World War 2 In Review

Lookout silhouetted on the bridge of a submarine studies the sky as well as the sea. by Val Scanlon Jr. Quartermaster with binoculars, lay to the bridge immediately!" ordered the Officer of the Deck (OOD). That meant me. Quickly moving to the forward end of the conning tower, I lifted the cover to the binocular stowage locker, grabbing a pair of 7×50 powered glasses, and sped up the short ladder to the bridge. "Request permission to come on the bridge," I asked as my head and shoulders passed through the conning tower hatch to the bridge level. "Come up," replied the OOD. With my entire body emerging, I cleared the hatch and stood erect, facing the OOD. "QM reporting as ordered, sir!" "Very well. Man your aircraft lookout station. Conduct a careful continuous and thorough search for enemy aircraft. We are within their land-based range now and I do not want to be surprised and possibly caught on the surface today." "Aye, ...

  Sealion later in the war flying her victory pennants. This story begins in the year 1944, almost at the end of that year. The submarine Sealion is in Pearl Harbor and I am an electrician's mate on board her. We have just returned from our two weeks' rest and recreation at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Honolulu. The ship looks clean and ready to go after the relief crew worked over the machinery while we were relaxing from the last war patrol. Everyone is running around like mad trying to get their personal gear stowed and also getting the machinery tested because we will be going out tomorrow for a test dive. We know we have two weeks of grinding work ahead of us, getting the ship ready to go to sea and also practicing for the time when our job really counts. The two weeks have gone by fast, though of course not fast enough. Everyone is grouchy and tired, but even so all have tried to help one another as much as possible. The new men have come along fine in their assig...

USS Barracuda SS-163. USS Barracuda (SF-4/SS-163), lead ship of her class and first of the "V-boats," was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the barracuda (after USS F-2).