Submarine Operational Effectiveness in the 20th Century
Part Two (1939 - 1945)
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About the Book
The submarine emerged as a serious weapons system during the First World War (1914 - 1918). During that conflict Germany with its unrestricted submarine warfare campaign of 1917 nearly drove Great Britain to the negotiating table. Its U-boats sank 6,196 ships of 13,438,632 gross register tons. Despite post-war attempts to ban the submarine from warfare, it survived. Both Italy and Germany used submarines, covertly, during the Spanish Civil War (1936 - 1939). This book, Part Two of a series, discusses the use of submarines during World War Two (1939 - 1945) and their effectiveness. It focuses principally on two strategic submarine campaigns. The first is about German U-boats against British and neutral commerce. That campaign finally failed during the Battle of The Atlantic in 1943. The second deals with American submarines against Japanese shipping from Southeast Asia to the home islands, a campaign that successfully isolated Japan from its sources of raw materials and foodstuffs during 1944 and effectively defeated Japan.
About the Author
John O'Connell is a retired U .S. Navy Captain who spent twenty-two years in submarine duty after serving in an aircraft carrier and a heavy cruiser. He served in four submarines before commanding USS Spinax (SS-489) in 1966 - 1967. He later commanded Submarine Division 41 in Charleston, S.C. He capped his submarine career with duty as Assistant Chief of Staff for Operations, Plans and Intelligence (N3) at COMSUBPAC staff with concurrent duty as Commander Submarine Group Hawaiian Area.
After attending the Defense Intelligence School and Japanese language training, he spent three years as U.S. Defense and Naval Attache in Tokyo. He has an active interest in history and has published three books on the effectiveness of air power in the 20th century. This is his second book dealing with submarine effectiveness in the 20th century. He is widowed, with four children and eight grandchildren. He lives in Alexandria, Virginia and keeps busy with volunteer work at several Smithsonian museums in addition to researching and writing. Cover photo of USS Tambor (SS-198) used with permission of U.S. Naval Institute.