United States Submarine Operations in World War II United States Submarine Operations in World War II by Theodore Roscoe is a classic history of the role of United States Navy submarine s in World War II , earning him the title of " grandfather " of World War II American Submarine historiography . Because the book was written shortly after the war , later scholars have found errors or omissions in its facts . Nevertheless , the book ' s sweeping narrative maintains it as a classic text in the American submarine force ; excerpts are often read at ceremonies where submariners earn their Submarine Warfare insignia . After World War II , John M . Will of the US Navy Bureau of Personnel hired Roscoe to reduce Richard Voge ' s 1 , 500 - page " Operational History " of the submarine war to publishable size . His resulting book was published in 1949 by the U . S . Naval Institute , Annapolis , Maryland . " It is a truncated version of the Operational History ( sometimes reproduced word for word ) . . . the Operational History in more manageable form . " The work was further condensed in paperback by Bantam Books as " Pigboats " . Blair vs . Roscoe . In 1975 Clay Blair Jr . authored " Silent Victory " ( see references ) . " Silent Victory " was acclaimed by Ned Beach as " an extraordinary book . . . the definitive submarine history . " Written by a competent professional historian a generation apart from Roscoe ' s work , each book casts reflections upon the other . At the end of each narrative , both authors appended tables of the history of World War 2 from the individual submarine perspective . General . Blair ' s Appendices E and F , organized chronologically by " submarine patrol " , include the departure point for each patrol , its start month , submarine commanding officer , patrol duration , wartime assessed ships and tonnage sunk ( usually as made by Vice Admiral Charles A . Lockwood ) , post - war JANAC - assessed ships and tonnage sunk , the applicable patrol area , with minimal footnotes about the involvement in any special missions the submarine might be undertaking , and footnotes that indicate shared - credit sinkings . The ultimate JANAC assessments were about 50 % of Admiral Lockwood ' s post - patrol judgement , as relayed to him by the commanding officers . The reasons are various : Richard O ' Kane , famous commander of , asserted that a typographical error in his fourth patrol report gave " Tang " JANAC - credit for sinking a small escort vessel five miles away from the large maru she did sink . Roscoe ' s tables are organized alphabetically by " submarine " , giving the date and name of each sinking , its size and location , and the commanding officer at the time . He has additional tables that give greater details of the special missions ; and he has a table that lists the vessels sunk in combined attacks , either by multiple submarines , or submarines in concert with land - based aircraft , or submarines in concert with carrier - based aircraft , to the same level of detail as the by - submarine entries Special Missions . In highlighting the difference in specificity between Blair and Roscoe concerning special submarine missions , here are two examples . Noting assistance during the Battle of Corregidor : Noting assistance to the Makin Island raid : In no case does Blair match the specificity of Roscoe . Tabulations . For Blair , in " some instances , both wartime credits and postwar credits are rounded off to the nearest 100 tons . " Roscoe provides an accurate transcription of the JANAC report , the same as found in Voge ' s " Operational History " . On the other hand , Blair introduces partial credit for ships sunk in cooperative engagements , and while Roscoe gives a table of such occurrences , he makes no special use of its information . Where rounding or partial credit are injected , Blair ' s tabulations and Roscoe ' s transcription do not reconcile . A prominent example is that of , acclaimed by both as the tonnage " champion " of World War 2 . On 26 July 1944 , " Flasher " , in concert with , sank the " Tosan Maru " , a passenger - cargo ship of 8 , 666 tons . " Flasher ' s " share is 4 , 333 tons , a number inferred by Roscoe and made use of by Blair . Comparing the two evaluations yields the following table . Note Blair ' s typographical error for Patrol 2 , the use of partial credit for Patrol 3 with 4 , 333 tons above Roscoe , and the rounding in Patrol 5 . While the proper summation for " Flasher " may be 104 , 564 tons , 4 , 333 tons above the long recognized and accepted value of Roscoe ' s 100 , 231 tons , Blair sums to neither . These errors occur and are understandable in the 29 times combination sinkings occur . Blair ' s occasional choice to round in " some instances " make his JANAC tabulations not reconcile with the record . Blair does , however , include other Axis vessels sunk and confirmed in his tables . This does not happen in JANAC and Roscoe . Narrative . At one - third the size of Voge ' s " Operational History " ( 577 pages vs . 1500 - plus ) Roscoe inherits Voge ' s problems : Generally , it tells a positive story ; the " skipper problem , " [ mal - performance ] for example , is not dealt with . However , the torpedo section contains a long and frank account of torpedo problems . On the other hand , " Silent Victory " , being 26 years later , lives up to the rest of Beach ' s acclaim , and shows that it was the work of a professional vice occasional historian : Most importantly , " Silent Victory " does not shy away from full and complete treatment of the controversial aspects of our submarine campaign : our lousy torpedoes , the discrepancy between claimed and confirmed sinkings , the professional disputations between force commanders . If there is anything left out , I certainly do not know what it is , for this book gives the whole scene , the good and the bad , the heroes and the failures , the eager and the reluctant . Appendices and Addenda . The following addenda are in Roscoe as ordered : The following appendices are in Blair as lettered : Maps , Charts , Graphs and Diagrams . Roscoe provides 20 maps , graphs , and diagrams ; and 11 charts . The charts are two - page foldouts . Blair provides 37 maps , none of which fold out . This is a significant difference since " Submarine Operations " is an 8½ inch by 11 inch book , and " Silent Victory " is 6½ by 9½ . Photographs and Illustrations . Blair provides 32 pages of pictures . Roscoe provides 15 illustrations such at the top of this article , the back of each illustration is a page ( twice the size of Blair ' s ) of photographs . There are several common pictures , most notably the one shown on the Amazon link below . Roscoe provides his pictures to the public domain . The photographs in [ " Submarine Operations " ] were collected from various sources . Most of them are official Navy photographs by official Navy photographers . Many were taken by the famous Steichen Photographic Unit under the direction of Captain Edward Steichen , USNR . Some were taken through periscopes or on deck by amateur photographers of the Submarine Service . A few are from the private collections of submariners with their own cameras — pictures released to their owners after the war . Space does not permit a complete listing of credits . One way or another , the photographs are all Navy pictures . Indices and Sources . Roscoe ' s index is sparse , at 10 pages . Blair ' s index is 64 pages , well beyond Roscoe ' s even adjusting for page size , having over 2000 entries . Blair has 13 pages of source discussion , Roscoe has one ( Voge ' s " Operational History " ) . About Richard Voge . Rear Admiral Richard G . Voge , USN , had his submarine sunk beneath him at Cavite , Philippine Islands on 10 December 1941 . He became the Submarines Pacific Operations Officer who planned the operations that are the subjects of both books . Given the job by Admiral Lockwood to write the " Official Administrative and Operational History " for submarines , he produced " Submarine Commands , Volumes 1 and 2 . " He is the sole source for Roscoe , and the seminal source for Blair : The " Operational History " produced by Voge et al . is a massive document of more than 1500 pages dealing with every conceivable operational aspect of the submarine war . No one attempting a serious submarine history should begin without consulting it .