|
Approx. 400
pages, 8” x 10” format TO BE RELEASED
SPRING 2009
Two boats, Grenadier and Perch, were so badly damaged by enemy depth charge attacks that their crews were forced to scuttle their subs. Sculpin and S-44 were sunk with heavy loss of lives while fighting it out with Japanese combat ships on the surface. Robalo struck a mine and very few of her sailors were able to swim to an island. Tang and Tullibee were struck by their own faulty torpedoes while executing torpedo attacks on the surface. Only one man, Cliff Kuykendall, survived Tullibee. Nine men survived the loss of Tang, five of whom swam to the surface after their boat had settled in 180 feet of water. Those U.S. sailors who were fortunate enough to survive the loss of their submarine would soon find that the struggle to survive had only just begun. They were all subject to inhumane treatment as "special prisoners" of the Japanese Army and Navy, fed starvation rations and beaten and tortured on a regular basis. Some of these brave veterans would not survive World War II. Based on personal interviews, diaries, POW statements and action reports, Presumed Lost tracks the incredible ordeal to survive these servicement endured. For those who did eventually return to America after the war's end, many would find that their loved ones had no knowledge that they had been alive. Official notification had been given to their families that their ships had been sunk and the men were simply "presumed lost."
Watch this space for more information on this book's release.
|
Presumed
Lost relates the loss of the seven United States submarines
of World War II from which Americans were taken prisoner by the
Japanese. Of the 525 submariners who set sail on the last patrol
of these seven boats, only 158 would ever see their country again.