Royal Navy and Anti-Submarine Warfare 1917-49

<p>An essential new account of how anti-submarine warfare is conducted with a focus on both historic and present-day operations. </p><p>This new book shows how until 1944 U-boats operated as submersible torpedo craft which relied heavily on the surface for movement and charging their batteries. This pattern was repeated in WWII until Allied anti-submarine countermeasures had forced the Germans to modify their existing U-boats with the schnorkel. Countermeasures along also pushed the development of high-speed U-boats capable of continuously submerged operations. </p><p>This study shows how these improved submarines became benchmark of the post-war Russian submarine challenge. Royal Navy doctrine was developed by professional anti-submarine officers and based on the well-tried combination of defensive and offensive anti-submarine measures that had stood the press of time since 1917 notwithstanding considerable technological change. </p><p>This consistent and holistic view of anti-submarine warfare has not been understood by most of the subsequent historians of these anti-submarine campaigns and this book provides an essential and new insight into how Cold War and indeed modern anti-submarine warfare is conducted. </p>