For the Sailors and Submariners who fought in World War II, combat at sea differed radically from any previous conflict. Indeed, naval warfare changed more between 1941 and 1945 than it had in the previous 400 years. The tasks the sailors performed were far more complex and technically demanding than they ever were before. The threats they faced were also much more lethal. Whether battling Kamikazes aboard a huge warship or guiding troops to the shore off a tiny landing craft, these men faced dangers that the sailors of World War I could never have imagined. Under the waves there was a branch of the military which went quietly .about its business. It was a small, division of the Navy known as the Submarine Force, dubbed the Silent Service. If was a frightful existence where the elite sailors had little chance of escape when disaster struck. The submarine itself often became a steel coffin. In World War II a sailor's vessel was both his home and battleground. A place where he could find comfort and pleasure or danger and death. It was a movable fortress city at sea, but one with a heart of flesh and blood.
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