Books about Torpedo from Amazon.com

“Unfamiliar and exciting territory—a magnificent yarn!”  Greg Bear, New York Times best-selling author of Darwin’s Radio, Eon, and Blood Music

An accident at a German nuclear plant and a biological warfare attack on the British Embassy in Washington, DC, have put the United States government on full alert. The attack, together with an illegal arms deal between a trusted NATO ally and a rogue Middle Eastern state, has ignited an international crisis that threatens to draw Western Europe, the Middle East, and America into all-out war.

To defuse the escalating conflict, Commander Samuel (Jim) Bowie and the crew of USS Towers must join forces with a handful of U.S. Navy destroyers and frigates to hunt down and destroy a wolfpack of state-of-the-art submarines. Their enemy is a NATO ally trained in U.S. naval warfare tactics, skilled in deception, and thoroughly lethal. Out-gunned, out-maneuvered, and out-thought, the crews of the U.S. Navy ships must become as devious as their enemy. If they fail, the consequences are unthinkable.

“TORPEDO kicks ass! Smart and involving, with an action through-line that shoots ahead like its namesake—fast and lethal. I read it in one sitting.”—PAUL L. SANDBERG, Producer of The Bourne Supremacy

"A timeless warrior epic. Jeff Edwards spins a stunning and irresistibly believable tale of savage modern naval combat."—JOE BUFF, Best-selling Author of Seas of Crisis, Crush Depth, and Straits of Power

“Edwards wields politics and naval combat tactics with a skill equal to the acknowledged masters of military fiction.”—The Military Press

.
Price: $12.03 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The drinks are on Sunshine State historian/spree killer Serge A. Storms, who's decided it's high time he got married So he's motoring down to the Florida Keys -- the ultimate end of the line -- in search of Ms. Right . . .

and finding his doped-up basket case bud Coleman along the way. But for Serge, "getting hitched" doesn't necessarily mean "settling down" -- not when South Florida is crawling with slimeballs, swindlers, unrepentant jerks, and annoying bystanders whose ranks need some serious thinning.

.
Price: $2.15 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Slaughter at sea—just miles from U.S. soil!

In 1942 German U-boats turned the shipping lanes off Cape Hatteras into a sea of death. Cruising up and down the U.S. eastern seaboard, they sank 259 ships, littering the waters with cargo and bodies. As astonished civilians witnessed explosions from American beaches, fighting men dubbed the area "Torpedo Junction." And while the U.S. Navy failed to react, a handful of Coast Guard sailors scrambled to the front lines. Outgunned and out-maneuvered, they heroically battled the deadliest fleet of submarines ever launched. Never was Germany closer to winning the war.

In a moving ship-by-ship account of terror and rescue at sea, Homer Hickam chronicles a little-known saga of courage, ingenuity, and triumph in the early years of World War II. From nerve-racking sea duels to the dramatic ordeals of sailors and victims on both sides of the battle, Hickam dramatically captures a war we had to win—because this one hit terrifyingly close to home..
Price: $4.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The Battle of Midway is considered the greatest U.S. naval victory, but behind the luster is the devastation of the American torpedo squadrons Of the 51 planes sent to attack Japanese carriers only 7 returned, and of the 127 aircrew only 29 survived. Not a single torpedo hit its target.
A story of avoidable mistakes and flawed planning, The Unknown Battle of Midway reveals the enormous failures that led to the destruction of four torpedo squadrons but were omitted from official naval reports: the planes that ran out of gas, the torpedoes that didn’t work, the pilots who had never dropped torpedoes, and the breakdown of the attack plan. Alvin Kernan, who was present at the battle, has written a troubling but persuasive analysis of these and other little-publicized aspects of this great battle. The standard navy tactics for carrier warfare are revealed in tragic contrast to the actual conduct of the battle and the after-action reports of the ships and squadrons involved.

Today's combat submarine holds a crew of less than 200 men, equal to a company of infantry Yet these few submariners can command a sea or destroy a civilization. Never has so much combat power been wielded by so few warriors. This concentration of power is made possible by innovative use of technologies, including rocketry, acoustics, hydrodynamics, nuclear power, advanced chemistry, unique materials and a host of others.

Unlike other 20th century military innovations - the tank, the airplane and nuclear explosives - the submarine remains shrouded in secrecy, a truly "silent service." This book surveys the state of submarine technology worldwide, and examines research advances that will shape the second century of submarines..
Price: $25.97 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Foreword by President John F. Kennedy Small though they were, PT boats played a key role in World War II, carrying out an astonishing variety of missions where fast, versatile, and strongly armed vessels were needed. Called "weapons of opportunity," they met the enemy at closer quarters and with greater frequency than any other type of surface craft. Among the most famous PT commanders was John F. Kennedy, whose courageous actions in the Pacific are now well known to the American public. The author of the book, another distinguished PT boat commander in the Pacific, compiled this history of PT-boat operations in World War II for the U.S. Navy shortly after V-J Day, when memories were fresh and records easily assessable. The book was first made available to the public in 1962 after Kennedy's inauguration as president of the United States interest in PTs was at a peak.

Bulkley provides a wealth of facts about these motor torpedo boats, whose vast range of operation covered two oceans as well as the Mediterranean and the English Channel. Although their primary mission was to attack surface ships and craft close to shore, they were also used effectively to lay mines and smoke screens, to rescue downed aviators, and to carry out intelligence and raider operations. The author gives special attention to the crews, paying well-deserved tribute to their heroism, skill, and sacrifice that helped to win the war. 604 pages. 109 photographs. 7 maps. Appendixes. Notes. Index. Paperback. 6 x 9 inches..
Price: $10.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The first comprehensive treatment of World War II S-boats to be published in English, this book provides operational details of the German schnellboot, or motor torpedo boat, in all theaters where they were deployed during the war. With the help of a multitude of maps, photographs, and drawings, Frank chronicles every incident that involved the 53-knot fast attack craft. The author examines the S-boat's effectiveness as an integral part of the German military objectives of the time. This study of the schnellboot's successes and failures offers a first-class account of the surface warship that carried the offensive to the enemy longer than any other..
Price: $27.50 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Back in print
A longtime favorite of several generations of Tar Heels, Taffy of Torpedo Junction is the thrilling adventure story of thirteen-year-old Taffy Willis, who, with the help of her pony and dog, exposes a ring of Nazi spies operating from a secluded house on Hatteras Island, North Carolina, during World War II. For readers of all ages, the book brings to life the dramatic wartime events on the Outer Banks, where German U-boats turned an area around Cape Hatteras into 'Torpedo Junction' by sinking more than sixty American vessels in just a six-month period in 1942. Taffy has been enjoyed by young and old alike since it was first published in 1957..
Price: $5.65 [Notify me when price goes down.]

.
Price: $3.74 [Notify me when price goes down.]

From the American entry into World War II until September 1943, U.S. submarines experienced an abnormally high number of torpedo failures. These failures resulted from three defects present in the primary torpedo of the day, the Mark XIV. These defects were a tendency to run deeper than the set depth, the frequent premature detonation of the magnetic influence exploder, and the failure of the contact exploder when hitting a target at the textbook 90-degree angle. Ironically, despite using a completely independent design, the Germans experienced the same three defects. The Germans, however, fixed their defects in six months, while it took the Americans 22 months. Much of the delay on the American side resulted from the denial of senior leaders in the operational forces and in the Navy's Bureau of Ordnance (BuOrd) that the torpedo itself was defective. Instead, they blamed crews for poor marksmanship or lack of training. In the end, however, the submarine force itself overcame the bureaucratic inertia and correctly identified and fixed the three problems on their own, proving once again the industry of the average American soldier or sailor. Contrary to the interpretations of most submarine historians, this book concludes that BuOrd did not sit idly by while torpedoes failed on patrol after patrol. BuOrd acknowledged problems from early in the war, but their processes and their tunnel vision prevented them from realizing that the weapon sent to the fleet was grossly defective. One of World War II's forgotten heroes, Admiral Lockwood drove the process for finding and fixing the three major defects. This is first book that deals exclusively with the torpedo problem, building its case out of original research from the archives of the Bureau of Ordnance, the Chief of Naval Operations, Vice Admiral Lockwood's personal correspondence, and records from the British Admiralty at the National Archives of the United Kingdom. These sources are complemented by correspondence and interviews with men who actually participated in the events..
Price: $39.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]