THIS official account of submarine operations during the war is
the latest and one of the best of the series of Admiralty books about the war at sea. There is a great deal to tell, for the Submarine Service has been hard at it since the first day of war ; and, although there is space to report only a small part of the total achievement, there is enough to convey how endless and rewarding the effort has been. Stories of outstanding patrols are told in a quiet and straight- forward manner, free of any heroics and losing nothing by the lack, and with quotations from official patrol reports to add a dry, subtle flavour and much humour to them. These excerpts enliven, like good wine, a fare that might otherwise become stodgy with plain fact. Enough is said of the strategical background to show how submarine operations have fitted into the general pattern of the war, being an essential part of one campaign or another. Their main job was to harass the enemy's supply lines, with one eye always lifted for a sight, seldom gratified, of an enemy warship. Midget submarines and human torpedoes were daring and spectacular extensions to undersea warfare, but it was in the continuous cam- paign against enemy trade and supplies that the greatest successes were gained, the endless danger and hardship endured, and the heaviest penalty paid. The book succeeds well in making known what was achieved by our submarines.
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