San Pedro, California, shortly after WWII The Homefront was hard and the United States was still in the throes of the Depression that dogged Americans since the Market crash of 1929. Entry into war ended many things, rampant unemployment the most prominent, but WWII brought new set of problems and deprivatio…

At Point Loma, San Diego, I toured the USS Asheville , a Los Angeles -class attack submarine. While not a public tour, I was able to take photos. You get a real sense of how cramped a submarine is, even modern ones. All the moving parts, machinery, electronics, and equipment make for a very tight environment…

Japanese submarines on display are prolific, but they are not full-sized submarines…all are examples of midget submarines or manned “suicide” torpedos. Full-sized examples don’t exist, aside from wrecks on the bottom of the sea, not accessible for tour. However, I’ll note a couple of Japanese sunken subs, fo…

While pretty rare, there are a few examples of Italy’s undersea WWII legacy.  Most are relics of Italian pioneering in the area of undersea special warfare, midget submarines, a groundbreaking and unique form of warfare employed relatively successfully by Italy from the First World War and into the Second.  …