An “indispensable” guide to the Royal Navy’s submarines through 1945, with numerous photos and original plans (The Naval Review). The Royal Navy didn’t invent the submarine—but in 1914, Britain had the largest submarine fleet in the world, and at the end of World War I it had some of the largest and most unusual of all submarines—whose origins and designs are all detailed in this book. During the First World War they virtually closed the Baltic to German iron ore traffic, and blocked supplies to the Turkish army at Gallipoli. They were a major element in the North Sea battles, and fought the U-boat menace. During World War II, US submarines were known for strangling Japan, but lesser known is the parallel battle by British submarines in the Mediterranean to strangle the German army in North Africa. Like their US counterparts, interwar British submarines were designed largely with the demands of a possible Pacific War, though that was not the war they fought. The author also shows how the demands of such a war, fought over vast distances, collided with interwar British Government attempts to limit costs. It says much about the ingenuity of British submarine designers that they met their requirements despite enormous pressure. The author shows how evolving strategic and tactical requirements and evolving technology produced successive types of design. British submariners contributed much to the development of anti-submarine tactics and technology, beginning with largely unknown efforts before World War I. Between the wars, they exploited the new technology of sonar (Asdic), and as a result pioneered submarine silencing, with important advantages to the US Navy as it observed the British. They also pioneered the vital postwar use of submarines as anti-submarine weapons, sinking a U-boat while both were submerged. Heavily illustrated with photos and original plans and incorporating much original analysis, this book is ideal for naval historians and enthusiasts. “Sure to become the standard reference for British submarine development for years to come” —Warship

Originally designed in 1934 for anti-submarine training, by the end of the war 72 U-Class subs had been commissioned; 17 were lost to the enemy, and 3 in accidents. Manned by crews from seven nations' navies, they served worldwide, and never more successfully than in the Mediterranean. This book is the definitive study of this class of submarine and the men who serve on them.

The first comprehensive technical history on the subject, with photos: “A must-read for all professionals, designers and scholars of modern submarines.” —Australian Naval Institute The Royal Navy’s greatest contribution to the Allied success in World War II was undoubtedly the defeat of the U-boat menace in the North Atlantic, a victory on which all other European campaigns depended. The underwater threat was the most serious naval challenge of the war, so it was not surprising that captured German submarine technology became the focus of attention for the British submarine service after 1945. It was quick to test and adopt the schnorkel, streamlining, homing torpedoes, and, less successfully, hydrogen-peroxide propulsion. Furthermore, in the course of the long Atlantic battle, the Royal Navy had become the world’s most effective anti-submarine force and was able to utilize this expertise to improve the efficiency of its own submarines. However, in 1945 German submarine technology had also fallen into the hands of the Soviet Union—and as the Cold War developed it became clear that a growing Russian submarine fleet would pose a new threat. Britain had to go to the US for its first nuclear propulsion technology, but the Royal Navy introduced the silencing technique that made British and US nuclear submarines viable anti-submarine assets, and it pioneered in the use of passive—silent—sonars in that role. Nuclear power also changed the role of some British submarines, which replaced bombers as the core element of British Cold War and post-Cold War nuclear deterrence. As in other books in this series, this one shows how a combination of evolving strategic and tactical requirements and new technology produced successive types of submarines. It is based largely on unpublished and previously classified official documentation, and to the extent allowed by security restrictions, also tells the operational story—HMS Conqueror is still the only nuclear submarine to have sunk a warship in combat, but there are many lesser-known aspects of British submarine operations in the postwar era.

The history of the development of submarines covered in this book spans the most tumultuous years of the 20th century. When the little Holland No. 1 was launched in 1901, few could guess that the submarine would become the most potent weapon of war ever developed.

As the major powers engaged in an arms race in the early years of the 20th century, the Admiralty was tasked with developing that deadly stalker of the high seas - the submarine. In 1905, briefed with creating a vessel that could be employed on an enemy's coastline, the Admiralty took several technological leaps forward to match Germany's own revolutionary vessels. Written by an influential expert in the field and covering all classes of submarine developed and deployed during the war, this book includes great technical detail, gripping operational accounts and is accompanied by artwork. With fascinating details of daring submarine raids in the Baltic and the Dardanelles, this book reveals the exceedingly dangerous world of early submarine warfare which claimed an extraordinary number of lives on both sides and paved the way for a new kind of naval warfare in the 20th century and beyond.

Sea Devils is a compelling account of pioneer submariners and their astonishing underwater contraptions. Some made perilous voyages. Others sank like stones. Craft were propelled by muscle-power or had steam engines with chimneys. Some had wheels to trundle along the seabed. Others were used as underwater aircraft carriers. Here John Swinfield traces the history of early submarines and the personalities who built and sailed them. From a plethora of madcap inventors emerged a bizarre machine that navies of the world reluctantly acquired but viewed with distaste. It matured into a weapon that would usurp the mighty battleship, which had for centuries enjoyed an unchallenged command of the oceans. In its long and perilous history the submarine became subject to fierce business, military and political shenanigans. It won eventual acceptance amidst the chaos and carnage of the First World War, in which pathfinder submariners achieved an extraordinarily high tally of five Victoria Crosses, Britain's highest military decoration. Sea Devils brims with daring characters and their unflinching determination to make hazardous underwater voyages: an immensely readable, entertaining and authoritative chronicle of low cunning, high politics, wondrous heroism and appalling tragedy.

‘The only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril,’ wrote Winston Churchill in his history of the Second World War. ‘I was even more anxious about this battle than I had been about the glorious air fight called the Battle of Britain.” In reality, the Kriegsmarine had been woefully unprepared for the war into which it was thrown. The Command-in-Chief of submarines, Karl Dönitz, himself a verteran U-boat captain from the First World War, felt that he could bring Britain to its knees with a fleet of 300 U-Boats. But when war broke out, he had just twenty-four available for operational use. Despite this, the U-Boat arm scored some incredible successes in the early part of the war, raising the status of the submarine commanders and crews to that of national heroes in the eyes of the German people. The ‘Grey Wolves’ had become super-stars. Small wonder then that the U-Boat war has fascinated students of military history ever since. This book, using a carefully selected range of both wartime images and colour images of surviving U-boat memorabilia from private collections, describes 100 iconic elements of the U-Boat service and its campaigns. The array of objects include important individuals and the major U-Boat types, through to the uniforms and insignias the men wore. The weapons, equipment and technology used are explored, as are the conditions in which the U-boat crews served, from cooking facilities and general hygiene down to the crude toilet facilities. Importantly, the enemy that they faced is also covered, examining the ship-borne and airborne anti-submarine weaponry utilised against the U-boats. The U-Boats began the war, though small in number, more than a match for the Allies and created carnage amongst merchant shipping as well as sinking several major warships. The pace of technological development, however, failed to match that of Allied anti-submarine warfare weaponry and the U-Bootwaffe was ultimately doomed to defeat but not before, at one point, coming close to bringing Britain to its knees.

An illustrated account of the war beneath the waves, this reference covers: the first submarines; WW1; WW2; Cold War submarine operations; and submarines of the future. It covers anti-submarine warships and weapons as well as the submarines.

During the bleak, heartbreaking days of early 1942, when beleaguered Malta was reeling under bombardment and blockade and Rommel was making his last desperate thrust towards Egypt, only one British submarine was operating in the western Mediterranean - the tiny, 600-ton Unbroken. In twelve months in the Med, Unbroken sank over 30,000 tons of enemy shipping, took part in four secret operations, three successful gun actions, and survived a total of over 400 depth charges, as well as innumerable air and surface attacks. This account of the 26-year-old Alastair Mars' command of this outstandingly successful submarine embraces her construction, sea trials and voyage to Gibraltar preparatory to her vital role in the Mediterranean. Once there, she was responsible for the destruction of two Italian cruisers and played a pivotal part in Operation Pedestal, the convoy that saved Malta from surrender. Alastair Mars writes simply and without pretension, and his words evoke the claustrophobic yet heroic world of the submariner.

The ‘X’ stood for experimental, but it might equally have meant extraordinary, exotic or extravagant, as this giant submarine attracted superlatives – the world’s largest, most heavily armed, and deepest diving submersible of the day. X.1 was a controversial project conceived behind the backs of the politicians, and would remain an unwanted stepchild. As British diplomats at the Washington naval conference were trying to outlaw the use of submarines as commerce raiders, the Admiralty was designing and building the world’s most powerful corsair submarine, to destroy single-handed entire convoys of merchant ships. This book explores the historical background to submarine cruisers, the personalities involved in X.1’s design and service, the spy drama surrounding her launch, the treason trial of a leading RN submarine commander, the ship’s chequered career, and her political demise. Despite real technical successes, she would finally fall foul of ‘black propaganda’, aimed at persuading foreign naval powers that the cruiser submarine did not work; even today uninformed opinion repeats the myth of her failure. However, it was completely ignored by other navies, who went on building submarine cruisers of their own, some larger than, but none so sophisticated as, X.1. The book analyses in detail the submarine cruisers built by the US Navy, the French and the Japanese, plus the projected German copy of X.1, the Type XI U-Boat, paying belated tribute to the real importance of the mysterious X.1.