The Hunter Hunted: Submarine Versus Submarine Encounters from Earliest Days to the Cold War

by Robert C. Stern

Well written narratives of dramatic engagements Much new information on many little-known incidents International in scope Submariners like to say that at sea there are only two kinds of submarines and targets. From their inception submarines have been hunters, and for much of their history they have been extremely difficult to counter, so it was inevitable that attempts would be made to use their hunting qualities against their own kind. This book chronicles some of the most significant of those clashes, from primitive beginnings to the dangerous, high-tech cat-and-mouse games of the Cold War era familiar from movies like The Hunt for Red October. At first submarines were little better than submersible torpedo-boats - and slow, half-blind ones at that - with weapons that could not operate in three-dimensions, so the early encounters occurred with the hunted party on the surface. Even then there were failures, mishaps and 'friendly fire' incidents, with mysteries surrounding the fate of some boats that remain unsolved to the present. It was not until 1945, when HMS/M Venturer sank U864, that a submarine fell prey to another while both were submerged. This is still the only such confirmed sinking, but since 1945 there have been rumours of others, accidental victims of the 'war by another name' that characterised the tension between the West and the old Soviet Union. The book concludes by investigating some of those for which evidence has leaked out. With individual chapters devoted to each incident, the book may be read as a series of dramatic narratives, but taken as a whole it amounts to a complete history of the submarine from an unusual and previously neglected angle.

208 pages, Hardcover

First published February 15, 2007

Reviews

[Kevin Barnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having served on US Submarines from the early 80's through the 90's this subject was always with me when I went to sea. Mr. stern did a great job of telling the stories as much as he could without all the politics of a war getting involved. What I was a bit surprised to learn was the quickness of most encounters. 15 minutes seem to be the average before one boat is gone. But the worst was the cases of "Fratricide". To lose a boat by your own side has to be the worst thing for the crew of the "winning side". I can not and really do not want to imagine what that is like. God seep to those men.