Frank Carlson Library

Examines one of the enigmas of WWII, the fate of the submarine USS Grunion that vanished without a trace in 1942 carrying a crew of 70 men and the Navy's new top-secret MK 14 torpedoes.

"The final volume of the magisterial Pacific War Trilogy from acclaimed historian Ian W. Toll, "one of the great storytellers of war" (Evan Thomas). Twilight of the Gods is a riveting account of the harrowing last year of World War II in the Pacific, when the U.S. Navy won the largest naval battle in history; Douglas MacArthur made good his pledge to return to the Philippines; waves of kamikazes attacked the Allied fleets; the Japanese fought to the...

In November 1943, while on war patrol in the Makassar Strait, the USS Billfish submarine was spotted by the Japanese, who launched a vicious depth charge attack. Explosions wracked the sub for fifteen straight hours. With his senior officers incapacitated, diving officer Charlie Rush boldly assumed command and led key members of the crew in a heroic effort to keep their ship intact as they tried to escape.Now, in War Beneath the Waves, this intense...

The true story of how Hitler's mightiest battleship was hunted, fought, and destroyed in the battle for the Atlantic.

Journalist and historian Thomas writes with a knowing feel for the clash of cultures as he follows four men through the naval war of 1941-1945 in the South Pacific: Admiral William ("Bull") Halsey, the macho, gallant, racist American fleet commander; Admiral Takeo Kurita, the Japanese battleship commander charged with making what was, in essence, a suicidal fleet attack against the American invasion of the Philippines; Admiral Matome Ugaki, a self-styled...

A shipyard apprentice finds high adventure aboard the S.S. Alabama, a Confederate ship which sails the Atlantic destroying Union vessels.

"How a German submarine sank a Canadian military hospital ship during the First World War and sparked outrage. On the evening of June 27, 1918, the Llandovery Castle--an unarmed, clearly marked hospital ship used by the Canadian military--was torpedoed off the Irish Coast by U-Boat 86, a German submarine. Sinking hospital ships violated international law. To conceal his actions, the U-86 commander had the submarine deck guns fire on survivors. One...

They were legalized pirates empowered by the Continental Congress to raid and plunder, at their own considerable risk, as much enemy trade as they could successfully haul back to America's shores. They played a decisive role in America's struggle for independence and later turned their seafaring talents to the slave trade, revealing the conflict between enterprise and morality central to American history.In Patriot Pirates, Robert H. Patton, the grandson...