Edward L. Beach Jr.

Since 1942 officials have condemned Adm. Husband E. Kimmel and Lt. Gen. Walter C. Short as inadequately alert, and therefore responsible for the catastrophe. With this book the highly respected naval officer and historian Capt. Edward L. Beach puts his own reputation on the line by challenging readers to overturn that judgment and right a wrong that has stood for half a century. Captain Beach does not go along with revisionists who damn Roosevelt for getting Americans into the war and accuse him of knowing about the attack beforehand. Beach dismisses such accusations as hold-overs from the discredited isolationist movement. But he does present ample proof that by early morning in Washington on December 7, authorities in the Army, Navy, and State Departments, as well as the White House, knew positively through special intelligence, that Japan "was up to some devilment" on that very day. Moreover, Beach says, they had seen it coming all week and were derelict in their duty to inform field commanders that things were rapidly coming to a head. Beach further argues that the official finding against the two men failed to take into account the budget-directed shortages in aircraft and anti-aircraft ordnance that, surprise or no surprise, made the outcome of the Japanese attack inevitable. In this impassioned but carefully reasoned plea for posthumous justice, Beach says what happened to Kimmel and Short was, for them, worse than death itself. For political and military expediency, the very country they had served so loyally condemned them to a lifetime of disgrace for a debacle that was not their fault - and did not even allow them to defend themselves. At the fiftieth anniversary of the war's end, Captain Beach's eloquent plea to set the record right may at last be heard.

Thoroughly illustrated with maps, charts, and photographs, this anecdotal history of the U.S. Navy examines the impact of innovation and technology on the service as it chronicles the Navy's colorful and sometimes controversial past.

Hailed as heart stopping and almost unbearably suspenseful, Edward L. Beach's third novel is set fifteen years after the end of World War II as the US Navy converts its fleet of conventional submarines to nuclear-powered ships. The book focuses on the USS Cushing, whose sixteen missile silos carry more explosive power than all the munitions used in both world wars. The submarine is on a secret mission to the Arctic Ocean to determine whether her missiles are effective when fired from beneath the ice. When the Cushing is incapacitated with a suspicious Russian sub lurking in the vicinity, the scene is set for a dramatic novel rich in all the technical detail and submarine lore that have entertained millions of readers of Captain Beach's other fictional works.

The sinking of the U.S.S. Memphis off Santa Domingo Harbor, August 29, 1916, and the effect on its captain, the author's father.

"When the nuclear-powered submarine USS Triton was commissioned in November 1959, its commanding officer, Capt. Edward L. Beach, planned a lengthy but otherwise routine shakedown cruise in the North Atlantic. Two weeks before the scheduled cruise, however, Beach was summoned to Washington and told of the immediate necessity to prove the reliability of the Rickover-conceived submarine. His new secret orders were to take the Triton around the world, entirely submerged the whole time. When asked if his new ship could do this, he responded simply "Yes, sir!"" "Here is Captain Beach's firsthand account of the thirty-six-thousand-nautical-mile voyage whose records for speed and endurance still stand today. It brings to life the many tense events in the historic journey: the malfunction of the fathometer, an instrument essential to locating undersea mountains and shallow waters; the agonizing illness of a senior petty officer; and the serious problem that suddenly overtook the ship's main hydraulic oil system. But with the stress came frequent moments of humor and poignancy, which, as described by Beach, make readers feel as if they had been along on the ride of a lifetime."--Jacket.

Story of a U.S. submarine commander's exploits during WWII. Written with authority and knowledge by Edward L. Beach who served in the "boats" throughout the war. Cdr. Beach conveys the thrill of the hunt for Japan's merchant marine and the drama of personal conflicts as well as the excitement of combat under the sea. A very good read.

The latest volume by this outstanding American naval writer is both a collection of essays and the closest thing to autobiography Captain Beach is likely ever to give us. He writes with his usual freshness, grace, compassion, and well-informed opinions on his own life, his father's career, Admiral Rickover (who was indispensable to the nuclear propulsion program but impossible to deal with on the personal level) and the intrigues that cost him his promotion to rear admiral, and the role of the U.S. Navy in the twenty-first century, concerning which he also suggests reforms. Along the way, he tells anecdotes about his marriage of more than 50 years, his wartime service, the origins of several of his novels and of the characters in them, and the complexities of having the nuclear submarine Nautilus christened by Mamie Eisenhower. If this should be Beach's last book, it fittingly concludes his career as writer and seafarer. We can most sincerely say, "Sailor, rest your oar."

In 1972, following the huge success of Run Silent, Run Deep, Edward L. Beach's second novel of submarine warfare was published to great acclaim. Like its predecessor, Dust on the Sea was lauded for its authentic portrayal of what it meant to be a submariner during the desperate years of World War II. Tense, dramatic and rich in technical and tactical detail, the book draws on Beaach's experience as a submariner in the US Navy to describe the commander and crew of the fictitious USS Eel as they battle overwhelming odds to destroy Japanese ships and save American lives. With no margin for error, the men withstand storms, depth charges and even hand-to-hand combat to defend their boat and themselves. Mistakes, as the title reminds us, result in the debris which serves as a brief grave maker for sunken ships: dust on the sea.

Only the author of The Hunt for Red October could capture the reality of life aboard a nuclear submarine. Only a writer of Mr. Clancy's magnitude could obtain security clearance for information, diagrams, and photographs never before available to the public. Now, every civilian can enter this top secret world...the weapons, the procedures, the people themselves...the startling facts behind the fiction that made Tom Clancy a #1 bestselling author.