World War II submariners rarely experienced anything as exhilarating or horrifying as the surface gun attack. Between the ocean floor and the rolling whitecaps above, submarines patrolled a dark abyss in a fusion of silence, shadows, and steel, firing around eleven thousand torpedoes, sinking Japanese men-of-war and more than one thousand merchant ships. But the anonymity and simplicity of the stealthy torpedo attack hid the savagery of warfare—a stark difference from the brutality of the surface gun maneuver. As the submarine shot through the surface of the water, confined sailors scrambled through the hatches armed with large-caliber guns and met the enemy face-to-face. Surface and Destroy: The Submarine Gun War in the Pacific reveals the nature of submarine warfare in the Pacific Ocean during World War II and investigates the challenges of facing the enemy on the surface.
The surface battle amplified the realities of war, bringing submariners into close contact with survivors and potential prisoners of war. As Japan's larger ships disappeared from the Pacific theater, American submarines turned their attention to smaller craft such as patrol boats, schooners, sampans, and junks. Some officers refused to attack enemy vessels of questionable value, while others attacked reluctantly and tried to minimize casualties. Michael Sturma focuses on the submariners' reactions and attitudes toward their victims, exploring the sailors' personal standards of morality and their ability to wage total war. Surface and Destroy is a thorough analysis of the submariner experience and the effects of surface attacks on the war in the Pacific, offering a compelling study of the battles that became "intolerably personal."
Michael Sturma, chair of the history program at Murdoch University, is the author of several books on naval history, including The USS Flier: Death and Survival on a World War II Submarine. He lives in Perth, Australia.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
Part I Unrestricted Warfare
1 Pearl Harbor 11
2 Trouble with Trawlers 25
3 Wahoo 41
4 Atrocities 50
Part II Battle Stations Surfaced
5 Sampans and Schooners 63
6 Pickets and the Picayune 73
7 Straits of Malacca 89
8 Boarding Parties 101
9 Mopping Up 113
Part III Face-to-Face
10 Survivors 131
11 Japanese Prisoners 146
12 Submarines and Bombers 159
Conclusion 170
Appendix: Submarine Gun Attacks in the Pacific, 1942-1945 179
