Battle Surface!

June 20, 2011
Only seven U.S. submariners were awarded the Medal of Honor for their exploits during World War II; Red Ramage was the first to get his in person from Franklin D. Roosevelt, as the previous winners had not survived their travails of battle. Ramage commanded the Parche during its most dangerous engagement with the Japanese when it attacked Convoy MI-11 south of Formosa early in the morning of July 31, 1944. The convoy included oil tankers, hospital ships, and freightersâeleven merchant vessels in all, plus six armed escorts. Ramage ordered a charge into the middle of the convoy. In less than 45 minutes, the Parche along with another U.S. sub, the Steelhead, sank six of the Japanese merchant vessels and damaged another. Stephen L. Moore, author of several other books of WWII submarine campaigns, offers an in-depth look at the people and events of the Parche's war history. Unfortunately, nearly all excitement is lost amid the welter of detailsâinstances such as the numerous scrapes sailors got into while on shore leave only convolute the story. The rest of the war is only dimly heard, but the reader does get an intimate view of what life was like on a submarine at that time.