Re: Good Books & the pipe

Hardcrackers wrote:
Briarroot wrote: 

Currently reading "Gallant Lady" by Ken Henry and Don Keith.

Next up will be "In the Course of Duty" by (the same) Don Keith.

These books relate the stories of a pair of US submarines in WW2: the
USS Archerfish, which sunk the largest ship of the war, the Japanese
super-carrier Shinano; and the USS Batfish which managed to sink 3
Japanese submarines in a single patrol.



Wow Tim! When you mentioned the USS Batfish I had to check and Yep it's
the same sub that's dry docked at the Muskogee Oklahoma War Memorial
Park. That's about a two hour drive from here. I haven't had a chance
to visit it or the museum yet. I sometimes volunteer for living history
at nearby Fort Gibson as one of my friends Mike Bradley who owns and
runs the uniform shop there and is one of the historical interpreters
at the park calls it Fort Sawdust because of the old WPA built log
stockade there. One of my comrades-at-arms who also reenacts WW2 has
done living history there with some of the guys in that unit. Here's a
few of the many websites about the Batfish.
http://www.ussbatfish.com/
http://www.hnsa.org/ships/batfish.htm
http://www.batfish.org/index.html
http://www.ok-history.mus.ok.us/enc/batfish.htm
http://www.deepdomain.net/

Fascinating! Thanks for the links, Ron. It's heartening to realize that some of these elderly ladies o' war are still around for our inspection and education. And I loved the story of how she made it upriver to her new home! ;-)


I noticed that a new program they started there where you can arrange
to spend a night aboard the Batfish to get a taste of what it was like
to be a part of the silent service.
That would be a cool thing to do.


Yes, that would be a lot of fun!

Another WW2 submarine, the USS Cod (SS-124), is docked at the port of Cleveland, and I have been aboard several times for tours. http://www.usscod.org/

I'm fairly skinny and not too tall, only 125 pounds on a 5' 10" frame, but I had to constantly duck, bend, bob and weave to make my way through the passages of the Cod. WW2 submariners must have had lots of bruised shins & shoulders, not to mention bumped heads! ;-)

I find the history of US submarines in World War 2 to be extremely interesting, mostly because they routinely operated alone (unlike surface ships which usually sailed to war as part of a fleet), thousands of miles from their bases, surrounded by hostile forces, singlehandedly taking on a formidable foe. Their success was largely the result of the remarkable courage and fortitude of their captains, and the willingness of their crews to endure the terrible hardships of submarine combat.

Regards,

Tim Parker  ...  VA#1 in a no-name billiard
.

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