Historical Background

British submarines - mainly small craft designed for coastal operations and without air conditioning - were at sea on the first day of the war and operated in almost all theatres of the war - Atlantic, Mediterranean, Indian Ocean and Far Eastern waters.

In 1939, Britain had 58 submarines available, 47 of which could have been considered 'modern'. Around 270 British submarines were eventually deployed, supported by the gallant naval forces of the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Greece, Yugoslavia and the Free French. A high proportion of British submarines were lost in the war - seventy three - reflecting the difficulties of their operating areas and targets: the well protected German shipping around Northern Europe, the clear and shallow Mediterranean and the almost unbearably humid Malacca Straits and Indian Ocean. The lost submarines were almost always "with all hands" - a total of over 2000 men. An excellent overall summary of WWII operations, given as a lecture in 1949, is at the RN Submarine Museum website.

Admiral Sir Max Horton, Commander of British Submarines for three years, until taking up the job of Admiral Western Approaches.

The main operating areas of British Submarines can be divided into three main areas - 

a. The North Sea/Norwegian Sea: From the outset of war and, in lessening numbers, through to 1945. The targets were German shipping to and from Norway, to restrict movements of raw materials into Germany and to try to keep large units in port. The main shipping areas were heavily mined and convoys were also protected by both the coastal geography of Norway and efficient German Anti-Submarine (A/S) escorts. The submarines were based at Blyth, on the Northumberland coast, Dundee in Scotland, Lerwick in the Shetland Isles and also from the training bases around the Clyde, particularly at Rothesay and Holy Loch. Throughout the war, the Submarine Service mounted patrols in the North Sea and other Home waters to intercept U-boats and commerce raiders heading for the Atlantic to attack Allied trade. In the first five months of war four boats were lost and more casualties were suffered from April 1940 onwards as the war intensified. However, both by direct action and minelaying activities, Royal Navy submarines took a heavy toll of German troop transports, supply ships and escort vessels, quickly forcing the Germans to adopt defensive convoys. German shipping in Norwegian waters continued to provide profitable targets for the rest of the war.

b. The Mediterranean: Mainly 1940 to late 1943. To slow down and hinder German and Italian re-supply of the Afrika Corps. Initially the larger submarines from the Eastern Fleet operated in difficult circumstances - relatively shallow and clear water. Submarines were based at Algiers, Malta and Alexandria, and at times Beirut, Lebanon and Haifa, Palestine (now Israel). Additionally, later in the war, submarines would carry out patrols on their way through the Mediterranean on their way to the Eastern Fleet. Conditions in this theatre proved the most testing of the war. The proximity of Italian air and naval forces and the calm, clear and shallow water which made submarines vulnerable to detection and attack were factors which combined to cause high losses. On the other hand, the confined sea and plethora of targets on the one main supply route available to the enemy, also meant that successes were frequent. In 1940, reinforcements of the smaller U class boats were sent to operate from Malta. Large minelaying submarines brought in supplies which helped to keep the island in the battle despite the heavy Axis assault upon it. The boats based on Malta, together with S and T class submarines, were able to dominate the enemy's supply lines to such an extent that the toll they took of men, fuel and supplies - over one million tons of shipping - was a decisive contribution to the Allied victory in North Africa. The ultimate accolade came from General Fritz Bayerlein, Rommel's Chief of Staff, who said: "we would have taken Alexandria and reached the Suez Canal if it had not been for the work of your submarines". However, the price was high as 45 boats were lost. All five of the Victoria Crosses awarded to officers and men serving in conventional submarines during the Second World War were won in the Mediterranean theatre.

c. The Malacca Staits and into the seas around the East Indies (Indonesia). When the war in the Far East began at the end of 1941, the rapid loss of Hong Kong and Singapore to the Japanese forced the withdrawal of British submarines to bases in Ceylon and Australia. Mainly from the end of 1943, based at Trincomalee, Ceylon, and later at Fremantle, Australia. Patrols were to detect and report on Japanese sea traffic making attempts on India and Burma, carrying out attacks where possible, providing a barrier between Sumatra and Singapore. The great distances limited the range of the British boats to the area, and they could not reach the Pacific. British submarines contributed to the Allied, mainly American, effort which sank 90% of Japan's merchant navy during the war. Only three boats were lost in the Far East.

d. Training, both for submarine crews and for their Anti-Submarine colleagues in the surface fleet, was carried out around the Western Isles of Scotland, Londonderry in Northern Ireland, from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, from Durban in South Africa and from Trincomalee in Ceylon. An assortment of submarine types was employed in this role, some captured Italian submarines, old H and L Class boats, and even older 'Lend-Lease' boats from the USA.

e. Special Operations - the landing and collection of a variety of clandestine forces and agents. These 'insertions' occurred in all operational areas.

f. Midget Submarines and 'Chariots' - operated in all three main areas. While successful in their own right, they also helped to tie up extra enemy forces, and were also used for surveillance and pathfinder operations. 

During the Second World War, British submarines proved, for the second time in twenty years, their value and importance as a supreme strategic weapon. 475 merchant ships, 105 warships and 36 submarines had been sunk, with many others damaged. The course of the North African campaign had been decisively altered. However, the cost was a heavy one. 74 of the 206 boats in the Submarine Service did not return, while 3,142 men (1 in 3 who served) were killed and 359 captured.

From Commander J.J. Tall, OBE, RN, Director of the RN Submarine Museum

Unlike German and American submarines that mainly fought wide-ocean campaign, British submarines operated regularly in shallow water, densely populated with mines and defended by strong anti-submarine forces. The nature of these operations extracted a heavy price, and one in three submariners were killed. Despite these losses, the Service never lacked for volunteers, and stories of submarine exploits are legendary. Malcolm Wanklyn in Upholder, Tony Miers in Torbay, and Tubby Linton in Turbulent were VC winners and personified the skill and courage of all the crews. Clandestine operations figured largely in the tapestry of operations, with Alistair Mars's Unbroken being a leading exponent.  'Baldy' Hezlet's five hits out of eight torpedoes fired, in Trenchant when he sank Ashigara, will remain forever a world record. By the end of the war RN submarines had sunk or damaged by torpedo and gun two million tons of shipping, including 78 warships, 38 of which were submarines. In addition to the destruction of the enemy, submarines were tasked with surveillance and reconnaissance; cargo and troop carrying; mining; harbour penetration; air/sea rescue; and finally the vital task of training our own anti-submarine forces."

My daughter, Emilie, is currently (2007) at Kings College, London, on a War Studies degree course and the question of submarines came up as one of her essay subjects in her first year. This was her essay:

Introduction

Fighting a war from beneath the waves has only been possible for the past century. While tales of adventure and war on the high seas are to be found in history books spanning the centuries, submarines have not had their 'Trafalgar' they remain largely mysterious to the wider public and, accordingly, our knowledge of the submariner's experience of war is limited.

Partly this has to do with the relatively small number of men who have ever been part of a submarine's crew; many of those who have did not live to tell the tale, especially in the case of German U-boats. Additionally, as the submarine is a twentieth century phenomenon, much of the official information regarding the vessels has been secret until relatively recently. Piecing together the submariner's experience of war is consequently a challenge.

Bearing in mind the limited use of submarines in the First World War, the largest source of information for the submariner's experience of war comes from the Second World War, in which submarines became as vital as ships, soldiers and aeroplanes. As well as experience as direct combatants, it is also important to remember the role of submarines in the Cold War. Apart from wars fought by proxy in smaller states aligned to the USA and the USSR, the only real 'front line' between the superpowers was under the ocean.

The first submariners

During the First World War, submarines were used tentatively. Their introduction was a point of contention, to use them considered cheating or unfair play. The sinking of the British ocean liner RMS Lusitania by a German U-boat shocked the world and swayed America into joining a war in which they were previously neutral. As the war progressed and evolved into 'total war', the Germans felt they had no choice but to go ahead with unrestricted U-boat warfare. However, the emphasis at sea was still firmly on ships, specifically the dreadnoughts that had been so important to the pre-war arms races between the great powers of Europe.

The Battle of the Atlantic

As most of the evidence of submariners; experiences of war comes from the Second World War, it seems sensible to focus on this period. Additionally, submarines played a vital role in the Battle of the Atlantic, which was crucial to Allied progress in the war. After the war, Churchill revealed: "The only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril". U-boats had become one of the deadliest weapons in the world, with a terrifying success rate in the early stages of the war. There is a lack of translated testimonies from German U-boat submariners, mostly due to the great loss of U-boats during the war; very few men survived.

"Us and them" training and experience

Perhaps the most important point to remember when thinking of submarine crews in the Second World War was their youth, which meant limited experience and training. Lothar-Günther Bucheim, author of 'Das Boot', claimed that "the majority of submariners in the later war years were little more than children". The same can of course be said about all other military operations, in the fields, on ships, on airstrips and so on, as most of those on the front lines were young volunteers or young conscriptions. Still, it was perhaps most sharply felt in small submarine crews, perhaps of only thirty-six men, where the most senior officer was only twenty-five years old. Command was in the hands of very young men, with no previous experience of war. It is also worth considering the relatively new equipment they were working with, which did not really have a track record for safety or reliability. It is likely that submariners did not have as much trust in their vessels as surface sailors.

The lack of training and experience of those onboard affected not only combat situations but the daily running of the boat (this is not to say that crews did not deal with combat situations successfully; quite the opposite). The crew was not large enough, for example, to provide adequate medical care from a qualified doctor. If a man became ill he was sent to see the Cox'n, who would have completed a short course before going off to sea but was largely dependent on the boat's medical manual. Though under the charge of the 1st Lieutenant, the Cox’n was usually more experienced as officers were around twenty years of age.

The reason for such a small crew was of course, such a small space to put them in. Even the largest wartime submarines were cramped and uncomfortable. Despite this, perhaps there were some advantages to having such a small crew. For a start, an increased bond between crew members and a feeling of being part of a team is inevitable in a smaller group, and with that a very direct relationship with the submarine. A successful attack or escape could feel much more like a personal achievement in such circumstances. The consequence of that could be an increased sense of ‘us and them’, a real determination to defeat the enemy. Submariners also need not fear witnessing their comrades die alongside them, as soldiers and pilots inevitably must. Taking all this into account, it seems probable that a submariner is less likely to feel resentment about war and its purpose, especially given the superiority submariners felt about their high success rate. They were proud of each other, and especially proud of their captain who was by far the most important man on the boat (and the one in charge of the periscope).

At the same time, the small scale of the operation and accordingly reduced size of crew also allows submariners to be individualists. This was especially the case in 'midget' submarines (X-craft) which had a crew of just four men. One officer described his training as "sloping off to the nearest area, dropping to the bottom, putting on the kettle for tea, and settling down to a game of dice". Clearly this kind of behaviour would be impossible in an operation with a long chain of command and the possibility of being discovered; submarine operations allow a certain level of privacy and autonomy.

We Come Unclean: general conditions

One aspect of the submariner's life that is especially different to that of a surface sailor is the atmosphere and smell of the boat. In such cramped conditions the air quickly became stale, and unlike on a ship, it is impossible to go out on deck for fresh air. "The ships' comfortable cabins contrasted sharply with our tight quarters aboard [the submarine]", one German officer complained after being transferred to U-boats. The thought of being 'trapped' under the surface would be claustrophobic for the crew; a submariner cannot see where he is going in the same way as a sailor. Additionally, there is little sense of night and day as most of the patrol is spent in artificial light. Surfacing was done at night; sunshine and fresh air became unfamiliar. Conditions in the tropics were particularly unpleasant as the heat and humidity gave the crews sweat rashes and prickly heat, creating "great running sores of blood and sweat".

German U-boats were in some respects even more uncomfortable than Allied submarines. After spending a week on a captured U-boat used for training, one 1st Lieutenant remarked, "they were terribly wet boats: in the slightest swell, water came down into the boat from the hatch". They were also even more cramped than Allied boats, which made them humid. "Inside, the humidity was intolerable - paper dissolved. Our clothes were clammy and never dried", said one U-boat commander of his vessel.

Submariners are perhaps renowned for, and even proud of, their disregard for personal hygiene; as the submariners' song goes: "For I don't give a damn wherever you've been, nobody washes in a submarine".
This wasn't all personal choice of course, as the boat's supply of fresh water was for cooking and drinking only. As one U-boat commander remembers: "shaving implements were prohibited; our beards would have to grow."

One of the occupational hazards that made general conditions much more uncomfortable than those of a sailor was the after-effect of charging the battery. This involved bringing damp air into the boat and often some seawater in rough weather. If a large wave flooded the tower hatch, crew were temporarily deafened by the vacuum created.

The food provided for the crew was probably not so different to the food on ships, with fresh goods deteriorating quickly once the vessel was at sea, but general conditions probably made it less palatable. The Cox'n was responsible for messing and was probably as qualified in this area as he was in medicine. The mostly unqualified cooks were only able to use the galley (which itself was tiny compared to that on a ship) when the boat was surfaced. The time of surfacing was variable, so the cook often had little time to prepare a large number of substantial meals.

The smells of food going bad, damp and mildew, fuel oil and sewage made the cramped conditions even more uncomfortable. Again, these smells would have been common to a surface sailor's life also, but there was a lot of fresh air too. Also in common was the experience of bad weather and rough sea, but again the atmosphere in the submarines exacerbated this. When one crew member became seasick or ill, others usually followed: "the overbearing smells and the never-ending rocking made the men in the narrow drum dizzy and numb"

One of the particularly dreaded tasks on a submarine was the re-loading of torpedoes. A noisy job, it was done at night when surfaced, often in rough weather. This meant it delayed the hot meal and ration of rum usually served up, and the "fore-ends" were emptied. This included the sleeping and eating quarters of the junior rates and a food store, so there was no rest until the job was done.> Tasks like this disrupted life for everyone on board; on a ship such a task would only cause disruption to a small number of the crew.

The Cold War

After the Second World War, submarines remained vitally important for security. During the Cold War, the closest the two superpowers really came to fighting a ‘hot’ war was in issues related to missiles; who had them, and where they were. Missiles on land could be seen from satellites and reconnaissance missions, but missiles under the sea were much more of a threat, being moveable and almost invisible.

During the Cold War, some submariners may have experienced fear more often than a surface sailor; carrying such dangerous weapons meant that submarines were a far more important target than a ship on patrol. Others appreciated the defensive stance of nuclear submarines. As one rating commented, "you can hide better under the water than on the surface, and if you can't be found you can't be attacked.

In terms of conditions, both diesel boats and new nuclear submarines were more comfortable, with better food and air. There was more confidence in the equipment and the crews, though still young, were better trained and more experienced. In terms of safety, the boats had thicker hulls which were less likely to implode with a nearby detonation, and a greater diving depth and quieter running, both of which made detection less likely.

Submarines have been a vital part of warfare in the past century; as some would argue, they have made the difference between winning and losing wars. This is all the more remarkable given the difficulties inherent in keeping a vessel under the sea, with a small crew living in uncomfortable conditions. A cramped space with rare glimpses of sunlight or breaths of fresh air, the damp atmosphere and festering smells make the life of a submariner significantly more trying than that of a surface sailor.

At the same time, however, the close relationship between members of a submarine's crew, and the perceived importance of their work to the progress of a war, makes submariners unique in the forces. More so than on a ship, and perhaps than most other groups in the military, submariners have a 'gang mentality' and aptitude for teamwork that is invaluable in completing successful campaigns and making it back to port.