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A Tale of Two Subs: An Untold Story of World War II, Two Sister Ships, and Extraordinary Heroism | 
| Author: Jonathan J. Mccullough
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Category: Book
List Price: $26.99
Buy New: $14.02
You Save: $12.97 (48%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 15520
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6 x 1.1
ISBN: 044617839X
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.54510973
EAN: 9780446178396
ASIN: 044617839X
Publication Date: May 13, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new item. Over 3.5 million customers served. Order now. Selling online since 1995. Few left in stock - order soon. Code: H20080716212310T
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Product Description
On November 19, 1943, the submarine USS Sculpin, under attack by the Japanese, slid below the waves for the last time in what would become one of the most remarkable stories in U.S. Naval history. Not only did several crewmembers survive the sinking - an extremely rare event in World War II submarine warfare - but several were aboard a Japanese aircraft carrier enroute to a POW camp when it was in turn torpedoed and sunk by the Sculpin's sister ship, the USS Sailfish.
At the end of World War II, several unlikely survivors would tell a tale of endurance against these amazing reversals of fortune. For one officer in particular, who knew that being captured could have meant losing the war for the allies, his struggle was not in surviving, but in sealing his own fate in a heartbreaking act of heroism which culminated in the nation's highest tribute, the Medal of Honor.
Sculpin Lt. Commander John Phillip Cromwell was one of the few who knew that American Naval Intelligence had succeeded in cracking Japan's top-secret codes. Cromwell also knew that if the Japanese confirmed this by torturing him, it would force Naval Intelligence to change their encryption, which would potentially change the course of the war. This is Cromwell's story as well.
The incredible interconnection of the Sculpin and the Sailfish has been thoroughly researched by Jonathan McCullough. Through access to the few living survivors, scores of oral histories, never-before translated Japanese war documents, and interviews with Navy veterans, McCullough delivers a gripping and, intimate account for the reader.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 A true tale of history and bravery July 17, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
A must read to appreciate what this brave service did to lead the 'win' in the pacific theatre. Without the submarine service, no one could tell you of a happy outcome...
World War Two Tale Up From The Deep July 2, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Jonathan McCullough has put together a very ambitious, exciting and informative book. He writes with the authority of an old salt--I'm sure due to exhaustive research. How did we win the war with those lousy torpedoes? I felt the claustrophobia of being in a sub under attack. Who knew that it could be so hot in a submarine. One would think that being submerged in water would keep a sub cool. After reading about the Japanese treatment of our sailors I feel a little guilty owning a Nissan. McCullough's info on breaking and then protecting the secret of having broken the Jap code is fascinating. The book holds the ingredients of a great underdog / hero story. What tragedy, the sinking of a vessel carrying your own men. Thank god for men like Captain John Cromwell. A compelling read.
 4 Periscopes For This Ambitious Book July 2, 2008
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
I give this book 4 periscopes. It is a fearless account about life aboard submarines during WWII. As such, it adds an important and very realistic dimension to what we know about this form of battle. This is a suspensful book; one which deals with life aboard submarines and also with the interface of battle and bureaucracy. if you are a WWII buff, then this should be required reading.
 Flawed but ok June 23, 2008
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
A Tale of Two Subs is a good attempt at historical writing however Mr. McCullough missed the mark on his title. In the title he promises to tie the story of the U.S.S. Sculpin and U.S.S. Sailfish (formerly U.S.S. Squalus). The two submarines are tied by fate and misfortune. In 1939 U.S.S. Squalus sank in a diving test in which 26 men lost their lives but the ship was salvaged and renamed as U.S.S Sailfish. In 1943 the U.S.S. Sculpin is sunk by a Japanese destroyer rescuing 42 men from the Sculpin. Some of the Sculpin crewmembers decided to stay onboard for a variety of reasons. The most important person deciding to stay onboard was Captain John Cromwell. This man and and his friendship with the Navy' top cryptographic officer in the Pacific is the heart of McCullough's book not the submarines as advertised in his title.
It was difficult to understand the topic of the second chapter in relation to the title and supposed focus of the book about submarines since the chapter focused on the code breaking effort before and during the war based on one man. This would be acceptable if the main focus of the book was not on the submarines but rather Jasper Holmes the commanding officer of the code breaking effort. McCullough kept on coming back to Holmes rather than focusing as the title promises two sister ships. The story is compelling but the submarine aspect of the book is secondary rather than primary as the title suggests. McCullough kept switching from the Sculpin to Holmes and often included the Sailfish as an after thought and in reality McCullough only discusses the Sailfish's history briefly and only when the Sailfish was something relevant to Holmes and the Sculpin.
McCullough's writing style made me reminding myself I wasn't grading this book or even editing it. McCullough's short biography states he has experience in editing books which this book needed. McCullough switches from first person to third person often and often uses vernacular in trying to describe facts. For example "We do not know where Lieutenant Commander Connaway or Lieutenant Defrees were at this point, only they did not die in the conning tower. Lieutenant George Brown succeeded to command" (page 243 A Tale of Two Subs). This passage is an example of McCullough not being able to maintain which person he is actually using. In future History classes I will use the passage as an example of how not to write History. On page 121 McCullough writes " The disagreements ignited in what could be called a 1940's flame war..." McCullough is depending that his reader will know what a flame war is when some of his readers might not. It was quite clear that McCullough started out interested in the submarines but found a more compelling story which is interesting.
The book is a good read if the reader isn't reading for any insights into the submarine war in the Pacific or expecting a book about two submarines with compelling stories. McCullough's book held the promise of telling some to be akin to Carl LaVo's Back From The Deep which has covered but never delivered to that promise. It is an interesting book about code breaking which is fascinating but not relating to the title. This book would not be disappointing if it were actually titled with something to do with McCullough's focus.
Dolphins for McCullough June 21, 2008
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
It's argumentative, but let's do it anyway.
There were plenty of heroes to go around in the western Pacific theater of operations during World War II. The Army grunts, the Marine Corps gyrenes, the Navy and Army Air Corps fliers and the ones who supported them afloat and ashore come to mind easily.
But there was another class of hero who served silently against the might of the Japanese imperial forces on missions made all the more difficult by know-nothing Navy bureaucrats in Washington and a loud-mouth, racist politician from Kentucky.
The biggest heroes in the Pacific may have been the volunteers who wore distinctive and coveted pins on their uniforms. The pin shows two dolphins facing inward toward a submarine and testifies to the wearer as a qualified submariner. They were the sailors who slipped quietly out of port, submerged, and went hunting for Japanese ships. They were like no other combatants. Their casualties were the highest of any service during the war.
In his first published book, author Jonathan McCullough delivers a graphic account of what it was like aboard American u-boats in the early forties. He writes, "...each dive caused severe pressure changes several times daily, the effect caused searing, exquisitely excruciating headaches that reduced grown men to bedridden wrecks." When subs returned from a tropics patrol of several weeks' duration the crew "...were reduced to skin and bones [because] heat from the engines made the interiors of the boats feel like a blast furnace."
Sadly, the natural perils of life underwater and attacks from surface ships above were only part of the problem. The "staffies" in Washington refused to believe that Combat Information Center at Pearl Harbor, commanded by Joseph J. Rochefort, had really cracked the Japanese J-25 code. The office of the Chief of Naval Operations fired one bureaucratic torpedo after another at Rochefort, eventually sending him back to the mainland to skipper a dry dock.
The Navy's Bureau of Ordinance was as bad. Appallingly, BuOrd's designers, engineers, and apologists refused to believe the submariners who came back to port feeling betrayed and impotent because their torpedoes exploded after running only a hundred yards, or hit the sides of enemy ships and bounced off. Washington had to be right, the whole fleet of u-boat sailors that had gone in harm's way had to be wrong.
One wishes McCullough had written more about the "May Affair" involving Democratic Congressman Andrew Jackson May of Kentucky, Chairman of the House Committee on Military Affairs. In May's eyes the enemies were "racially inferior, stupid yellow 'Jap' bastards." During a junket to the Pacific in 1943 May learned in secret briefings that many of the American submarines were escaping from Japanese destroyers and other sub-killers because their depth charges were set to explode at 150 feet below the surface.
May promptly held a press conference to tell reporters what he had learned about Japanese whom he considered to be idiots. The story was published around the world including Hawaii where Japanese informants probably picked it up and transmitted it to Tokyo. The Imperial Navy promptly reset the depth charges to go off at 250 feet. The U.S. Navy estimated May's mouth cost 800 lives aboard 10 submarines depth charged to the bottom of the Pacific.
The two subs of the title were sister ships, U.S.S. Sculpin and U.S.S. Sailfish, formerly the Squalus which had sunk off the New England coast in 1939 and been raised to the surface, refitted, and renamed. They were both in the Philippines on December 8, 1941 (December 7 in Hawaii, east of the international date line.) McCullough skilfully and even lovingly traces the boats' and crews' wartime patrols until fate brought these sibling vessels together again, one accidentally killing many of the other's sailors.
This is nit-picking, but it would have been nice if the author had written about decks and overheads instead of floors and ceilings. Never mind, it's not important.
Each spring at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific submariners gather for the Tolling of the Bell ceremony. Present and former submariners remember those ships and shipmates who are on eternal patrol. It's estimated that a thousand WW II veterans die each day now, and in May, 2008 when Hachette Press published A Tale of Two Subs just one member of the U.S.S. Sculpin's survivors was still alive.
Maybe next year after the Tolling of the Bell, the admiral who holds the title of ComSubPac will order his driver to stop at the ship's store so he can buy a present and send it to the writer. With A Tale of Two Subs, Jonathan McCullough has earned his dolphins.
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