"Submarine"

Jean Hood's book Submarine - An anthology of first-hand accounts of the war under the sea, 1939-1945 - was picked up dauntingly for it has 592 pages! (I hate long books.) I dipped in once (no pun intended) and immediately immersed myself for three or four weeks -utterly pleasurable reading. The book is a compilation of stories, yarns and memories of several dozen submariners of all or almost all combatant nations in World War 2. It covered:

• a) life under the waves;
• b) running, maintaining and repairing a submarine;
• c) armaments, tactics:
• d) you name it...

Like most groups of close-knit combatants the submarine's crew considered themselves special, every member of a submarine service considered themselves especially special. The sense of an esprit-de-corps bubbled up from of the pages. Other almost unstated attributes of submariners were a pride of service and an unstated, unspoken but carried knowledge of the risks and reliances.

The tales in the book take the reader though every year of the war - in all the relevant undersea theatres for the year. Some stories are sad, some incredible some touching and others amusing. For instance, an Italian boat was damaged in combat but escaped into home waters for repairs: surfacing near the shore rowboats came into view carrying a teacher and charges - they were royally entertained on board!

[First paperback edition 2009 : published by Conway (imprint of Anova Books Company Limited, London W14 0RA) ISBN 9 781844 860906) http://www.conwaymaritime.com/