"The Silent Deep - The Royal Navy Submarine Service since 1945"

"The Silent Deep - The Royal Navy Submarine Service since 1945" by Peter Hennessy and James Jinks. Publ. by Penguin Books in paperback, 2016. £14.99.

Speaking as a modeller with an interest in British submarines this book filled a large gap in my knowledge post 1945.

It is an excellent book but it may be described as a "winter read" with over 700 pages.

The co-author Peter Hennessy is a respected historian and he seems to have the common touch in that he clearly gains the trust of the many submariners that he talks with. Hennessy and Jinks write well with a good sense of action.

There is a lot of action too, with many accounts of cold-war scrapes with Russian subs. Something that was new (and rather scary) to me.

The development of the "independent nuclear deterrent" via the Polaris and Trident programmes is also covered well (and this is also scary!) It is also interesting to see how political factors are of such importance in this area and also how reliant the UK is on US cooperation and assistance.

The Falkland's conflict is covered in a good level of detail. The book also takes us up to the present with the Astute class. (Oh and the secrets of the "caravan of death" are revealed!)

So a very informative but heavy read.

David Forrest

Thanks to an invitation (and a free ticket!) from David J, to a lecture on Tuesday 30th January at Barrow in Furness held by the Barrow and District Association of Engineers:

http://www.bdae.org.uk/

As I parked in the Town Hall car park I realised that there was something special about this lecture because the car park was already full, half an hour before the lecture and we then joined an audience of over 500 in the main theatre to hear Peter Hennessy and James Jinks give a lecture based on their book. So a really good turnout for such a specialist topic.

Peter Hennessy was very candid and very funny and obviously warmed to an audience of folk who build and operate submarines.

He said that his interest in submarines was started when he spotted one of the original nuclear submarines being built (outside!) at Barrow from a nearby mountain!

After that he realised, as a historian, that there was very little published about British submarines post 1945, not least because so much was confidential. He stressed that the book is not an official or authorised history but was prepared with a high level of help and cooperation from RN personnel. His respect for "The Trade" ( to quote Kipling) is very evident.

James Jinks gave an excellent 15 minute presentation on UK submarine involvement in the Cold War. (His background is that he was one of Peter Hennessy's PhD students and is now a published author - "50 years of the Polaris Sales Agreement" and "A Very British Bomb.")

In the question session afterwards, it became clear that the Cold War nearly went away but has recently hotted-up considerably.

For several decades US & UK submarines had a large quality advantage (mainly in terms of quietness) but this advantage has now vanished (not least because of the activities of the "Walker Spy Ring.)

In summary, the book and the lecture  provided a lot of very useful background information for this particular British model submarine enthusiast.

David