Run Silent, Run Deep
by Edward L. Beach
Category: Fiction

This is a story of the silent service—the submarine crews which destroyed the Japanese merchant marine. A narrative taut with drama, told with the intimacy of a confession, it deals with two strong-headed men: their loves, their jealousies, and their destinies in the lonely and desperate struggle between the hunter and the hunted. Few war novels will rival Run Silent, Run Deep in the naked realism of its action. None will surpass its rising excitement and brilliant descriptions of men in combat. Unlike many war novels, here is a story that deals with war from the perspective of command. Edward Beach re-creates with fidelity the anguish, agony, and triumphs of command decisions. In Commander Richardson, he has created a character who embodies all that is fine, all that is human, in an excellent naval officer. In a sense, Run Silent, Run Deep is a monument, not to the misfits and the mistakes, but to those men who rose to greatness under the sometimes unbearable tensions of action.