Battleground Atlantic: How the Sinking of a Single Japanese Submarine Assured the Outcome of WW II

by Richard N. Billings

In June, 1944, U.S. Navy warplanes sank a Japanese submarine called the I-52 in the Atlantic, an event of enormous strategic importance. For the I-52 was to return to Japan with the lethal ingredients of a doomsday weapon-the radiological bomb-which remained a government secret for years.

The I-52's resting place became public in 1995. Author Richard N. Billings worked with Paul Tidwell-who discovered the I-52 and is attempting to salvage its precious gold cargo-in bringing this long-classified mission to light. Finally, this is the story of how the I-52 mission may have influenced President Truman's decision to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Genres: History, World War II

320 pages, Paperback

First published April 4, 2006

Reviews

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a mess of a book. It combined a treasure hunt for a lost submarine possibly filled with gold and uranium with a history of the submarine and its mission. Good start. However, from there it veered into the German atomic bomb program and the end of the war from the Japanese perspective. Interesting stories, but way too much in one book. Also, I hate hyperbolic subtitles like "How the Sinking of a Single Japanese Submarine Assured the Outcome of World War."

[Jerry Teipen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disjointed and essentially unreadable...well...painfully readable.

[Dan Dundon · Rating 3 out of 5]

The cover of this book is what caught my attention. How the sinking of a single Japanese submarine assured the outcome of World War II. Wow! That's quite an assertion to make and is something I had no previous knowledge about.
Nevertheless, when I got into the book, the research didn't quite substantiate the cover. Yes a Japanese submarine was sunk with a load of gold which was to be used to purchase radioactive material from Germany. Yes the plan was to construct a dirty bomb and use it on the west coast of the United States.
However, the plan was a last desperate attempt by Japan to stave off defeat and in reality was a very long way from succeeding.
Nevertheless, this is an interesting book especially if you like reading the diplomatic exchanges between the Germans and the Japanese during the end of World War II. The leaders of both countries are clearly desperate to avoid defeat.

[Bill Yancey · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author combined the story of the search for the Japanese submarine I-52 with the attempted use of radioactive materials by both the Nazis and the Japanese during WWII. The best part of the book is the search for I-52 and the non-recovery of the two tons of gold on board. I watched the documentary from National Geographic about the search, finding, and exploration of the wreck of I-52 while reading the book. Fascinating. More recent info would be enlightening. The book was published in 2006.

[Tomi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ugh. The chronology was all mixed up. I’m not sure what this book was about, but very little of it dealt with the I-52. The author kept going off on tangents that had nothing to do with anything - and were quite often boring.

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

A true narative of submarine operations durring WW2