The Angry White Man

On Feb 25, 5:19 pm, Jeff Dougherty
wrote:

My WW2 reading was buttressed by my Father's experience (DEs and Subs
in the Pacific).

Hats off to him, then. You don't hear nearly enough about what a
crucial difference the "Silent Service" made during the war years.
Have you read Blair's _Silent Victory_? It's probably the best single
history of U.S. sub operations in the Pacific during WWII, and if you
haven't it's well worth the read. Just got reprinted a few years
back, so you can even get a copy without promising someone your
firstborn son.

-JTD

No, though I should.

I don't even know which ships he served on -- he had the names
tattooed on his forearms (before everybody had tattoos). He died
before the "greatest generation" started talking.

As one of them said, "Now they won't shut up!"

:-)

Though if you're familar with Band of brothers, you know about Dick
Winters.

he came and spoke to an OCS Class I taught -- talk about a humble guy.
One of the candidates asked him to recount his single-handed capture
of a German Battalion...

"Well, they were scared and tired too..."

Different age, then.


Dan

On Feb 25, 5:27 pm, " wrote:
On Feb 25, 5:19 pm, Jeff Dougherty
wrote:

My WW2 reading was buttressed by my Father's experience (DEs and Subs
in the Pacific).

Hats off to him, then. You don't hear nearly enough about what a
crucial difference the "Silent Service" made during the war years.
Have you read Blair's _Silent Victory_? It's probably the best single
history of U.S. sub operations in the Pacific during WWII, and if you
haven't it's well worth the read. Just got reprinted a few years
back, so you can even get a copy without promising someone your
firstborn son.

-JTD

No, though I should.

I don't even know which ships he served on -- he had the names
tattooed on his forearms (before everybody had tattoos). He died
before the "greatest generation" started talking.

It's long, but well worth the time spent. Some newer books do better
at specific aspects of the sub war, but thirty years on Blair's is
still the best single overview. One of the *good* aspects about the
resurgence of interest in the "Greatest Generation" is that they
finally reprinted the blessed thing- when my Dad and I started looking
at sub history you could spend months on the used book trade, and pay
$60 for the total set. Now it's $30 on Amazon...

Though if you're familar with Band of brothers, you know about Dick
Winters.

he came and spoke to an OCS Class I taught -- talk about a humble guy.
One of the candidates asked him to recount his single-handed capture
of a German Battalion...

"Well, they were scared and tired too..."

Different age, then.

Have to look that story up...

-JTD

Dan