Soviet Cold War Attack Submarines (New Vanguard)

Soviet Cold War Attack Submarines (New Vanguard)

Behind the Enigma

Behind the Enigma

Eric Thompson

One of the first ever memoirs by a Royal Navy nuclear submarine officer, this is the inside story of the men who ensured that 'Mutually Assured Destruction' was maintained at all times during the Cold War.

In his journey, the author leads the reader through top-secret submarine patrols, hush-hush scientific trials, underwater weapon developments, public relations battles with nuclear protesters, arm-wrestling with politicians and the changing roles of females and homosexuals in the Navy. It is essentially a human story, rich in both drama and comedy, like the Russian spy trawler that played dance music at passing submarines. There was never a dull moment.

Behind the lighter moments was a deadly serious game. This, the inside story of Britain's nuclear deterrent, reveals the secretive life of submarines and the men who served on them; they kept their watch, and by maintaining the threat of ‘Mutually Assured Destruction' helped keep Britain and the world safe.
£14.99
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  1. Highly Recommended
    If you like the thrills and spills of The Hunt for Red October or even some of the cliched lines in Crimson Tide, then this book could very much be one for your collection. On her Majesty’s Nuclear Service reads like a thriller from its first dramatic open lines on board the nuclear ballistic missile submarine HMS Revenge as it suffers what could have been a disastrous mechanical failure in the face of Soviet Block enemy forces. Readers under the age of 50 will probably have little comprehension of the state of fear we all lived under during the years of the Cold War when nuclear war was just a heartbeat away from becoming a reality, but the author successfully conveys the tension and the depths to which NATO and the Soviet Block would push each other in those long years between 1945 and 1989.
    The author tells a convincing and at times heart stopping tale of his life aboard the Royal Navy boomer boats of the Polaris fleet, but he had joined the Silent Service just after the end of World War Two and this excellent book charts his career from those early conventionally powered submarines to his promotion through the ranks to become one of the Royal Navy’s top nuclear engineers in charge of keeping Great Britain’s nuclear deterrent at sea and ready at all times.
    Along the way Eric Thompson charts the progress of Britain’s undersea warriors and has an occasional dig at politicians who chose to use the Royal Navy as a political football. Tales of torpedoes, CND protestors, gays and women, Polaris, atomic reactors, and Trident ICBMs are all contained within the pages of this autobiography.
    This book is highly recommended, not just for the detail and historical perspective it gives, but also for the lightness of the writing. This reviewer could almost sense Eric Thompson smiling wryly as he put his memories down on paper or computer screen.

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