WAR BENEATH THE SEA: submarine conflict during World War Two

THE FIRST BOOK TO COVER THE MAJOR SUBMARINE CAMPAIGNS IN ALL THE WORLD WAR II THEATRES.‘Peter Padfield is the best British naval historian of his generation . . . His book . . . will now become the standard work on the subject.’ The Daily Telegraph‘This looks set to become the definitive work on submarine warfare in the Second World War . . .’ Military Illustrated‘The book is very well written and enjoyable to read. The facts and statistics are mixed with well penned character studies and fast-moving descriptive narrative in a way that confirms the author’s stature as a leading military historian . . .’ The Naval ReviewFrom the opening shot of the Second World War to its final days, submarines reshaped naval warfare. German U-boats hunted merchant convoys in the Atlantic. American submarines strangled Japan’s supply lines in the Pacific. British crews risked everything in dangerous coastal waters. Across every ocean, a hidden war raged beneath the surface.In this classic text, acclaimed historian Peter Padfield brings this brutal, claustrophobic conflict to life — combining gripping first-hand accounts with deep strategic insight.Padfield describes the technical and tactical measures by which the Western Allies countered Admiral Karl Dönitz’s U-boat ‘pack’ attacks in the all-important North Atlantic battle. The fanatical zeal with which, even after defeat, Dönitz continued sacrificing his young crews in outmoded boats, dubbed by one veteran ‘iron coffins’.He also examines how the superiority of American fleet submarines and radar allowed the U.S. to isolate Japan from her overseas sources of supply in the Pacific. Padfield argues that if this strategic potential had been realised earlier it could have saved thousands of lives in the bloody Pacific island campaigns, and even rendered the use of atomic bombs unnecessary.From wolfpack tactics and technological innovation to the psychological strain on the men who fought in steel tubes beneath the ocean, this is the full story of submarine warfare between 1939 and 1945.Peter Padfield (3 April 1932-14 March 2022) was an author, biographer, historian and journalist who specialised in naval history and the Second World War. He trained for a navy career, before working for P&O and sailed with Alan Villiers in Mayflower II in commemoration of the journey of the Pilgrim Fathers. His first work, The Titanic and The Californian, won him international recognition as a writer. He is also the author of classic biographies of Hess, Dönitz and Himmler and has written widely on the sea, including a work on naval gunnery. Read more