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

From the inside dust jacket:

The true story that we had been spotted seemed almost certain with the arrival of a floatplane and then four bombers. The planes did not bother us as much as the ear-splitting echo-ranging of the destroyer, the pings blasting through our hull as she closed the range.

"Set all torpedoes on two feet and open the outer doors!" . . . from the Fourth Patrol, Part V.

The hunter has become the hunted, and thus begins the classic dance of death between destroyer and submarine, which may end with a crashing salvo of depth charges or the zing of a 21-inch torpedo. Packed with the danger, tension, and drama of submarine warfare, this scene has been replayed countless times in fact and fiction, but never before with such authentic firsthand detail.

Samuel Eliot Morison called Tang "fabulous." Vice Admiral Charles A. Lockwood, commander of the submarine force in the Pacific during World War II, described her fifth patrol as "one of the great submarine cruises of all time." Richard O'Kane was tang's skipper throughout her brief but gallant career, and CLEAR THE BRIDGE!" is his account of the life of Tang and the crew who fought her.

From the date of her departure oh her first patrol in January, 1944, to her tragic loss only nine months later, Tang averaged one enemy ship on the bottom every 11 days, a rate twice that of any other U.S. submarine. Despite a short career, Tang's sinkings ranked second among U.S. boats and made Dick O'Kane the leading submarine skipper of the war. Tang also developed new tactics in sub-air rescues, picking 22 navy fliers out of the water while under Japanese gunfire at Truk. For her combat accomplishments, Tang was awarded two Presidential Unit Citations, one of only three ships in the U.S. Navy so honored.

Follow Tang from the moment of her launching to her last, fatal patrol and discover the innovative tactics and calculated daring that made her the hottest boat patrolling. See through her skipper's eyes the taut drama of submarine warfare; the flooding torpedo room that sorely tests Tang's pressure hull, while an enemy destroyer poised overhead listens for the slightest sound; Tang running aground while stalking the enemy submerged in shallow Empire waters and still firing torpedoes with deadly accuracy; the night surface attack off Formosa, when Tang penetrates a convoy of Japanese ships and sinks five of them in 70 seconds while avoiding a ramming merchantman.

CLEAR THE BRIDGE! is destined to become a classic in the literature of the sea.

Rear Admiral Richard O'Kane, a 1934 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, was on patrol in the submarine Argonaut when war broke out on December 7, 1941. After patrols in Wahoo as executive officer to the legendary Dudley W. (Mush) Morton, O'Kane received orders to command Tang. Following Tang's loss, he and other supervisors spent the duration of the war imprisoned in Japanese camps. Later O'Kane commanded a submarine division, a tender, a squadron, and the Submarine School, rounding out 20 years with the boats. He and his wife, Ernestine, now own the Red Hill Horse Ranch in Sonoma County, California.

Admiral O'Kane is one of the most highly decorated naval officers, holding the Commendation Medal, the Legion of Merit, three Silver Stars, three Navy Crosses, and the Congressional Medal of Honor. Only the passage of 30 years has sufficiently dulled the pain of losing Tang and her crew to enable him to tell their story.

480 pages including appendices, glossary, and index.