A Tale Of Two Subs

In 1943, the sub USS Sculpin, under attack by the Japanese, sank for the last time in what becaome one of the most remarkable stories in U.S. Naval history. Not only did several crew survive the sinking – an extremely rare event in WW II sub warfare – but several were aboard a Japanese aircraft carrier en route to a POW camp, when it was torpedoed and sunk by the Sculpin’s sister ship, the USS Sailfish.

At the end of WWII, several survivors would tell a tale of endurance against these amazing events. For one officer in particular, who knew that being captured could have meant losing the war for the allies, his struggle was not in surviving but in sealing his own fate in a heartbreaking act of heroism which culminated in the nation’s highest tribute, the Medal of Honor. Sculpin’s Lt. Commander John Cromwell was one of the few who knew that Naval Intelligence had cracked Japan’s top-secret codes. He also knew that if the Japanese confirmed this by torturing him, it would force Naval Intelligence to change their encryption, which would potentially change the course of the war. This is Cromwell’s story as well. The incredible interconnection of the Sculpin and the Sailfish has been thoroughly researched by Jonathan McCullough.

Author Biography

JONATHAN J. MCCULLOUGH has served for many years as an editor at Lyons Press, and has edited numerous books on a variety of nonfiction subjects, including World War II.