
I recently read the last chapter of one of the three books I'm currently reading (don't ask). The book is First Shot and it's all about the reported sinking of a Japanese mini mub by the US Ward 2 hours before the attack on Pearl Harbor. It also goes into great detail about submarines in general and how they came about. Some people in the military didn't believe the Ward sunk a mini sub. Some thought it may have been a whale, even though a pilot also called in the sub report. Had the commanders at Pearl Harbor listened to the Ward and had "all hands on deck", they still would have had major fleet losses, but maybe many lives could have been saved. The last chapter in the book takes you on the hunt for the missing sub which never turned up anywhere after the war...leaving the crew of the Ward sure they had sunk it since they found all of the remaining mini subs but 2. After a few expeditions turned up nothing, they rented some top of the line sonar equipment and labeled close to 30 "possibilities" near the site of the shots. With time running out on the last expedition - they finally came across the sub and it was described brilliantly. I was intrigued by the ending and wanted to read more about the sub and possibly see pictures of it. I found a website affiliated with the expedition and they have video clips you can stream. They actually have the edited video clip online of the exact moment the sub comes into view and focus and you can hear the crew's reaction. Within the course of 24 hours I went from imagining what the sub looked like when they found it to actually seeing it. Pretty cool indeed. Now maybe I can finish book 2 of 3.....
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