Action, Excitement, & History. A great read!

Great read!! Fluckey did a great job putting you right in the action. Those who were there are the best at this. The book doesn't just tell you what happened, it lets you experince it first hand. You also get to know the men on the boat. I feel like I have a bunch of new friends. This book would be great for anyone interest in action, excitement, and history.

The production of the Audible portion was one of the best I have ever heard. The reader even pronounces the word " submariner" correctly. If you have ever spoken to an old submarine man he will be quick to tell you it's "submarine-er" not "sub-mariner."

This one of several titles that have needed to be on Audible for a long time. If everybody buys this title then maybe Audible will add other tiltes like: Richard Kane's "Wahoo" and "Clear the Bridge," and Edward L. Beech's, "Run Silent Run Deep," "Dust on the Sea," "Cold as the Sea," and "Submarine."

I want more!

39 people found this helpful

Riveting

This is a great story; it is one of those books that grab your attention immediately. Eugene B. Fluckey and the USS Bark sank 140,000 tons of Japanese shipping from April 1944 to the end of the War.

Admiral Fluckey takes his own memories and weaves it together with a crewman’s illegal diary, reports, letters, ship logs, and interviews as well as archival documents from the Japanese Navy to provide a detailed account of the U.S.S. Barb’s eight through twelfth War patrols. Apparently Fluckey was a brilliant, courageous, fair Captain most concerned about bringing his men home safe. Not a man was wounded onboard Barb while he was the Captain.

“Lucky Fluckey” pioneered new submarine tactics that are still used today. The high point in the book is a night surface attack through miles of shoal water to attack two Japanese convoys in a harbor in China. Fluckey won the Medal of Honor and the Barb was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation. Fluckey won the Navy Cross four times, the Navy Distinguish Service medal with one gold star and many more medals. Eugene B Fluckey was a 1935 graduate of the U. S. Naval Academy. In 1989 the Navy honored him by naming the Nuclear Submarine Combat System Training Center after him. The only building named for a living person.

The narration is clear, concise and vivid. Admiral Fluckey is a good writer and the story is not just about him but all the crew of the Barb. The book is well researched. The hardcover book also has lots of photographs. The book is an excellent study of sub warfare tactics and naval leadership. If you are looking for an excellent book about submarines in World War II this is a book for you. I read somewhere that Steven Spielberg has purchased the movie rights to the story. Corey Snow narrated the book. Corey Snow does an excellent job narrating the book.

18 people found this helpful

Not for Tom Clancy Tech heads

Admiral Fluckey was clearly a great submarine commander and what he and his crew accomplished in the later part of the Pacific war is extremely impressive. The story makes a for an interesting listen if not a particularly informative one. My disappointment stems from the fact that there is so much interesting tech in a submarine but we hear very little about it. The book needs a few paragraphs devoted to the tactics, technical equipment and people used to solve the geometry problem of hitting a distant moving object with an unguided torpedo. He actually spends more time discussing the decoration on their celebratory cakes than he does talking about how they evaded depth charges or use sonar. Overall, a disappointment. I’m looking for a WW2 submarine memoir written to help me understand a bit of what the crew and their gear actually did to accomplish a highly complex mission using nearly steampunk tech.

15 people found this helpful

An interesting story, but very stilted writing

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Though the admiral has an interesting story to tell, the writing is contrived and corny, stiff. He should have considered a ghost writer.

Two books that describe the life of a sub captain during WWII that are way more engrossing:
1. The Bravest Man: The Story of Richard O'Kane & U.S. Submariners in the Pacific War by William Tuohy
2. Silent Running: My Years on a World War II Attack Submarine by James F. Calvert

Either of those books are worth multiple listenings, I could barely make it through 'Thunder Below!'.

Was Thunder Below! worth the listening time?

The stilted writing made it very hard to get through.

10 people found this helpful

What a great story!

One of the best accounts of World War II submarine action by one of the all-time great sub Commanders in US history. I highly recommend this audiobook for anybody who finds Naval History interesting.

8 people found this helpful

Wow! There were brave men in WWII

Would you listen to Thunder Below! again? Why?

Yes. I enjoy military history. I thoroughly enjoyed the story and was stunned at the bravery of the men that went out in submarines

What other book might you compare Thunder Below! to and why?

The Bravest Man - another submariner's tale, Neptune's Inferno on the naval battles around Guadalcanal and The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors of the heroic stand by destroyers against battleships in Leyte Gulf

Have you listened to any of Corey Snow’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

no

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

I think the title sums it up: Thunder Below!

Any additional comments?

An above average tale well told

8 people found this helpful

Great book - unbearable narration.

I am a retired Army colonel and lifetime submarine fanatic. I added RADM Fluckey's hardbound book to my library years ago. I loved it and thought I would love the Audible version too. I might not have thought it possible to so completely ruin a fine book with cringingly bad narration. Mr. Snow accomplished the impossible. I am relieved that RADM Fluckey did survive to hear this mess. The bizarre intonations used by Snow for the different speakers in the book could not be more irritating. Imagine a frenetic Martin Short reading bedtime stories to children and you'll be close.

5 people found this helpful

fantastic

I listened to this book twice. As soon as I finished it I listened to it a second time. Great job. I didn't know anything about the Barb until I listened to this book. Fantastic!!!! I felt like I was in the south pacific during WWII. So many leaders get to be leaders by not rocking the boat. Sounds like we owe Admiral Fluckey a tip of the hat for being one of those unusual leaders willing to take the step out of the box, By doing so he did a lot to save many of our brave young men during WWII. Thank you Admiral. I like to think of myself as a student of the war in the pacific. The more I read the more I admire the front line marines, the prisoners of Bataan, all of our young men who suffered at the hands of the Japanese during that conflict. The pain and suffering those men went through unimaginable to today's generations. Then to see McArthur pardon most of the Japanese for their war crimes. What our men must of thought about that. Almost 70 years later we are still looking for German war criminals. But not the Japanese. I knew many WWII veteran's and even some WWI vets. They just didn't talk about their war. They just didn't. What a shame, My father-in-law won 7 bronze stars. His family didn't have a clue until his passing. Even his brother didn't know. How or why these men took their deeds to the grave with them speaks volumes to me. They just did what they had to do and came home and lived a productive life. What a generation. Tom Brokaw labeled them the Greatest Generation. He was right on the money. Listen to this book it is excellent.

5 people found this helpful

Packed with detailed submarine drama

I enjoyed this slice of WWII action. I don't know anything about submarine strategy and lore, but this book drew me in big time. You can tell that Gene Fluckey is not a professional writer. given his love of Micky Spillane-like adjectives, but a good read regardless.

4 people found this helpful

Not the real book

I have read the book Thunder Below. The only thing the real book and this audio have in common are the name of the sub Barb, and Commander Fluckey. The story line does not resemble the real book in the slightest. This rip off of the real story is terrible.

3 people found this helpful