Silent Warriors Volume Three

This is the story of the submarines which failed to come home in both war and peace. They will remain for eternity as the Silent Warriors of the British coast. In both the First and the Second World Wars submarine warfare transformed the West Coast of Britain into a pitiless arena where a life or death struggle was played out between U-boats attempting to close the sea-lanes and Allied ships striving to keep them open. Combining years of international archival research and expert analysis, this series describes how these submarine wrecks came to be here.

The third in a comprehensive trilogy exploring the British Isles’ submarine wrecks, in this volume Pamela Armstrong and Ron Young recount the submarines lost along the coast of north Cornwall to the Isle of Man. Authoritative and meticulously sourced, wherever possible accounts are told in the words of those who were present, relating miraculous escapes from stricken submarines, relentless pursuit and merciless attack. We hear of the mysterious last patrol of UB 65, her fate as enigmatic as her spectral crewmen, as well as the last-minute escapes from UC 44 and H 47. Most poignantly of all, the book re-evaluates one of the darkest episodes of British maritime history, the loss of HMS Thetis in Liverpool Bay in June 1939 – one of the few vessels to have been lost twice – revealing crucial new information on this disaster.

An excellent reference guide for maritime historians and wreck divers, this series is an invaluable contribution to submarine history.