HISTORY OF SUBMARINES, FROM ORIGINS TO THE PRESENT DAY

Evading observation and merging into the hostile environment of the ocean, submarines became the decisive weapon of naval combat and the one that preserves the strategic balance of nuclear deterrence between the great powers. Diving to the depths to explore, exploit, repair or rescue, in civilian or military applications, the submarine is on the verge of freeing itself from a crew through artificial intelligence.

Written by two specialists, this work explains the role of submarines since their appearance. Its extremely rich iconography — more than 750 images, including 180 new ones — features numerous previously unpublished documents from major international collections.

Entirely revised and updated, this fifth edition traces the technical developments and the evolution of strategies that led this submersible platform to transform the history of the 20th century.

CONTENTS:

• Foreword
• Chapter I: From the origins to harbour-defence submarines
• Chapter II: The submarine, a strategic weapon by chance (1899–1978)
• Chapter III: The submarine loses and wins the total war (1918–1945)
• Chapter IV: The true submarine (1945–1975)
• Chapter V: The race for silence (1975–1975)
• Chapter VI: Disarmament, unipolarity and littoral borders (1991–2007)
• Chapter VII: Power projection versus anti-access and global disorder (2007–2025)
• Chapter VIII: Special operations and midget submarines
• Chapter IX: Yellow submarines: rescue, exploration and commerce
• Chapter X: Unidentified underwater objects and unexplained abnormal phenomena
• Conclusion: Looking ahead to the 21st century