Find Hellcats: The Epic Story Of World War II's Most Daring Submarine Raid Produced By Peter Sasgen Rendered As Textbook

an avid reader of submarine WWII history in the Pacific theatre and had high hopes for this book,

I found only a few new morsels of history in this book and was saddened to read about what I think was a needless high risk mission such as this book covers so late in the war.
Forgot how much I liked submarine stories as a kid,
Great WWII tale of sneaking behind enemy lines with new tech that few people trust until it is all over, Unfortunately, this is one of those popular military history books that can't just stick to the facts, or even stick mostly to the facts with a little clearly labeled speculation to try to maximize the excitement.
It has to try to jerk the reader's emotions around by emphasizing all the great and small tragedies of war, They call themselves The Silent Service with pride, as a badge of honor, They labor in silence invisible to the world above and elusive as smoke, If successful, their exploits are never spoken of, never reported, If they fail, all they leave behind is a pin on a map and

a tag that says "Missing presumed lost",

In the normally clandestine and closed world of WWII submarine warfare, a "secret mission" was a guarantee that no one would ever know of success, failure, or even that an operation occured.
In Hellcats, Peter Sasgen gives honorable testimony to the contribution and courage of a group ofunknown men who, in the late days of WWII, risked all to press the US attack directly into the heart of the Japanese supply lines in an effort to strangle and starve an enemy who was expected to fight to the last man.


Faced with unreasonable odds, and unreliable equipment, the Hellcats of Operation Barney threaded through minefields and enemy fleets, successfully penetrating the protective net surrounding Japan to show that there was nowhere the might of the US military could not reach.
A secret mission, in the late days of a war against a declining enemy who would be utterly defeated by atomic weapons just months after Operation Barney, these men and their mission could easily be relegated to a footnote scribbled in the margin of history.
Sasgen delivers a strong telling of the story, as an observer and in their own words, of the men and the mission of Operation Barney, shining a light on a mission perhaps minor in the grand view of the World War, but major in its example of fearlessnes, innovation and commitment to duty.


A recommended read for any WWII or naval history buff, Little known story of one of the last WWsubmarine missions, Very interesting, using Love Letters, Official Records from both sides, and older books, Gives the reader a little insight to submarine warfare during WWII This is a reasonably wellwritten book about submariners in World War II.
It suffered from the same malady as many popular World War II histories lack of historical analysis, It's not so much that I begrudge the author for not providing a historian's eye, but it makes for less of a vivid story.
There were far too many discursions into letters home for my tastes, As a straightforward rendition of World War II history, though, it does what I like the most and focuses on individual sailors' experiences.
For what it's worth, I read it mostly for the science/technology elements key to this particular raid, That coverage isn't exactly magnificent, but it's information that as far as I can tell would have been relatively hard to find elsewhere outside of industry or military publications.
It's worth a read for anyone interested in submariner experiences in World War II, or in the prenuke technology of subs, I wouldn't say it's a standout, but it's a solid entry in the genre, Submarine fans will enjoy this story of a group incursion into the Sea of Japan just before the end of the war.


This military exercise, like some others, is controversial to some today as the second guessing about how the war with Japan should have been brought to a close.
Fortunately, only one submarine was lost,

Regardless, the book paints the work of the officers and seamen of this subs with high accord,
Excellent WWII A well written account of a monumental shift supremacy in the Pacific, This book delves into the multipronged attempts to end the Second World War, A secret mission which, if successful, would break the back of the Japanese and force their surrender, Sasgen blends the strategic with the personal to paint a picture of the heroes of underwater warfare, In, as Japan was in her death throes, nine American Submarines attempted to finish the job by sinking ships in the Sea of Japan the last place still safe for Imperial Shipping.
Protected by minefields at two openings, and ice at the third, direct shipping between Korea, Manchuria, and Soviet Russia was still plying the sea with impunity while American and Royal Navy Submarines were wiping out the Marus in the rest of the Pacific.
Called Operation Barney, the raid was the brain child of Vice Admiral Charles Lockwood and required some new technology, called FMS sonar for mine detection.
Peter Sasgen, the Author, has written on Submarines before, and keeps the pace up, weaving personal and military stories well as the raid is developed and then executed, with mixed results.
The Japanese were shocked and badly stung, but there was an attack on an ally and some casualties, so the story is not all success.
Still a very Compelling read and very informative on US submarine warfare in WWII,

To tell the story of the specific raid, Sasgen has to tell a lot more of US submarine and WWII Submarine history.
The whole Torpedo Crisis ofis explored, as are the advances in Radar and Sonar that aided the US undersea effort, I did not know how much Japanese Sonar and Radar had developed in the war and found this refresher class very useful.
American doctrine , the technology and the distances are quite different from Atlantic Sub warfare, and Sasgen takes you through the history quite ably.
There's also enough content on the human side of navy and submarine life for those more mainstream readers, The tension of sneaking through/around a minefield comes through to any reader,

There is some adult themed content so this is a book best read by the Junior reader over about, For the Gamer/Modeler/Military Enthusiast, a real boon, Not sure if people are gaming submarine warfare and raids but if they are, you have all you need for a cool scenario, as well as information on many other cruises.
The modeler will get diorama and "dry for wet" ideas for displays, For the enthusiast, the story of a new technology's adoption, training and in field use in the navy context is just too good to pass up.
We get to understand the frustrations of a service forced to fight with inferior tools for too long and their race to make up for that lost time.
I really enjoyed the book but I don't think you have to be a Military History buff to join me, it's for everyone.
"Sasgen vividly recounts the pulsating drama of the Hellcats, " "Naval History"

In, American sub force commanders believed that if the Japanese merchant fleet was sunk, the enemy would be forced to surrender.
The problem: the ships were protected in the Sea of Japan by a barrier of deadly minefields,

Here, Peter Sasgen tells the gripping story of Operation Barney, a daunting mission in which nine submarines, nicknamed Hellcats, were tasked with getting through the mines and decimating the enemy fleet.
Drawing on original documents and the personal letters of one doomed Hellcat commander, Sasgen crafts a classic naval tale of the heroic submariners and one of World War II's most ambitious and dangerous underwater raids.
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