The Royal Navy's submarines performed well in combat in both World Wars, often in unheralded ways. Few are aware that in 1914 Britain had the largest submarine fleet in the world, and that at the end of World War I it had some of the largest and most unusual of all submarines whose origins and design are all detailed in this magnificent compendium. They were designed largely with a possible Pacific War in mind, and the author shows how the demands of such a war, which would be fought over vast distances, collided with the interwar British Government's attempts to limit costs by holding down the size and numbers of submarines. It says much about the ingenuity of British submarine designers that they managed to meet their requirements despite enormous pressure. The book amply demonstrates how evolving strategic and tactical requirements, combined with changing technology to produce successive classes, began with largely unknown efforts before the outbreak of World War I. Submariners exploited the new technology of sonar (Asdic), both to find and attack enemies and to avoid being attacked themselves. They pioneered submarine silencing, and the use of submarines as anti-submarine weapons, when Ventura sank a U-boat while both were submerged, a feat which is still unique. Chapters cover Making Submarines Work, Overseas Exploits, Experimental Coastal Submarines, War Construction, Fleet Submarines and Minelayers, Arms Control and Rearmament and there are appendices on radio and midget and export submarines, a full bibliography and data and submarine list. With many wonderful photographs, port and other elevation line drawings and plan views, profiles and sections in double page spreads, bridge details and internal arrangements such as the Submarines 'R' Class, HMS Thames, HMS Sturgeon 'S' Class and a spectacular double gatefold sepia line drawing of profile and top sides of HM Submarine L52 scale plans and HMS Submarine Seawolf, HMS Unbroken and Thule. 25.4 x 30.5cm, 432 magnificent heavyweight pages.
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