Sparked by the stories told by his late father, a crewman aboard the Pamapanito during her first two combat patrols, Greg Michno collected the tales of fifty of the men who served aboard her from her launch in 1943 till the end of the war. Together with extensive research into official records, Michno has woven these firsthand accounts into an absorbing portrait of ordinary men at war. His recounting of a harrowing depth charge attack with the Pampanito at a depth of over 600 feet could have come right out of "Das Boot". But the story is more than just combat. Day-to-day shipboard life in insanely cramped quarters, jury-rigged repairs upon vital malfunctioning equipment, wild R&R escapades ashore which could cause as many casualties as a battle at sea, conflicts and comradeship among the men and officers ... it is all here in this book.
The Pampanito appeared on no one's list of "top" submarines as measured by merchant tonnage sunk or major warships sent to the bottom. All too often her successes were more than balanced by bad luck or, perhaps, less than stellar leadership. But on one remarkable occasion, the boat rescued 73 Australian and British POW's whose ships had been sunk during an attack on a Japanese convoy. The story of this rescue and the subsequent close bond formed between these former prisoners, many of whom had worked on the notorious "River Kwai" railroad construction, and their saviors creates an emotional high point of the book. Many of the Pampanito's crew felt that saving those men was more important than the sinking of any ship.
As it happens, the Pampanito is still afloat today. Spared the scrapyard, the fate of most of her contemporaries, the Pampanito has been declared a National Historical Landmark and is docked at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco for visitors to board.
The book is well illustrated with maps of the combat operations plus numerous photographs of crewmembers, both as impossibly young men during their war and as elderly veterans visiting their boat during a recent crew reunion.
"USS Pampanito: Killer-Angel" is an excellent look at ordinary men on an ordinary submarine during an extraordinary time.
The author also achieved the number one objective of all stories--he kept the narrative moving forward.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone interested in the "silent service". I look forward to visiting the "Pampanito" someday.
