Product Description

From the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 to the fall of the Berlin Wall, the threat of a nuclear Armageddon was an everyday reality. The front line of what Churchill called the balance of terror was the submarine forces whose missiles were targeted on the world's cities. Hundreds of feet beneath the waves, these leviathans vied for supremacy that could mean global dominance - or destruction. Alongside them worked the attack submarines, tasked wtih finding the missile submarines and - in time of war - with destroying them.;Hitherto, on this side of the Atlantic, little more than hints of this remarkable tale have come to light. Now, granted exclusive access to its leading submarine commanders by the Royal Navy, Jim Ring tells the full story from its beginnings. With more than a side-glance at the Falklands War, the book culminates in the submarine operations of the Reagan-Thatcher Star Wars era that finally crushed Soviet hopes of victory at sea. In the words of Sir John Coward, Flag Officer Submarines: There was a war and we won it.; This book is as much about personnel as operations, and it follows the careers of six submarine commanders from their early days at Dartmouth to their remarkable escapades in the North Atlantic, the Mediterranean, the Norwegian and the Barents Seas. It provides a fascinating insight into the sort of men trained and prepared - literally - to press the nuclear button, who in the end gave us peace in our time. They are the more than worthy successors to Churchill's Few.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #551744 in Books
• Published on: 2001-07-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 270 pages

Review
'A welcome acknowledgement of one of the Cold War's little-known aspects' -- Alan Judd, Sunday Telegraph

Guardian
'An exhilarating history'

About the Author
Jim Ring's debut study of the Irish patriot Erskine Childers won the Marsh prize for biography. His second book, "How the English Made the Alps," the story of pioneer English alpinists, was published in 2000.

Customer Reviews

WE COME UNSEEN - A SUBMARINERS PERSPECTIVE
As a submariner, this book is a welcome insight into the previously secret world of submarines and the cold war. It appears that due to on-going national security, this lacks the details and background of some other good submarine books such as 'Blind Man's Bluff', but this does not in any way detract from this well researched and factually accurate piece. It provides a gritty appreciation into the demands and huge responsibility that belies being a submariner, and achieving the ultimate responsibility of Command.
Written cleverly to follow the lives of several young officers through their careers this book also provides a succinct, but detailed overview of major events and historical moments in the cold war.
This is well worth a read for anyone interested in submarine history or the cold war as this provides a unique perspective of the British contribution to these times. Don't hold your breath for Tom Clancy-style underwater epic tales though!