Silent Victory: The U.S. Submarine War Against Japan

To get to the truth, Clay Blair interviewed scores of skippers, staff officers, and code breakers, and combed thousands of documents and personal papers. In addition, he thoroughly researched the development of the submarine and torpedo from pre-war to post-war times. As a result, he takes the reader into the submarine war at all levels--the highest strategy sessions in Washington, the terrifying moments in subs at the bottom of the ocean waiting out exploding depth charges, the zany efforts of a crew coaxing a chicken to lay an egg. He also exposes the reader to the jealous infighting of admirals vying for power and the problems between cautious older skippers and daring young commanders. Supplementing the text are nearly forty maps showing submarine activity in the context of every important naval engagement in the Pacific, more than thirty pages of photographs, multiple appendixes (including a calendar of submarine war patrols), and an index of over 2,000 entries. This is a work of great scholarship and scope that makes a timeless contribution to the history of World War II.

In Clay Blair, Jr.'s Silent Victory: The U.S. Submarine War against Japan, reissued by the U.S. Naval Institute (the same publishing company to release a Tom Clancy novel) after several decades of being out of print, is a fascinating and detailed look at the officers, sailors and submarines of the Silent Service and their nearly four-year-long campaign against Japan's Imperial Navy and her Merchant Fleet.

Blair, himself a former submariner, pulls no punches and details the many difficulties faced by the American submarine force. Sub skippers who in peacetime were among the best often failed the test of battle. The S-class boats were too slow, had fewer torpedo tubes than the newer T and Gato-class fleet boats. Like Japan's submarine force, targeting priority was on capital fleet units (battleships, carriers and cruisers). Worst of all, the Mark XIV torpedo, the Navy's wonder weapon, proved to be less than wonderful until Admiral Charles Lockwood, Commander, Submarines, Pacific Fleet (ComSubPac) and other officers fixed several defects in the arming mechanism.

But once the Navy fixes most of its personnel- and torpedo-related problems and unleashes the Silent Service against Japanese merchant shipping, the efforts of admirals such as Lockwood, Ralph Christie, James Fife, Robert English (Lockwood's predecessor as ComSubPac before his death in a plane crash) and Richard Voge pay off as hundreds of Japanese freighters, troop transports and, more critically, tankers go to the bottom of the Pacific, crippling the island Empire's ability to sustain its war effort. In conjunction with the loss of island territories to the Allied soldiers and Marines advancing from several directions and the bombing campaign that got underway in 1944, the submarine force had placed a stranglehold on Japan's economy, doing to the Japanese what the Germans had failed to do to Britain.

Highly detailed and full of colorful characters and suspense-filled descriptions of undersea warfare, Silent Victory is a must-read for any buffs of naval warfare and World War II history. Interestingly, this book was cited as one of the sources of information for MicroProse's classic World War II submarine simulations "Silent Service" and "Silent Service II."


Clay Blair's Moving Targets   August 5, 2004
Kevin Killian (San Francisco, CA United States)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful

Clay Blair's book is one of the greatest single books to keep in your library if you decide to devote your education to matters of the Pacific Theater in WWII. It is a hefty book, packed to the gills with technical details, and enough names to make you think that thousands of small towns and US cities gave their entire citizenry to sub warfare. And in some towns this was almost the case. Many people think that the sailors and other personnel who served on submarines were chosen because they were physically smaller than other fighting men. Not so, and for proof you could do no better than look at author Blair, who in his prime stood a good six feet three, longer than many submarine bunks. He is modest about his own service and prefers to take the larger view.

The drawbacks to the book is that it is heavy and even though it's a quality paperback, you have to use it with care. But the brave men who died on their various missions to defeat Japan live on in this book, and thus every time you consult this book, you light a little vigil for their souls.



Best WWII History Back in Print   August 30, 2001
D. Craven (Chicago, IL USA)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful

It is a distinct pleasure to see that Silent Victory is back in print. My old hard cover edition is now much the worse for wear, it was great to be able to get a new copy of an old friend. It is too bad that Clair Blair did not get a chance to revise and update it before his death. The book, however, still contains a great deal of information and clearly calls to our attention the superb work of the Silent Service during the Second World War and the great sacrifices that were made to keep the world safe. The book provides great detail about the successful patrols, while not shying away from the hard issues, such as the Torpedo Failures due to improper testing and development, the mismanagement of the submarine fleet early in the war, the loss of life due to the failure to pull old and outdated boats out of combat in a timely fashion, and the individuals who cracked under the stress of combat or highly inflated their sinkings.
And in light of other books detailing Submarine operations since WWII (Silent War - The Cold War Under the Sea and Blind Man's Bluff) it is clear that these brave undersea warriors are still on the first line of defense.
In sum a great book and a must have for every student of history... and we all should be students of History for those who do not study history are doomed to repeat the past.


How the Silent Service strangled the Japanese Empire:   January 23, 2007
Alan C. Simkin (Ellicott City, Maryland USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

This is, quite simply, an outstanding history book. The depth of research done by the author is amazing. It is a blow by blow, patrol by patrol account of how these brave men put the Japanese war machine out of business. It is also exceptionally well written and extemely readable. It's one of those very few books that you can, literally, open up to any page, start reading, and become consumed with interest. This book belongs on any WWII naval bookshelf, and is, I believe, the definitive account of the Pacific Submariners' war.


Learning from history   September 22, 2000
Ray Gratrix (Ridgecrest, CA USA)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

I have spent my career doing R&D on weapons, so the sections describing the torpedo problems hit home. The short description of the problem is that the torpedoes were not adequately tested because the Bureau of Ordinance didn't think it was necessary, and in the early years of the war a lot of the torpedoes did not work. It is likely that some US subs were lost because of the bad torpedoes, certainly many opportunities at sinking Japanese shipping were lost. Whenever some manager tries to cut back on testing I slap this book down and tell them to read it. They don't of course, but at least I can say I tried to warn them.