Torpedo! (The Silent War Book 3)
by Harry Homewood
<i>The USS </i>Sharkfin<i> was twelve hours out of the
Strait of Gibraltar on course 278 degrees true, destination New London. The men
on sonar watch weren’t listening for the approach of an enemy. They were
primarily concerned with the sonar search patterns that were being beamed out
ahead and to each side of the submarine’s bow. There was a chance that the
sonar operators might have heard the whining, high-pitched noise of a torpedo
racing up the submarine’s wake but it was a remote chance. The </i>Sharkfin’s<i>
big seven-bladed propeller was turning fast enough to drive the huge
submarine at a steady twenty knots, making just enough noise to almost muffle
any sound that came from directly astern. The torpedo zeroed in on the spinning
propeller and exploded with a roar....
The stricken
submarine shuddered and slowed, its interior utterly still, filled with water,
as the </i>Sharkfin<i>
coasted downward on a long, planing descent into the black sea.</i>
It was an unprovoked
attack, a deliberate act of aggression. When Vice Admiral Mike Brannon of the
U.S. Navy received word that the wreck of the <i>Sharkfin</i> had been
found, with a gaping hole in its stern, he could only conclude that the Soviets
had, without warning, attacked and destroyed a U.S. nuclear submarine. He could
not let the incident pass unretaliated. Yet whatever steps he took, he risked
leading the two superpowers into a state of war. If he informed the President,
it might take weeks for Congress to take action — too long. Whatever response
was to be made, it had to be made decisively and immediately.
Harry Homewood, author
of <i>Final Harbor</i> and <i>Silent Sea</i>,
has written a novel of mounting tension; a story of today’s naval
superpowers locked in a deadly battle that brings an unknowing world to the
brink of nuclear holocaust.
Harry Homewood was a qualified submariner before he was seventeen years old, having lied to the Navy about his age, and serving in a little "S"-boat in the old Asiatic Fleet. After Pearl Harbor he reenlisted and made eleven war patrols in the Southwest Pacific. He later became Chicago Bureau Chief for <i>Newsweek</i>, chief editorial writer for the <i>Chicago Sun-Times</i>, and for eleven years had his own weekly news program syndicated to thirty-two PBS television stations.
Strait of Gibraltar on course 278 degrees true, destination New London. The men
on sonar watch weren’t listening for the approach of an enemy. They were
primarily concerned with the sonar search patterns that were being beamed out
ahead and to each side of the submarine’s bow. There was a chance that the
sonar operators might have heard the whining, high-pitched noise of a torpedo
racing up the submarine’s wake but it was a remote chance. The </i>Sharkfin’s<i>
big seven-bladed propeller was turning fast enough to drive the huge
submarine at a steady twenty knots, making just enough noise to almost muffle
any sound that came from directly astern. The torpedo zeroed in on the spinning
propeller and exploded with a roar....
The stricken
submarine shuddered and slowed, its interior utterly still, filled with water,
as the </i>Sharkfin<i>
coasted downward on a long, planing descent into the black sea.</i>
It was an unprovoked
attack, a deliberate act of aggression. When Vice Admiral Mike Brannon of the
U.S. Navy received word that the wreck of the <i>Sharkfin</i> had been
found, with a gaping hole in its stern, he could only conclude that the Soviets
had, without warning, attacked and destroyed a U.S. nuclear submarine. He could
not let the incident pass unretaliated. Yet whatever steps he took, he risked
leading the two superpowers into a state of war. If he informed the President,
it might take weeks for Congress to take action — too long. Whatever response
was to be made, it had to be made decisively and immediately.
Harry Homewood, author
of <i>Final Harbor</i> and <i>Silent Sea</i>,
has written a novel of mounting tension; a story of today’s naval
superpowers locked in a deadly battle that brings an unknowing world to the
brink of nuclear holocaust.
Harry Homewood was a qualified submariner before he was seventeen years old, having lied to the Navy about his age, and serving in a little "S"-boat in the old Asiatic Fleet. After Pearl Harbor he reenlisted and made eleven war patrols in the Southwest Pacific. He later became Chicago Bureau Chief for <i>Newsweek</i>, chief editorial writer for the <i>Chicago Sun-Times</i>, and for eleven years had his own weekly news program syndicated to thirty-two PBS television stations.