Naval Frogmen: Wartime Underwater Operators

by T.J. Waldron, James Gleeson

World War 2 divers enjoyed the new techniques of aqualungs, and the first were underwater oxygen rebreathers made in 1933 by an Italian company. Consequently the first well-known frogmen were the Italian navy commando frogmen. As the war developed all nations used frogmen for a variety of roles including placing limpet mines and the cutting of torpedo and submarine netting.

Genres: History, Military History, Military Fiction, World War II, War

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1950

About the author

Thomas John Waldron

Reviews

[Genifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was familiar with the origins of the American frogmen but the roots of the entire frogman species/group(?) beginning with the Italians was less familiar and I was totally clueless about the British frogmen. This book does a good job of describing the development of the program, and more interestingly, letting the frogmen themselves do the job. It's strong in describing activities on in the European theater yet lags significantly in describing the frogmen's activities in the Pacific theater. My one complaint is that the book is peppered with excerpts of fantastic interviews and commendations, yet it lacks any form of citation so i could find out where the author's materials came from.

[Alejandro Teruel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in 1950, this is a brief account of the first (Italian) frogmen and minisubs (X-craft) which caught British forces in the Mediterranean, particularly in Gibraltar by surprise. The British soon developed their own technology and countermeasures and trained special units of frogmen to use against the Axis powers. Later in the war, the Germans also appear to have trained a small number of frogmen.

After the first chapter (The Beginning – Italian Operations in the Mediterranean, the pace of the book is a little slow as the authors report on the development of the Royal Navy's frogmen, clamp mines and underwater vehicles and technology in two chapters (The Experimental Period and Human Guinea Pigs). The following chapter, “Chariot Operations” and Further Developments recounts the first offensive operations using submersibles which were ridden on by two frogmen, seated one behind the other. Next, Measures and Countermeasures - “X” Craft Operations provides a clear picture of what the frogmen on X-craft had to accomplish and what their operations were like, and the rapid evolution of X-craft and minisubs in the war years. Waldron and Gleeson also mention the misuse of underwater techniques for smuggling and report an Italian operation to smuggle dutiable articles on an underwater craft in a lake bordered by Switzerland, Germany and Austria.

An outstanding chapter is the one on the deployment of frogmen on D Day ( “D”Day). The frogmen were the first to reach the beaches and their extremely dangerous and important mission was to clear the mines and the intricate and formidable underwater obstacles which formed part of the Germans' Western Wall defences, while under fire. The chapter is vivid and provides the scope of the combined operation. The frogmen also played a key role in reclaiming captured ports since the Germans left them booby-trapped and mined. The story of this effort continues into the following chapter titled After “D” Day in Europe, which also includes the German belated effort to develop frogmen teams, including a very unsuccessful SS attempt to train an underwater team made up of criminals and prisoners. Reminiscent of the Dirty Dozen movie, their morale was low and most of the men preferred to surrender to the Allies rather than carry out their missions. It is for these two chapters that I have given the book four stars instead of three.

Two perfunctory chapters on operations in the Far East round out the book.

The book wraps up its rather biased conclusions in the final chapter, which also includes thoughts on the future peace time use of the technology developed during the war and the promise of underwater photography. Although the authors report on J. Hodges and L. K. P. Crabb's groundbreaking underwater photography and their prompt investigation of the accidental sinking of the British submarine Trucuent, the authors barely manage to mention the invention of compressed air diving equipment together with the key French aqua-lung developments, and Jacques Cousteau's pioneering underwater film Épaves ("Shipwrecks"), the first underwater archeological exploration (carried out by Costeau's team) of the Roman wreck of Mahdia (Tunisia) in 1948 -perhaps not so very surprising since the film was shown for the first time at Cannes in 1951-, and his team's participation in the rescue of Jacques Piccard's bathyscaphe in 1949. Waldron and Gleeson also mention the use of small underwater craft to smuggle dutiable watches and lipstick on a lake that borders Germany, Switzerland and Austria. In this sense, the fairly recent development and use of X-craft and minisubs by Colombian drug traffickers to attempt to smuggle drugs is much more chilling reminnder of the possible misuse of the technology.

The author's skilfully include some well chosen excerpts from personal accounts of the frogmen involved, although sometimes the tone of the book is reminiscent of Boy's Own magazines of the time.

An interesting book to introduce an important yet nowadays somewhat neglected aspect of naval special operations during World War II.

[Thomas B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Including first hand witness statements of cutting edge experimental warfare of its day, the language is a touch dated, but its value as a living history document of the types of people who braved extraordinary experimental risks through a sense of duty and patriotism shines through their voices.

I loved reading every page of this book, of a slice of WW2 human drama very poorly recognised.

[C. M. Kosemen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great account of the development of WWII underwater operations in Britain - full of strange anecdotes and heroic, near-forgotten missions.