Pigboat 39; An American Sub Goes to War Hardcover - 1984

Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 1984. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. Very good/Good. xii, 224, [2] pages. Endpaper map. Illustrations. Maps. Bibliography. Index. DJ has some wear and wrinkles. In 1930, when she was 11 years old, Mrs. Gugliotta wrote a story about a mouse who later became Mickey! Mrs. Gugliotta married U.S. Navy Ensign Guy F. Gugliotta in 1940. They lived in several cities in the United States and Latin America before retiring to the Peninsula in 1962. She was the author of several books, including Katzimo: Mysterious Mesa; Pigboat 39, about a World War II submarine; and Women of Mexico: The Consecrated and the Commoners, 1519-1900. Bobette Gugliotta was one of the S-39 wives. With the technical assistance of her husband, Guy, an officer who served on three of the S-class boats during the war, she presents an accurate and absorbing account of submarine operations and warfare. Constructed in 1923, the American submarine S39 was practically an antique when the Japanese struck Pearl Harbor. With defective torpedoes, a semi-trained crew, and a primitive ventilation system (hence the nickname), she nevertheless sank two enemy vessels and eluded pursuit to fight again in the Solomons. This is the little-known story of how an unprepared navy fought with what it had until the tide could be turned. Her candid and sympathetic portrayal of the men and women whose lives were caught up in the voyage of the S-39 is of enduring value. USS S-39 (SS-144) was a United States Navy S-class submarine that saw combat in the Pacific Theater during World War II. She was accidentally run aground on her fifth wartime patrol and was subsequently abandoned. Her keel was laid on 14 January 1919 by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, San Francisco. She was commissioned on 14 September 1923 with Lieutenant John A. Scott (Class of 1918) in command.