World War II - Nonfiction
"The Terrible Hours" by Peter Mass 
This is an exciting and highly readable account of the efforts to save the crew of the downed submarine Squalus.
The Squalus was the Navy's newest submarine and she went down in 250 feet of water of the New England coast in 1939 when the main air
vent that fed her diesel engines failed to close when diving. Naval officer Swede Momsen, the man that made the rescue bell
workable despite naval beauracracy, led the effort to get the surviving 33 crewmen out before their oxygen ran out or they froze.
First there was the frantic effort to find the exact location
of the sub and get a line attached. Once that was done, many dangerous dives had to be made before the bell could be lowered
and the men pulled out. The subsequent salvage of the sub was even more dangerous.
Charles "Swede" Momsen was an amazing man. In addition to the rescue bell, he developed the escape rebreather and did the
experiments that led to the oxygen-helium breathing mix that allowed divers to go deeper and stay longer than with the old
oxygen-nitrogen diving gear. He was instrumental in solving the problem with the faulty torpedo contact exploders at the outset
of World War II. Momsen also recognized the value of the German
wolf pack tactics and led the first American wolf pack against the Japanese. Another job he was given was from Admiral King to
fix the mess the Navy mail system was in. King recognized that good mail delivery was more important for moral and the war effort
than sinking ships. As a reward, Momsen was given command of the battleship South Dakota. While taking on shot and powder, there
was an explosion in the forward magazine and Momsen's quick thinking saved the ship. He theorized that the silk bags holding the powder
could be detonated by a static electrical discharge. He went on to prove that static electricity could indeed cause a detonation
and silk bags were discarded by the navy.
Reviewed by Kenneth S. Smith 30 May 2001
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