Axis Midget Submarines

Axis Midget Submarines
Author: Jamie Prenatt
Publisher: Osprey Publishing
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2014-06-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781472801227

Axis Midget Submarines details the history, weapons, and operations of German, Japanese, and Italian midget submarines during World War II. Over this period, Germany, Japan, and Italy built approximately 2,000 small, inherently stealthy, naval craft to perform special operations and conventional navy missions. Much more numerous and more technically advanced than their Allied counterparts, they saw service worldwide, operating in the Pacific, Mediterranean, Black Sea, Indian Ocean, North Sea, and the English Channel. Manned by courageous crews, these vessels made daring attacks on Allied ships in heavily protected anchorages using torpedoes and mines. Most notable were attacks against Gibraltar - launched from an Italian cargo vessel interred in nearby neutral Spain that had been converted into a clandestine support base and equipped with an underwater hatch - and Pearl Harbor. They were used against shipping in coastal waters and, near the end of the war, in desperate attempts to offset their opponents' overwhelming naval superiority during the US advance across the Pacific and the Allied amphibious landings in France and Italy. In this book, the term midget submarine includes submarines of less than 50 tons, equipped with two torpedoes and a crew of 1-4, and manned torpedoes, relatively short range torpedo-size craft with one or two operators and armed with either mines or one torpedo. It excludes vessels designed as suicide craft. It addresses operational vessels and prototypes, spanning 11 German, 4 Japanese, and 5 Italian classes. The most advanced types incorporated innovative design features and served as the basis for a number of post-war vessels. This book also briefly covers the larger vessels used to transport the midget submarines to their operational areas. Also included is an analysis of the effectiveness of these vessels, including an examination of their strengths and weaknesses. The success (or lack of success) will be discussed both in the context of the individual vessel design and as a component of their respective nation's submarine force. They are also compared to similar Allied designs.

Axis Midget Submarines

Axis Midget Submarines
Author: Jamie Prenatt
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 50
Release: 2014-06-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 1472801237

During World War II, Germany, Japan, and Italy built approximately 2,000 small, inherently stealthy, naval craft to perform special operations and conventional naval missions. Much more numerous and more technically advanced than their Allied counterparts, they saw service worldwide, operating in the Pacific, Mediterranean, Black Sea, Indian Ocean, North Sea, and the English channel. Manned by courageous crews, these vessels made daring attacks on Allied ships in heavily protected anchorages using torpedoes and mines. Most notable were attacks against Gibraltar – launched from an Italian cargo vessel interred in nearby neutral Spain that had been converted into a clandestine support base and equipped with an underwater hatch – and Pearl Harbor. They were used against shipping in coastal waters and, near the end of the war, in desperate attempts to offset their opponents' overwhelming naval superiority during the US advance across the Pacific and the Allied amphibious landings in France and Italy. This volume will detail the history, weapons, and operations of German, Japanese, and Italian midget submarines.

Midget Submarines of the Second World War

Midget Submarines of the Second World War
Author: Paul Kemp
Publisher: Chatham Publishing
Total Pages: 136
Release: 1999
Genre: History
ISBN:

The author looks at why major navies engaged in the development of midget submarines during World War II.

World War II Sea War, Vol 6: The Allies Halt the Axis Advance

World War II Sea War, Vol 6: The Allies Halt the Axis Advance
Author: Donald A Bertke
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 586
Release: 2014-05-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 1937470091

Major Pacific actions from April through August 1942 include the Japanese attack on Ceylon, the Doolittle Raid on Japan, the battle of the Coral Sea, the battle of Midway Island, the U.S. landing on Guadalcanal, the battle of Savo Island, and the battle of the eastern Solomon Islands. Arctic actions include battle for convoy PQ.17. In Mediterranean, the Royal Navy interdicts Axis supply lines along Libyan and Egyptian coasts. In the Atlantic, the U.S. implements convoys along the East Coast.

The Black Prince And The Sea Devils

The Black Prince And The Sea Devils
Author: Jack Greene
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2004-03-17
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0306813114

The only biography of Prince Valerio Borghese-the legendary Italian World War II naval commando whose covert activities shocked the Allies and became a model for today's "special forces"

Kriegsmarine U-boats 1939–45 (1)

Kriegsmarine U-boats 1939–45 (1)
Author: Gordon Williamson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 77
Release: 2012-04-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 1780966148

This, the first of two volumes on Germany's World War II U-boats, traces their development from the early U-boats of the Kaiser's Navy, the prohibition on Germany having U-boats following the Armistice in 1918 and the subsequent Treaty of Versailles, the secret development of U-boats using a 'cover-firm' in Holland, culminating in the formation of the 1st U-boat Flotilla in 1935 with the modern Type II. The operational history section includes examples from the Classes Type VIIA, Type VIIB, VIID, VIIE and VIIF before concentrating on the mainstay of the U-boat arm, the Type VIIC. Comparisons are also made with the standard allied submarines, their strengths, weaknesses and U-boat tactics.

Submarines

Submarines
Author: David Ross
Publisher: Chartwell Books
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2016-10-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 078583446X

Submarines have changed the face of naval warfare since the first German U-boat in World War I. This heavily illustrated history charts submarines from then to now.

The Lost Submarines of Pearl Harbor

The Lost Submarines of Pearl Harbor
Author: James P. Delgado
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
Total Pages: 510
Release: 2016-11-16
Genre: History
ISBN: 1623494672

In the pre-dawn darkness of December 7, 1941, five Imperial Japanese Navy submarines surfaced off the coast of Oahu. Secured to the decks of these vessels were secret weapons to be deployed for the first time in modern warfare: two-man midget submarines, intended to enter Pearl Harbor without being detected and torpedo the US Navy battleships lying at anchor there. None of them would return from their mission. “One of the last remaining and persistent mysteries of the Pearl Harbor attack is that of the Japanese Midget Submarines. It is a fascinating story of innovation, courage, secrets, and failed expectations. And it is not only a story of the morning hours of December 7, but of the years before to develop these weapons and the years after, where they were deployed in the great Pacific War and how they fared as weapons of war.” These words by Daniel J. Basta, from the foreword of this work, capture both the essence and the impact of The Lost Submarines of Pearl Harbor. James P. Delgado and his coauthors have worked on the story of these incredible craft for decades. They combed the records of the US Navy and the recollections of its veterans as well as Japanese, Australian, and British archives in order to uncover the truth. They have logged hours of direct observation and research on the midget subs in their final resting places, in some cases more than 1,000 feet below the surface of the Pacific. And in the end, they have woven a tapestry of scholarship, historical sleuthing, scientific insight, and good storytelling that will enthrall specialists and history enthusiasts alike.

Hellions of the Deep

Hellions of the Deep
Author: Robert Gannon
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 258
Release: 1996-01-01
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0271038403

Ultimately, World War II was the first war won by technology, but within only a few weeks after the war began, the U.S. Navy realized its torpedo program was a dismal failure. Submarine skippers reported that most of their torpedoes were either missing the targets or failing to explode if they did hit. The United States had to work fast if it expected to compete with the Japanese Long Lance, the biggest and fastest torpedo in the world, and Germany's electric and sonar models. Hellions of the Deep tells the dramatic story of how Navy planners threw aside the careful procedures of peacetime science and initiated &"radical research&": gathering together the nation's best scientists and engineers in huge research centers and giving them freedom of experimentation to create sophisticated weaponry with a single goal&—winning the war. The largest center for torpedo work was a requisitioned gymnasium at Harvard University, where the most famous names in science worked with the best graduate students from all around the country at the business of war. They had to produce tangible weapons, to consider production and supply tactics, to take orders from the military, and, in many cases, also to teach the military how to use the weapons they developed. World War II grew into a chess match played by scientists and physicists, and it became the only war in history to be won by weapons invented during the conflict. For this book, Robert Gannon conducted numerous interviews over a twenty-year period with scientists, engineers, physicists, submarine skippers, and Navy bureaucrats, all involved in the development of the advanced weapons technology that won the war. While the search for new weapons was deadly serious, stretching imagination and resourcefulness to the limit each day, the need was obvious: American ships were being blown up daily just outside the Boston harbor. These oral histories reveal that, in retrospect, surprising even to those who went through it, the search for the &"hellions of the deep&" was, for many, the most exciting period of their lives.

The World's Most Powerful Submarines

The World's Most Powerful Submarines
Author: David Ross
Publisher: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc
Total Pages: 231
Release: 2016-12-15
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 1499465866

The World’s Most Powerful Submarines features 52 of the most significant submarines built, from the German U-9 through the USS Ray and huge Japanese I-400 class of World War II, to the great nuclear-powered submarines of the Cold War. Also included are the latest attack and ballistic missile submarines. Each entry includes a brief description of the submarine’s development and history, a color profile view or cutaway, key features, and specifications. Packed with more than 200 artworks and photographs, The World’s Most Powerful Submarines is a colorful guide for the military and naval history enthusiasts.