HTY/POL 301 Career Prep and HTY 339: Historiographical Essays and HTY 499/POL 499 Senior Seminar: Submarines in the WWII Pacific

In the 1930s, the Portsmouth Navy Yard in New Hampshire built less than two submarines a year, yet in 1944 it completed an astonishing 32 submarines, and over the course of the war produced 37 per cent of all U.S. submarines.

The fate of the USS Flier is one of the most heroic stories of the Second World War. On August 13, 1944, the submarine struck a mine and sank to the bottom of the Sulu Sea in less than one minute, leaving only fourteen of its eighty-six crewmen alive. After enduring eighteen hours in the water, the eight remaining survivors swam to a remote island controlled by the Japanese. Deep in enemy territory and without food or drinking water, the crewmen soon realized that their struggle for survival had just begun. Noted historian Michael Sturma's vivid recounting of the harrowing story of the USS Flier has all the elements of a classic World War II survival tale: sudden disaster, physical deprivation, a ruthless enemy, friendly guerrillas, and a dramatic escape from behind enemy lines. The eight sailors who survived the disaster became the first Americans of the Pacific conflict to escape from a sunken submarine and return safely to the United States. Though some of the Flier's mysteries remain with the submarine beneath the sea, this account sheds light on the nature of underwater warfare and naval protocol and demonstrates the high degree of cooperation that existed among submariners, coast watchers, and guerrillas in the Philippines. Sturma fills a historical gap by detailing this important episode of the Second World War.

Introduction; 1. The Development of the Submarine; 2. Australia's Early Submarines; 3. World War II Begins; World War II Important Dates; 4. Japan Enters the War; 5. Australia Prepares for Invasion; The Port of Fremantle; 6. The US Submarines come to Fremantle; The Submarines at Albany; 7. 1942: Submarines on the Offensive; Premises Used by the United States Navy; 8. 1943: The Fremantle Submarines at War; The Submarine Repair Unit at North Wharf; 9. Meanwhile, on the Home Front; 10. A Submariner's Life; Wartime Marriages; 11. Early 1944: The Allies Fight Back; United States Navy Accomodation.
12. Late 1944: British Submarines ArriveTrenchant sinks Ashigara; 13. Clandestine Operations; The British Miniature Submarines; 14. The War Comes to an End; 15. Remembering the Submarine Base; 16. Submarines Return to Western Australia; Conclusion; Appendix; Endnotes; Sources and Suggested Reading; Index -- General; Index -- Submarines, Ships and other Vessels.

From unpromising beginnings in March 1942, the Allied submarine base at Fremantle on the west coast of Australia became a vital part of the Allied offensive against Japan. Pushed back from the Philippines and the Netherlands' East Indies, American submariners, accompanied by a small group of Dutch forces, retreated to Fremantle as a last resort. The location was chosen for its good harbor and the fact that it was outside the range of land-based Japanese aircraft. Unfortunately the base was also far from their patrol areas and supply lines, and it was difficult to reinforce should the enemy attack. Thanks largely to a welcoming civilian population, morale quickly improved. The hospitality and sense of belonging fostered by Western Australians became legendary among Allied submariners and remains central to their wartime memories. Perhaps as a result of such a positive experience, the Allied forces became much more successful in combat. Intertwining social and military history, Fremantle's Submarines relates how courage, cooperation, and community made Fremantle arguably the most successful military outpost of World War II from the standpoint of troop morale.

Part 1. Operations. Profile of a fleet -- Cruisers -- Submarines -- Destroyers -- Aircraft -- Gunboats -- Minecraft -- Torpedo boats -- Part 2. Battle reports. The doomed destroyer -- USS Peary -- The old lady -- USS Canopus -- The S-38 in Lingayen Gulf -- Disaster at Jolo -- The little giant-killer -- USS Heron -- A first for the navy -- The Battle of Balikpapan -- The miraculous survival of Commander Goggins -- Delayed report of a "routine patrol" -- Through hell and high water -- The heavy cruiser USS Houston -- The cruel fate of the destroyer USS Pope -- Abandon ship -- Loss of the USS Perch -- The expendable ship USS Isabel -- A refusal to surrender -- Epilogue -- U.S. Asiatic fleet, December 1941.

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."

For decades, the legions of World War II buffs interested in Allied and Axis naval history were limited to expensive, multi-volume works written for specialists. No longer will this be the case. Fleets of World War II, packed with data and illustrated throughout, is not a simple list of ships but a fascinating and often pungent appraisal of those ships and the fleets they served. Japan built the world's largest battleships with guns bigger than anything in the Allied arsenal-but was bigger in fact better? The British engaged in a wartime flurry of ship production-but did they build the ships they needed for victory? Fleets of World War II dispels the clutter, providing a straightforward appraisal that is nothing short of revelatory.A complete resource, the book includes every nation that took part in the war, along with the key neutrals. Each fleet is surveyed in totality, from the mighty battleships to the humble motor launches. The systematic, plain-English presentation makes for easy reference: nation by nation, ship by ship, with a multitude of details on design, strategy, and combat available nowhere else.

This is an annotated collection of rare Japanese documents translated into English, which provides an invaluable resource for historians and students of World War II. The documents include diary extracts and candid, short monographs written by high-ranking Japanese officers immediately after the war.