied submarine in the Pacific. And then, on her fifth patrol, tragedy struck-the Tang was hit by one of her own faulty torpedoes. The survivors of the explosion struggled to stay alive in their submerged “iron coffin” one hundred-eighty feet beneath the surface. While the Japanese dropped deadly depth charges, just nine of the original eighty-man crew survived a harrowing ascent through the escape hatch. But a far greater ordeal was coming. After being picked up by a Japanese patrol vessel, they were sent to a secret Japanese interrogation camp known as the “Torture Farm.” They were close to death when finally liberated in August, 1945, but they had revealed nothing to the Japanese-not even the greatest secret of World War II.
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| Customer Reviews:
Truth is always better than fiction May 13, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Alex Kershaw's tale of the tragic end of the USS Tang and her crew is a most read for all generations.
Kershaw captures feelings and terror of men hunting men in an iron tube underwater.
He uses first person interviews along with other sources to weave a compelling story.
Kershaw fills in the background of supporting people and events without going "off in the weeds."
The book is a compelling read that I had to do in one sitting.
Harrowing Story of U.S.S. Tang's Last Cruise! May 9, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
The U.S.S. Tang and its skipper, Dick O'Kane, were a legend in their time. A protege of the equally renowned Mush Morton, O'Kane blazed a trail at the helm of SS-306, sinking some 93,000 tons of Japanese shipping in five cruises and earning Tang two Presidential Unit Citations. Himself awarded the Medal of Honor, O'Kane was one of only nine survivors when Tang was accidentally destroyed by its own malfunctioning torpedo. Tang's exciting story is told in fine fashion in this latest book by BEDFORD BOYS' author Alex Kershaw.
SS-306 and its skipper have been the subject of several previous books, including one by O'Kane himself. So, when I picked up ESCAPE FROM THE DEEP, my initial thought was "What, another book on the Tang?" However, after sampling the first few pages, I was hooked yet again. Kershaw is a fine writer and this book is one great read.
About two-thirds of the book is given over to Tang's sinking and the subsequent ordeal of the surviving crew. Kershaw's recounting of the desperate efforts to survive by the Tang crewmen already in the water and others trapped onboard the sunken sub are downright harrowing. Though O'Kane and eight others were pulled from the water by the Japanese, their subsequent imprisonment was equally horrendous.
ESCAPE FROM THE DEEP will get to you. Reading of the final moments in the forward torpedo room as some men escape the doomed submarine while others lay back to await death will touch your heart. What I found especially poignant was a reminsicence from O'Kane's daughter. In his final years O'Kane suffered from Alzheimer's. On walks along the beach with his daughter, the sound of foghorns would suddenly transform the man cited as "the bravest of the brave." He would try and pull his daughter toward the water, calling out "We have to go...We have to go save them."
A wonderful tribute to some of America's finest, ESCAPE FROM THE DEEP gets my highest recommendation.
Reads like a Movie April 18, 2008
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
"Reads like a movie"
Alex Kershaw's earlier books are all page turners, but Escape from the Deep takes Kershaw's considerable narrative skills to a new level. This gripping true account of the sinking of the WWII submarine Tang and the subsequent desperate--and mostly futile--efforts of the trapped crew to escape death at 180 feet underwater is so intense and involving that a reader cannot help but be a part of that crew. Description of submarine life and the emotional and psychological experiences of the crew members during and after the sinking is particularly involving, and Kershaw's signature short background vignettes of seamen and officers serves his purpose especially well in this book, making survival or death particularly poignant. Irony abounds, and Kershaw nails it without hammering it to death. Personal ethics, survival, mental toughness, fate, luck--they're all out there, and Kershaw's story brings them home in spades.
Escape from the Deep is another Kershaw tribute to a group of true American heroes, written to appeal not only to WWII aficionados but also to a generation of readers too young to remember the sacrifices of their forbears.
It's also a great read that feels like a movie.
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