Download or read book Cold War Submarines written by Norman Polmar and published by Potomac Books, Inc.. This book was released on 2014-05-14 with total page 649 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Submarines had a vital, if often unheralded, role in the superpower navies during the Cold War. Their crews carried out intelligence-collection operations, sought out and stood ready to destroy opposing submarines, and, from the early 1960s, threatened missile attacks on their adversary's homeland, providing in many respects the most survivable nuclear deterrent of the Cold War. For both East and West, the modern submarine originated in German U-boat designs obtained at the end of World War II. Although enjoying a similar technology base, by the 1990s the superpowers had created submarine fleets of radically different designs and capabilities. Written in collaboration with the former Soviet submarine design bureaus, Norman Polmar and K. J. Moore authoritatively demonstrate in this landmark study how differing submarine missions, antisubmarine priorities, levels of technical competence, and approaches to submarine design organizations and management caused the divergence.

Download or read book British Submarines in the Cold War Era written by Norman Friedman and published by Seaforth Publishing. This book was released on 2020-09-30 with total page 1201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first comprehensive technical history on the subject, with photos: “A must-read for all professionals, designers and scholars of modern submarines.” —Australian Naval Institute The Royal Navy’s greatest contribution to the Allied success in World War II was undoubtedly the defeat of the U-boat menace in the North Atlantic, a victory on which all other European campaigns depended. The underwater threat was the most serious naval challenge of the war, so it was not surprising that captured German submarine technology became the focus of attention for the British submarine service after 1945. It was quick to test and adopt the schnorkel, streamlining, homing torpedoes, and, less successfully, hydrogen-peroxide propulsion. Furthermore, in the course of the long Atlantic battle, the Royal Navy had become the world’s most effective anti-submarine force and was able to utilize this expertise to improve the efficiency of its own submarines. However, in 1945 German submarine technology had also fallen into the hands of the Soviet Union—and as the Cold War developed it became clear that a growing Russian submarine fleet would pose a new threat. Britain had to go to the US for its first nuclear propulsion technology, but the Royal Navy introduced the silencing technique that made British and US nuclear submarines viable anti-submarine assets, and it pioneered in the use of passive—silent—sonars in that role. Nuclear power also changed the role of some British submarines, which replaced bombers as the core element of British Cold War and post-Cold War nuclear deterrence. As in other books in this series, this one shows how a combination of evolving strategic and tactical requirements and new technology produced successive types of submarines. It is based largely on unpublished and previously classified official documentation, and to the extent allowed by security restrictions, also tells the operational story—HMS Conqueror is still the only nuclear submarine to have sunk a warship in combat, but there are many lesser-known aspects of British submarine operations in the postwar era.

Download or read book Soviet Cold War Attack Submarines written by Edward Hampshire and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-09-17 with total page 49 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this highly detailed book, naval historian Edward Hampshire reveals the fascinating history of the nuclear-powered attack submarines built and operated by the Soviet Union in the Cold War, including each class of these formidable craft as they developed throughout the Cold War period. The November class, which were the Soviet Union's first nuclear submarines, had originally been designed to fire a single enormous nuclear-tipped torpedo but were eventually completed as boats firing standard torpedoes. The Alfa class were perhaps the most remarkable submarines of the Cold War: titanium-hulled (which was light and strong but extremely expensive and difficult to weld successfully), crewed with only thirty men due to considerable automation and 30% faster than any US submarines, they used a radical liquid lead-bismuth alloy in the reactor plant. The Victor class formed the backbone of the Soviet nuclear submarine fleet in the 1970s and 1980s, as hunter-killer submarines began to focus on tracking and potentially destroying NATO ballistic missile submarines. The Sierra classes were further titanium-hulled submarines and the single Mike-class submarine was an experimental type containing a number of innovations. Finally, the Akula class were being constructed as the Cold War ended, and these boats form the mainstay of the Russian nuclear attack submarine fleet today. This book explores the design, development, and deployment of each of these classes in detail, offering an unparalleled insight into the submarines which served the Soviet Union throughout the Cold War period. The text is supported by stunning illustrations, photographs and diagrams of the submarines.

Download or read book Rising Tide written by Gary E. Weir and published by NAL. This book was released on 2004 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "For devotees of the submarine espionage stories in Blind Man's Bluff, Rising Tide tells the Soviet/Russian side of the most secretive operations of the Cold War. For the first time, seven Soviet admir"

Download or read book Soviet Cruise Missile Submarines of the Cold War written by Edward Hampshire and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-07-26 with total page 105 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Soviet Union's cruise missile submarines from the modified Whiskey, to the Oscar II classes were among the most formidable vessels of the Cold War. They were initially designed to carry land attack nuclear-tipped cruise missiles designed to strike targets on the eastern coast of the United States. By the late 1960s, however, submarine-launched ballistic missiles made the nuclear land-attack mission unnecessary, so existing classes were converted to the 'carrier killer' role, armed with anti-ship cruise missiles designed to destroy US super-carriers and other important naval targets. This fully illustrated study examines these powerful machines that were some of the largest and fastest submarines ever built. If war had broken out, they would have been at the forefront of the Soviet Navy's campaign to destroy NATO's sea power and cut America's sea link with Europe.

Download or read book Silent and Unseen written by Alfred Scott McLaren and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2015-05-15 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Silent and Unseen is a memoir of a submariner’s life on a U.S. attack submarine during the Cold War by Capt. Alfred S. McLaren, an experienced submarine officer and nuclear attack submarine commander. He describes in riveting detail the significant events that occurred early in the Cold War during his seven years, 1958–65, on board three attack submarines: the USS Greenfish (SS 351), USS Seadragon (SSN 584), and USS Skipjack (SSN 585). He took part in the first submerged transit of the Northwest Passage, a Baffin Bay expedition, and, as commander of USS Queenfish (SSN 651), a North Pole expedition that completed the first survey of the entire Siberian Continental Shelf. McLaren’s stories and anecdotes offer a look at the development of attack-boat tactics and under-ice exploration techniques. During the early high-risk years of the Cold War, submarines were continually at sea, and each reconnaissance and intelligence-collection mission was of potentially great value to the United States. The missions often required zeroing in on the potential enemy to collect the intelligence desired, generally within weapons range. Unlike a war patrol, the U.S. attack boat had to remain undetected, and then withdraw as silently and unseen as it's original approach. Greenfish was one of the most successful Pacific diesel submarines when McLaren served aboard her as a watch and weapons officer. He then served as watch officer on the Seadragon when she became the first nuclear submarine to transit from the Atlantic to the Pacific via the Arctic Ocean. En route, she examined the underside of icebergs, conducted the first underwater survey and passage through the Northwest Passage, and surfaced at the North Pole. McLaren concludes by recounting his experiences on board what was then the world’s fastest and most advanced submarine, USS Skipjack (SSN 585) during the Cuban Missile Crisis, two Cold War missions, and the very intensive and exciting period of new tactical and weapons development which followed to counter a rapidly emerging Soviet nuclear submarine threat.

Download or read book The Atomic Archipelago written by Davide Orsini and published by University of Pittsburgh Press. This book was released on 2022-05-24 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1972, the US Navy installed a base for nuclear submarines in the Archipelago of La Maddalena off the northeastern shore of Sardinia, Italy. In response, Italy established a radiation surveillance program to monitor the impact of the base on the environment and public health. In the first systematic study of nuclear expertise in Italy, Davide Orsini focuses on the ensuing technopolitical disputes concerning the role and safety of US nuclear submarines in the Mediterranean Sea from the Cold War period to the closure of the naval base in 2008. His book follows the struggles of different groups—including local residents of the archipelago, US Navy personnel, local administrators, Italian experts, and politicians—to define nuclear submarines as either imperceptible threats, much like radiocontamination, or efficient machines at the service of liberty and freedom. Unlike inland nuclear power plants, vividly present and visible with their tall cooling towers and reactor containers, the mobility and invisibility of submarines contributed to an ambivalence about their nature, perpetuating the idea of nuclear exceptionalism. In Italy, they symbolized objects in constant motion, easily removable at the first sign of potential harm. Orsini demonstrates how these mobile sources of hazard posed special challenges for both expert assessments and public understandings of risk, and in contexts outside the Anglo-Saxon world, where unique social power dynamics held sway over the outcome of technopolitical controversies.

Download or read book Soviet Cruise Missile Submarines of the Cold War written by Edward Hampshire and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-07-26 with total page 49 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Soviet Union's cruise missile submarines from the modified Whiskey, to the Oscar II classes were among the most formidable vessels of the Cold War. They were initially designed to carry land attack nuclear-tipped cruise missiles designed to strike targets on the eastern coast of the United States. By the late 1960s, however, submarine-launched ballistic missiles made the nuclear land-attack mission unnecessary, so existing classes were converted to the 'carrier killer' role, armed with anti-ship cruise missiles designed to destroy US super-carriers and other important naval targets. This fully illustrated study examines these powerful machines that were some of the largest and fastest submarines ever built. If war had broken out, they would have been at the forefront of the Soviet Navy's campaign to destroy NATO's sea power and cut America's sea link with Europe.

Download or read book Hunter Killers written by Iain Ballantyne and published by Orion. This book was released on 2013-09-12 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: HUNTER KILLER: a submarine designed to pursue and attack enemy submarines and surface ships using torpedoes. HUNTER KILLERS will follow the careers of four daring British submarine captains who risked their lives to keep the rest of us safe, their exploits consigned to the shadows until now. Their experiences encompass the span of the Cold War, from voyages in WW2-era submarines under Arctic ice to nuclear-powered espionage missions in Soviet-dominated seas. There are dangerous encounters with Russian spy ships in UK waters and finally, as the communist facade begins to crack, they hold the line against the Kremlin's oceanic might, playing a leading role in bringing down the Berlin Wall. It is the first time they have spoken out about their covert lives in the submarine service. This is the dramatic untold story of Britain's most-secret service.

Download or read book Stalking the Red Bear written by Peter T. Sasgen and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2009-03-17 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the untold story of a covert submarine espionage operation against the Soviet Union during the Cold War as experienced by the commanding officer of an active submarine. b&w photo insert.

Download or read book Blind Man s Bluff written by Sherry Sontag and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2008-03-04 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discover the secret history of America's submarine warfare in this fast-paced and deeply researched chronicle of adventure and intrigue during the Cold War that reads like a spy thriller. Blind Man's Bluff is an exciting, epic story of adventure, ingenuity, courage, and disaster beneath the sea. This New York Times bestseller reveals previously unknown dramas, such as: The mission to send submarines wired with self-destruct charges into the heart of Soviet seas to tap crucial underwater telephone cables. How the Navy's own negligence may have been responsible for the loss of the USS Scorpion, a submarine that disappeared, all hands lost, in 1968. The bitter war between the CIA and the Navy and how it threatened to sabotage one of America's most important undersea missions. The audacious attempt to steal a Soviet submarine with the help of eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes, and how it was doomed from the start. A magnificent achievement in investigative reporting, Blind Man's Bluff reads like a spy thriller, but with one important difference -- everything in it is true.

Download or read book U S Submarines Through 1945 An Illustrated Design History written by Norman Friedman and published by US Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2021-08-15 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Norman Friedman Illustrated Design History series of U.S. warships books has been an industry standard for three decades and has sold thousands of copies worldwide. To mark and celebrate this achievement, the Naval Institute Press is proud to make these books available once more. Digitally remastered for enhanced photo resolution and quality, corrected, and updated, this series will continue to serve--for scholars and enthusiasts alike--as the foundation for U.S. naval warship research and reference for years to come. U.S. Submarines Through 1945 is one the most comprehensive references available on the entire development of U.S. Submarines from the first commissioned undersea fighting vessel, Alligator, in 1862, to the S boats of World War I, and the feared fleet submarines of the Gato and Balao classes of World War II. Like the other books in Norman Friedman's design-history series, U.S. Submarines Through 1945 is based largely on formerly classified internal U.S. Navy records. Friedman, a leading authority on U.S. warships, explains the political and technical rationales of warship construction and recounts the evolution of each design. This volume is fully illustrated with deck plans, outboard profiles, sketches from major design studies, and numerous detailed photographs complement the text.

Download or read book Cold War Command written by Dan Conley and published by Seaforth Publishing. This book was released on 2014-06-30 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The part played in the Cold War by the Royal Navy's submarines still retains a great degree of mystery and, in the traditions of the 'Silent Service,' remains largely shrouded in secrecy. Cold War Command brings us as close as is possible to the realities of commanding nuclear hunter-killer submarines, routinely tasked to hunt out and covertly follow Soviet submarines in order to destroy them should there be any outbreak of hostilities. ??Dan Conley takes the reader through his early career in diesel submarines, prior to his transition to the complex and very demanding three-dimensional world of operating nuclear submarines; he describes the Royal Navy's shortcomings in ship and weapons procurement and delivers many insights into the procurement failures which led to the effective bankrupting of the Defence budget in the first decade of the 21st century. In command of the hunter killer submarines Courageous and Valient in the 1980s, he achieved exceptional success against Soviet submarines at the height of the Cold War. He was also involved in the initial deployment of the Trident nuclear weapon system, and divulges hitherto un-revealed facets of nuclear weapons strategy and policy during this period.??This gripping read takes you onboard a nuclear submarine and into the depths of the ocean, and relays the excitement and apprehensions experienced by British submariners confronted by a massive Soviet Navy.??As featured on White Horse News and in the Bath Chronicle.

Download or read book Emergency Deep written by Alfred Scott McLaren and published by University of Alabama Press. This book was released on 2021-05-25 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Conveys in dramatic detail the high-risk, covert operations of a nuclear attack submarine during the zenith of the Cold War Captain Alfred Scott McLaren served as commander of the USS Queenfish (SSN 651) from September 1969 to May 1973, the very height of the Cold War. As commander, McLaren led at least six major clandestine operations, including the first-ever exploration of the entire Siberian Continental Shelf: a perilous voyage detailed in his previous book Unknown Waters. Emergency Deep: Cold War Missions of a Submarine Commander conveys the entire spectrum of Captain McLaren’s experiences commanding the USS Queenfish, mainly in the waters of the Russian Far East and also off Vietnam. McLaren offers a riveting and deeply human story that illuminates the intensity and pressures of commanding a nuclear attack submarine in some of the most difficult circumstances imaginable. Relying on his own notes and records, as well as discussions with former officers and shipmates, McLaren focuses on operational matters both great and small. He recounts his unique perspectives on attack-submarine tactics and exploratory techniques in high-risk or uncharted areas, matters of leadership and team-building and the morale of his crews, and the innumerable and often unforeseen ways his philosophy of command played out on a day-to-day basis, with consequences that ran the gamut from the mundane to the dire and life-threatening. Readers are also treated to significant new information and insight on submarine strategy, maneuvers, and culture. Such details illuminate and bring to life, with both great humor and gravitas, the intensity and pressures on those engaged in covert missions on nuclear attack submarines.

Download or read book Red November written by W. Craig Reed and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2010-05-04 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Red November delivers the real life feel and fears of submariners who risked their lives to keep the peace.” —Steve Berry, author of The Paris Vendetta W. Craig Reed, a former navy diver and fast-attack submariner, provides a riveting portrayal of the secret underwater struggle between the US and the USSR in Red November. A spellbinding true-life adventure in the bestselling tradition of Blind Man’s Bluff, it reveals previously undisclosed details about the most dangerous, daring, and decorated missions of the Cold War, earning raves from New York Times bestselling authors David Morrell, who calls it, “palpably gripping,” and James Rollins, who says, “If Tom Clancy had turned The Hunt for Red October into a nonfiction thriller, Red November might be the result.”

Download or read book We Come Unseen written by Jim Ring and published by Faber & Faber. This book was released on 2011-05-19 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We Come Unseen, first published in 2001, follows the careers of six Royal Navy submariners from their graduation from Dartmouth's Britannia Royal Naval College in 1963, just after the Cuban Missile Crisis, to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Between these dates, it seemed that nuclear war was never far away - and Jim Ring explains not only the nuclear threat and its beginnings in the last days of the Second World War, but why the Polaris and Trident submarines ('capable of inflicting the damage of the bombs that fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki many times over'), and their accompanying attack submarines, were critical to avoiding war. Alongside a gripping narrative of the Cold War game of hide-and-seek played out under the waves of the northern seas, Ring gives an account of the history of submarine warfare from its earliest, pre-nuclear days to the 1982 combat in the Falklands.'A welcome acknowledgement of one of the Cold War's little-known aspects.' Alan Judd, Sunday Telegraph'An extraordinary story . . . one of the most significant naval books of the year.' Ship's Telegraph'A remarkable story.' Navy News

Download or read book Standing Watch written by Jonathan Li-Chung Leung and published by University Alabama Press. This book was released on 2019-04-30 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first book to capture and preserve the inside story of the exclusive brotherhood that manned the front lines of the Cold War Featuring interviews from seventeen veteran submariners, Standing Watch: American Submarine Veterans Remember the Cold War Era offers the perspective of the submariners themselves—lending them a voice and paying homage to their service. Jonathan Li-Chung Leung provides an original glimpse into a world of unique challenges and characters, a life isolated and submerged, and a duty defined by the juxtaposition of monotonous routine and unparalleled excitement. These personal accounts of life below the surface offer readers a front-row seat to close encounters with Soviet submarines and the naval blockade during the Cuban Missile Crisis, as well as an intimate understanding of daily life onboard the vessels, the culture of military discipline, and the religious-like fervor exercised in honoring traditions big and small. By applying first-hand perspectives to a larger thematic overview, this book uses authentic narratives to deliver a lively and colorful picture of the Silent Service. Set against the backdrop of sobering geo-political disputes and their own role as the nation’s defenders against a seemingly ambiguous super-enemy, these veterans focus on their responsibilities and reflect on careers built on the simple axioms of pride and service. This invigorating and unalloyed account is an unprecedented addition to the existing literature on naval and military history.