Pursuit of the Seawolf

I have seen at least one review of Pursuit Of the Seawolf in which the reviewer seems to feel that while this is a pretty good book, it's nowhere near as good as South To Java, which is its predecessor and was written by the same author(s). I disagree. South To Java was indeed a good book and very well written, but IMO is no better than Pursuit Of the Seawolf and New Guinea, both of which are sequel to ''Java''. William P Mack was an admiral in the USN and clearly knows his way around destroyers. He also knows many minor details of the ferocious combat in the North Atlantic during 1942 through 1943 and you can feel the intensity in the minds of the seamen who broke their figurative backs trying to save the ships they were supposed to protect. His work reads as if one were working aboard the little 4-stacker actually taking part in the attacks on u-boats and suffering as the merchant ships in the convoys were blasted apart by the undersea craft used so successfully by the Kriegsmarine. My personal opinion is that all of the books mentioned in this review are possibly the equal of Nicholas Montsarrat's Cruel Sea which, considering the latter's reputation, is a huge compliment. If you have read South To Java and enjoyed it, you would enjoy this book equally.

Pursuit of the Seawolf is a continuation of the story of the destroyer OLEARY after it has arrived back in the US following the defeat and destruction of the Asiatic Fleet in the opening months of World War II. Now the OLEARY is being refitted as a convoy escort - fewer boilers but more fuel and ammunition. The author captures the Atlantic exactly right. It was more the enemy than German submarines and aircraft. He brings home the risks to the escorts from merchant ships unused to sailing in formation and the disasters that this can create. He also brings to light the awful conditions faced by ships and escorts in the Caribbean Sea as they moved throught those waters to the Atlantic Seaboard. The enemy here was not the wind and waves but a highly trained and aggressive German submarine force. The only redeeming factor was that there weren't enough submarines to do more damage. In researching a Sailor who had served in four stackers during WWII, I came across the fact that in 1944 his ship was run down by a cargo ship in Norfolk and too badly damaged to be repaired. The ship had been in the same battles that Admiral Mack is describing in his book. It made the whole book even more authentic. The charecters are well created. Some we have met in South to Java but new people come along to interest us. The new charecters range from a sailor who has no home but the ship to an officer, short in stature but with a voice that vibrates armor plate. There are sailors who a few months before were working in oil fields to memebers of the Fleet Reserve who were called back to active service instead of sitting with their grandchildren. All of these people are quite authentic and seem to come to life under the author's pen. There is a fine depiction of US/USSR relations when OLEARY pulls into Murmansk and the Soviet Navy puts on a dance in their honor to commemorate the opening of a new dance hall. Later in the book there is a fine description of operations leading up to the invasion of North Africa - Operation Torch and the many obstacles that had to be overcome for that event to take place. These obstacles ranged from refueling at sea for the first time, the difficulties of finding a replacement for a critical part (that never fails) in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and dueling with shore guns as the landings take place. Off duty relations are not neglected by the author. We see one family with children adjusting to a new school - the third in as many years. I gew up in a navy family and I had three second grades in one school year. We see relationships develope between women and several of the crew. We also see one marriage that doesn't stand the test of war. The author covers the wide spectrum of a nation at war. Not only does he describe a Navy expanding on a daily basis and needing more and more men, but the impact of the war on families as they face the rationing process as they try to move cross country from California to