Books like Clear the Bridge!: The War Patrols of the U.S.S. Tang

People come up to me all the time and ask, "M'Lord, why do you read books about WWII submarine warfare written by people who commanded submarines during WWII?" My response is that I read such books because there's nothing in the fiction genre (excepting perhaps The Hunt for Red October or Run Silent, Run Deep) that packs a wallop equal to the exploits of extraordinary people living in extraordinary times and doing extraordinary things. Submarine warfare and those who were involved in its execution are extraordinary in every sense of the word. This is why in a slap fight between History and Fiction, History wins with me every time (the fight is refereed by Historical Fiction, who, when done well, rules them all).This is a first-hand account of the war patrols of the U.S.S. Tang, including its final and fateful one, wherein all but 10 lives were lost. The author commanded the ship from its christening and was one of the ten survivors of its sinking. Survivor's guilt is one thing, but being the commander who survived his ship's sinking likely adds to an already heavy burden. He was subsequently awarded the Medal of Honor for his exploits, which was no doubt humbling and bittersweet. All this to say that I'd deem just about anything written by this guy worthy of reading. The book is mostly riveting, however, there's a fair bit of detail and downtime between engagements. This may have been planned in order to give the reader an idea of the bored-until-hair-on-fire aspect of submarine warfare. Also, the 'Minutiae Alarm' in my head went off repeatedly, meaning that you get serious details about stuff that only other submariners might find chin-rubbingly fascinating. But the characteristic that consistently comes across in books like these is the constant presence and ho-hum nature of death. When a torpedo hits its mark and a ship sinks in minutes, that's hundreds of lives gone in mostly unpleasant ways. When the Tang sinks (in a way that's horrible and infuriating), the survivors watch it disappear in less than a minute. Books like these remind one of the brutal necessity associated with death in war and how it becomes so commonplace that the only things that register are tonnage sunk, fuel or hardware lost, or lives potentially saved as a result. The cost in human terms to the enemy is statistically significant, but to dwell on their humanity would remove an edge necessary to keep going. Later, when that edge is no longer required, thoughts long compartmentalized return and suddenly there's plenty of time for reflection. This, I think, is a common refrain to the real cost associated with surviving war(s). What's extraordinary about survivors isn't that they're alive (this is mostly a combination of luck and timing), but that they experienced something, the totality of which can't be duplicated. This is why I read books like this.