The Submarine: A History

For centuries people dreamed of navigating under the sea, but it was not until the beginning of the twentieth century that inventors succeeded in developing practical submarines. With the coming of World War I, nations saw something entirely new in war: the deadly effectiveness of underwater craft, with German U-boats threatening to starve Britain and bringing the United States into the war, thus proving underwater battles more important than the great battles fought on land. A generation later U-boats repeated the struggle in the Atlantic, while in the Pacific U.S. submarines literally put Japan out of business. Then in the nuclear age, the true submarine became the most powerful weapon of war ever created—the weapon that paradoxically kept the peace.Now, military historian Thomas Parrish tells the story of those who first dreamed of underwater ships; of the practical and ingenious inventors and engineers who created and developed the submarine; of visionary naval strategists; of famous skippers on all sides—steel-nerved men like America's Dick O'Kane, Germany's Reinhard Hardegen—who wielded this weapon; of the famous and infamous deeds of boats like the U-20, the Wahoo, and the nuclear-powered Nautilusand George Washington; and of the tragedies that befell boats like the American Thresherand the Russian Kursk. Parrish's compelling narrative blends strategy, high policy, technology, heroism, and perilous adventure.