Every Moment Mattered – The Life and Death of Cassin Young, Captain, USN MOH Recipient – Chapter Twelve: Pig Boats at the Panama Canal

Chapter Twelve Pig Boats at the Panama Canal From the Annual Report of the Navy Department (1921/22), an accurate description of life on board any of the submarines of the day: “Submarines, from their size and peculiarities of construction and operation, are far less habitable than the usual types of surface craft. They do not […]

Every Moment Mattered – The Life and Death of Cassin Young, Captain, USN MOH Recipient – Chapter Eleven: Mosquitos, sand flies and ants shall inherit the earth

Chapter 11: Mosquitos, sand flies and ants shall inherit the earth “Information on living conditions in the Canal Zone. Atlantic Side. Any officer ordered to the Canal Zone should, if possible, leave his family in the States until he has investigated the situation described above” These words of caution were written in a pamphlet published by […]

Every Moment Mattered – The Life and Death of Cassin Young, Captain, USN MOH Recipient – Chapter Six: The End and The Beginning

Chapter Six: The End and The Beginning Josephus Daniels became the Secretary of the Navy after the election of Woodrow Wilson. He was a reformer in every sense of the word and brought with him very little understanding of the naval traditions that shaped the modern organization he inherited. He was determined to build the navy […]

All Hope was abandoned – the S-26 (Part 2)

Submarine rescues were still pretty rare in 1942. The rescue of the sailors from the sunken USS Squalus in 1939 was made possible because of the emerging technology that allowed a rescue bell to be attached to the boat. On the morning of May 23, 1939, the submarine USS Squalus slipped beneath the storm-tossed surface […]

We might as well stop daydreaming about defeating Japan – February 1940

WE MIGHT AS WELL STOP DAYDREAMING ABOUT DEFEATING JAPAN In February of 1940, the world was already at war. Germany had launched its offensive against Czechoslovakia and Poland and Hitler was in the process of approving the Mannstein Plan which would lead to the invasion and subjugation of France in the summer of 1940. In America, […]

Inflict Maximum Damage on Enemy Shipping

Victory At Sea ~ Full Fathom Five – HQ The threat of death at full fathom five is always in the backs of the minds of the submariners according to the steady voice of the narrator. Yet they still went on many patrols and exacted a toll on the enemy that brought him to a […]