Surface and Destroy
The Submarine Gun War in the Pacific
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Narrated by:
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James McSorley
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By:
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Michael Sturma
About this listen
World War II submariners rarely experienced anything as exhilarating or horrifying as the surface gun attack. 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."
The book is published by The University Press of Kentucky.
©2011 The University Press of Kentucky (P)2015 Redwood AudiobooksListeners also enjoyed...
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Story
On the first Sunday in December 1941, an armada of Japanese warplanes appeared suddenly over Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and devastated the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Six months later, in a sea fight north of the tiny atoll of Midway, four Japanese aircraft carriers were sent into the abyss. Pacific Crucible tells the epic tale of these first searing months of the Pacific war, when the U.S. Navy shook off the worst defeat in American military history and seized the strategic initiative.
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Astonishingly good.
- By Mike From Mesa on 09-01-12
By: Ian W. Toll
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Hell from the Heavens
- The Epic Story of the USS Laffey and World War II's Greatest Kamikaze Attack
- By: John Wukovits
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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On the morning of April 16, 1945, the crewmen of the USS Laffey saw what seemed to be the entire Japanese air force assembled directly above. They were about to become the targets of the largest single-ship kamikaze attack of World War II.
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Compelling story worth the effort
- By David Traill on 08-10-16
By: John Wukovits
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Neptune's Inferno
- The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal
- By: James D. Hornfischer
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 18 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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With The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors and Ship of Ghosts, James D. Hornfischer created essential and enduring narratives about America’s World War II Navy, works of unique immediacy distinguished by rich portraits of ordinary men in extremis and exclusive new information. Now he does the same for the deadliest, most pivotal naval campaign of the Pacific war: Guadalcanal. Neptune’s Inferno is at once the most epic and the most intimate account ever written of the contest for control of the seaways of the Solomon Islands.
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The WWII Pacific Theater Explodes In My Lazy Chair
- By Rum Runner on 03-01-11
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Storm over Leyte
- The Philippine Invasion and the Destruction of the Japanese Navy
- By: John Prados
- Narrated by: Ricard Ferrone
- Length: 16 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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As Allied ships prepared for the invasion of the Philippine island of Leyte, every available warship, submarine, and airplane was placed on alert while Japanese admiral Kurita Takeo stalked Admiral William F. Halsey's unwitting American armada. It was the beginning of the epic Battle of Leyte Gulf - the greatest naval battle in history.
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Startling revelations to a 72 year battle!
- By Chiefkent on 07-31-16
By: John Prados
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Sink ‘Em All
- Submarine Warfare in the Pacific
- By: Charles A. Lockwood
- Narrated by: Eric Martin
- Length: 16 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Sink 'Em All was originally published in 1951 by Vice Admiral Charles A. Lockwood, the US Navy commander of the Pacific submarine fleet during World War II. Lockwood, in his leadership role, knew the skippers and crews of the submarines and retells their wartime successes and tragedies with an intimacy and realism often missing in second-hand accounts.
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Best of the best
- By Robert on 08-29-18
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The Burning Shore
- How Hitler's U-Boats Brought World War II to America
- By: Ed Offley
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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On June 15, 1942, as thousands of vacationers lounged in the sun on Virginia Beach, a massive fireball erupted from a convoy of oil tankers steaming into Chesapeake Bay. By the next day, three ships lay at the bottom of the channel, victims of Lieutenant-Commander Horst Degen and his crew on the German submarine U-701. In The Burning Shore, acclaimed military reporter Ed Offley presents a thrilling account of Degen's rampage along the American coast and of US Lieutenant Harry J. Kane's quest to bring him down.
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Ugh, Perhaps a Second Listen is Required?
- By Matthew on 09-05-15
By: Ed Offley
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Castles of Steel
- Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea
- By: Robert K. Massie
- Narrated by: Richard Matthews
- Length: 40 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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The predominant image of this first world war is of mud and trenches, barbed wire, machine guns, poison gas, and slaughter. A generation of European manhood was massacred, and a wound was inflicted on European civilization that required the remainder of the twentieth century to heal.
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Stick With It!
- By Matt on 09-22-12
By: Robert K. Massie
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The War Below
- The Story of Three Submarines That Battled Japan
- By: James Scott
- Narrated by: Donald Corren
- Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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The War Below is a dramatic account of extraordinary heroism, ingenuity, and perseverance—and the vital role American submarines played in winning the Pacific War. Focusing on the unique stories of the submarines Silversides, Drum, and Tang—and the men who skippered and crewed them—James Scott takes readers beneath the waves to experience the thrill of a direct hit on a merchant ship and the terror of depth charge attacks.
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Unique. Engaging. Worth your credit.
- By Ryan on 06-21-13
By: James Scott
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Turning the Tide
- How a Small Band of Allied Sailors Defeated the U-Boats and Won the Battle of the Atlantic
- By: Ed Offley
- Narrated by: James Adams
- Length: 17 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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The U.S. experienced its most harrowing military disaster of World War II not in 1941 at Pearl Harbor, but rather in the period from 1942 to 1943, in the frigid North Atlantic and American coastal waters from Newfoundland to the Caribbean. Nearly seven decades after the event, the Battle of the Atlantic still stands as the longest-running and most lethal clash of arms in naval history.
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Just The Facts
- By PismoPat on 05-15-11
By: Ed Offley
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Torpedo Run
- The Story of WWII Submarine Hero Eugene B. Fluckey
- By: Don Keith
- Narrated by: Vincent Caruso
- Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Over the course of five combat patrols during the Pacific War, Commander Fluckey reinvented submarine warfare, pioneering audacious strategies to hunt and sink Japanese warships and merchant vessels. At the helm of the USS Barb, he directed his boat to attack warship convoys - never mind the lop-sided odds - and to slip into heavily defended enemy harbors to launch torpedoes at unsuspecting targets.
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Fluckey was a legend.
- By Sarah H. on 10-28-24
By: Don Keith
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The Bravest Man
- The Story of Richard O'Kane & U.S. Submariners in the Pacific War
- By: William Tuohy
- Narrated by: E.H. Jones
- Length: 15 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist William Tuohy follows Richard O'Kane, America's undersea ace of aces, and a few fearless submariners, during the U.S. submarine war in the Pacific. This grueling battle saw 10 million tons of Japanese shipping sunk by U.S. submarines, but the cost to the U.S. Navy was one in five of its boats, the highest casualty rate of the U.S. armed services.
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Great details of WWII Submarine Patrols
- By James B. Cookinham on 02-13-05
By: William Tuohy
What listeners say about Surface and Destroy
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Andrew Scott McClanahan
- 03-28-16
Choppier than San Francisco Bay
Is there anything you would change about this book?
The editing. Random stories is not a book. Literally every paragraph is another random story. There is no cohesion or segue, or even a common theme.
What could Michael Sturma have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?
Stick with individual submarine stories. Pick a boat, research it, then write the book. "Hellcats" is a great example.
What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?
The writing was so choppy, the narrator never could speak a story. So, it sounds like the weather service radio broadcast.
Was Surface and Destroy worth the listening time?
No
Any additional comments?
Read the first hand accounts, not the historians. Start with "Thunder Below." Then research the Medal of Honor winners and buy their books (not audio books). Another good book is "The Bravest Man."
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Overall
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- Bradley J Anderson
- 06-20-15
Some interesting stories, but poorly arranged
This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?
Most any WWII submarine entusiast
What do you think your next listen will be?
Any World War II naval action history (non-fiction)
Have you listened to any of James McSorley’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
n/a
Any additional comments?
There were some interesting stories, but the book was poorly laid out and ended up being a random set of stories, along with some revisionist and apologetic history of attacks on merchant vessels
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