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Sea Wolves: The Extraordinary Story of Britain's WW2 Submarines [Hardcover]

Tim Clayton
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
RRP: £22.00
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Book Description

7 July 2011

Sea Wolves is the story of the crews who bravely manned British submarines in the Second World War. This small band of highly trained and highly skilled individuals fought in the front line for six long years, undertaking some of the most dangerous missions of the war.

Britain's Sea Wolves operated close to shore in mined waters, attacking warships and heavily guarded convoys. But in the course of these vital operations, the submariners suffered devastating casualties.This is the vivid, thrilling story of the survivors and their promising young comrades who fought with such courage, in the face of the sickening terror of depth-charge attacks and the cold fear of having to escape from a sunken submarine filled with the bodies of close friends.


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Product details

  • Hardcover: 448 pages
  • Publisher: Little, Brown (7 July 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1408702290
  • ISBN-13: 978-1408702291
  • Product Dimensions: 16.5 x 24.3 x 4.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 200,677 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Product Description

Book Description

* A fascinating book about an otherwise neglected aspect of the Second World War

From the Back Cover

Sea Wolves is the story of the crews who bravely manned British submarines in the Second World War. This small band of highly trained and highly skilled individuals fought in the front line for six long years, undertaking some of the most dangerous missions of the war.

Britain's Sea Wolves operated close to shore in mined waters, attacking German warships and heavily guarded convoys. But in the course of these vital operations, the submariners suffered devastating casualties. This is the vivid, thrilling story of the survivors and their promising young comrades who fought with such courage, in the face of the sickening terror.

'Clayton's pages are peopled with eccentrics . . . Full of the picturesque detail of cramped submarine life . . . the monotonously throbbing engines; the sudden panic dives; the smells of oil, unwashed bodies and rotting food; the stifling lack of space . . . Sea Wolves is a fine memorial to these men' Nigel Jones, Literary Review

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Customer Reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5 stars
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Great Story Telling 25 July 2011
Format:Hardcover
This is the first book that I have read covering the men and operations of the British submarine force in the Second World War. I have read heaps of books on German U-boats, US Pacific submarines, and Japanese submarine operations in the Pacific but never anything on the British. This book offers a very good account of the men, officers and ratings, and their submarines during operations in European waters, the Mediterranean and the Pacific.

The British submarines tended to operate close to shore in mined and heavily patrolled waters, and in parts of the Mediterranean, in very shallow and clear waters that accounted for the high losses suffered in that theatre. Whilst operating off Norway in the early stages of the war the British crews had to work with long daylight hours, which caused all sorts of problems not experienced by other navies' submarines during WW2. This is best expressed in the following passage from the book:

"Somehow the horror of that grim summer which claimed half our flotilla lies almost forgotten - the translucent seas, with never a ripple to hide us from our foes above; the cloudless skies, that seldom darkened in those northern latitudes to give us the blessed shield of invisibility for which we craved to charge our batteries; the everlasting anxiety as to when we could venture up to change the foul air in the boat; men panting like dogs in the carbon-dioxide laden stench we breathed; the plaintively repeated signals from our base asking for one or other of our flotilla mates to report their position - the sign that yet another boats was overdue; all these things are but unreal memories." - (Sub-lieutenant Ben Bryant who survived the war and retired as a rear-admiral in 1957).

Under these conditions the submariners suffered devastating casualties, comparable with RAF Bomber Command. This book offers the reader a vivid and insightful story of the men who served in British submarines during the Second World War. It is well worth the read as the book places you with these men as they face the terror of being depth-charged and the horror of trying to escape from a sunken submarine filled with the bodies of their comrades.
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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Submarine Heroes 18 July 2011
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Sea Wolves is an outstanding contribution to our knowledge of British submarine operations in the Second World War. Its splendid script weaves the operations, the sailors, the enemy, the sea and the Nation into a lively and comprehensive narrative that I could not put down. It brilliantly combines people, plans, politics, politicians and platforms but it is the people that are at its centre and the core is focused upon the submariners from Admiral to Able Seaman. It covers the characters, known and unknown, their courage, their competence (or otherwise)their capabilities, their comradeship and their capacities: for fighting (the enemy and each other!) women, lust, sport, money, travel, food and alcohol. Tim Clayton brings them to us: their lives, their loves and their losses; one part stiff upper lip, the other crippling reality of combat and death.

The pace is hectic and I am impressed by the manner, in which the author keeps it going. He has packed a lot into nearly 400 pages and the result is excellent. There is journalistic licence and some deductions, analysis and speculation are presented as facts but one can forgive this travesty. He covers the planning, the operational and the technical but I was especially moved by the women in the story; the wives, the fiancees, the girfriends. They too had a tough war; often never knowing what had become of their men. Their courage is understated but real.

The drinking, the breakdowns, the sex, the swearing, the brutality, the doubts, the destruction and the failures are all carefully portrayed, all experiences of men in the front-line. The photographs are illuminating too: change the uniform (or rather lack of them) and wind forward to 2011 and it could be Afghanistan rather than the ocean in 1941. If you are interested in men at war, this book is highly recommended. Tim Clayton has done British Submariners of the Second World War a great service; they deserve to be remembered.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Only the Bravest Need Apply 30 Aug 2011
By Duncurin VINE™ VOICE
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a wonderful, riveting account of the lives and exploits of some of the bravest men of WW2 who went to war in what, we would regard today, as almost squalid conditions. A service that was discounted as an irrelevance by many in the Royal Navy and often with inferior, under-resourced and hastily commissioned submarines, with every possibility of being sunk by their over-enthusiastic compatriots as well as the Axis. The array of unappealing demises that lay in wait for these men, each more terrifying than the next, is described in almost clinical detail, but is counterbalanced beautifully with detailed and insightful accounts of the personalities and the character of the bravest of brave men who sought to wage war in this way. Somehow they were able to put to one side the ever-present possibility of a grisly death and managed to perform their duty on many more occasions than official records, I am certain, will be able to demonstrate. Surely the epithet of "Hero" was never more deserved. I wonder which words such men would have for some of our more self-serving politicians and the young looters we saw on the news of last week. In any event this book is a detailed, moving and beautifully written testament to their success, their lives and to their deaths. Excellent - I feel proud and privileged to have read it.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars Neglected subject
One of the few books about British submarines a change from all the ones about german u boats. Would be nice to see one about the Japanese as well.
Published 6 days ago by Colin Sharp
5.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting
This is an area of WW2 that I have been very unfamiliar with, everyone knows about the German U-boat threat and possibly a bit more about what the Americans did in the pacific, but... Read more
Published 13 days ago by Mr. M. Regan
5.0 out of 5 stars Exciting book
An insight into the dangers faced by submariners during WW2 not onle did they have the enemy to contend with but old boats not up to the job and faulty torpedoes
Published 21 days ago by P. H. Jones
5.0 out of 5 stars Didn't leave me with that sinking feeling
I always worry a little when I buy a second-hand book, but when my copy of Sea Wolves turned up I was really impressed. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Nick
4.0 out of 5 stars very evocative
Covers an overlooked subject well with lots of interesting period and technical detail. It manages to get across the attitudes of the times which other books don't seem to bother... Read more
Published 2 months ago by book worm
5.0 out of 5 stars Sea wolves
This book is my dad's past he past away in 1965 and did not say much about the war this book is all and more than I could have hoped for .
Published 2 months ago by Kevin Conyers
4.0 out of 5 stars Palpable Fear Under the Waves
A fine piece of writing about a largely forgotten piece of WW2 history. Submarine warfare in WW2 is dominated in terms of accounts by the famous U-boats and their charismatic... Read more
Published 3 months ago by A. R. Krantz
5.0 out of 5 stars Sea Wolves
An excellent Book and well worth reading. I am ex RN and have been down in a Submarine but how those guys performed their job during the 2nd World War, it must have been... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Mr Michael E.Street
5.0 out of 5 stars I simpy couldn't put it down!
Dear Mr Clayton, I'm in your debt.

Having never read any book on submarine warfare I found this to be one of the best war books I've ever read, I simply couldn't put it... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Beach Buff
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!
This was bought as a gift. The product arrived quickly and is what we wanted. Would order books again from here
Published 4 months ago by Sharon Atkinson
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