What I'm reading

Above Us The Waves

Warren & Benson. Published by George Harrap, 1953. Hardback.

This is an excellent account of how the British frogman developed over the course of the Second World War. The authors, writing in the early 1950's, have been able to provide first hand knowledge of this topic, having served themselves on human torpedoes and in midget submarines.

The book is well balanced in its treatment of the subject. It would be easy to focus just on the craft themselves, or on the diving equipment, or on the missions that were undertaken. However, the authors have taken care to address each of these areas and within a readable narrative structure that follows the timeline of the war.

This true story is written in an engaging manner with plenty of anecdotes that can only have come from people who served. It is therefore a book which satisfies not only the appetite of the technical aficionado, but also those who value the human dimension of these early, daring forays into an exceptionally hazardous underwater world.

Commando - Flying Frogman

D. C. Thomson & Co., 1979. Soft cover.

In June 2000 I did the Dutch military parachutist training course at Texel in the Netherlands, and got my wings. I went on to complete 147 jumps in total. I was an avid diver at the time, and of course it occurred to me that it would be "interesting" to parachute into the sea with my scuba gear on. What a way to get to a dive site!

Well, needless to say I never did it. We live in a health & safety obsessed culture, and the opportunity to organise such a thing just wasn't there. But the idea is still brilliant.

It is also an idea that is fully explored in this issue of Commando magazine. It is fairly easy to obtain although it was printed back in 1979. I got my copy off eBay for a couple of quid. The publishers, D.C. Thomson, enjoyed a solid reputation from the 1940's through to the 1970's for producing such material. Commando was only one of their publishing vehicles. Others included boys' comics such as Hotspur and Victor.

The story, appropriately called Flying Frogman, is set in the Second World War. It's about some divers who were given airborne training so they could parachute behind naval blockades and plant mines on German ships. I don't know if such a thing actually was done back then, but I'm aware that in modern times certain elite "para scuba" commandos have been trained to do this.

Anyway, it's a great yarn. If you remember reading this sort of stuff under the bedsheets at night, or perhaps on a lazy Sunday afternoon, then you'll enjoy reminiscing with this story as much as I have done.

Underwater Exploration

Richard Bowood, Ladybird Books, 1967. Hardback.

I have owned a copy of this ever since I was a child; it is one of the first books I remember and one of the first I will have learned to read.

Generations of British schoolchildren grew up with Ladybird books. They tended to average about 50 pages, of which 25 (the left hand pages) would consist of text. The remaining 25 (the right hand pages) were illustrations. This book conforms to that same format. In common with others in the series, the quality of both text and illustrations is excellent. The topic of underwater exploration has been well researched and the illustrations, by B. Knight, capture both the mystery and the opportunity presented to mankind by the watery deep. The first 16 pages are given over to the history of diving, including the evolution of standard dress, and the use of diving bells. The next 10 are given to deep sea operations. The remaining pages cover submarines, SCUBA, salvage, and research.

The outstanding characteristic of Ladybird books was that they made a subject accessible without dumbing-down any of the material. As such they retain their appeal for adults and children alike, and I am happy to say that this is an example which demonstrates the underlying principles admirably.

Public Safety Diving

Walt Hendrick & Andrea Zaferes, PennWell Corporation, 2000. Soft cover.

This is a book that provides a good methodological underpinning to bottle diving, and I consider it to be the most important book in my collection. What makes it so significant? Because it details the techniques that are core to diving safely in blackwater search and recovery operations.

I trained under the authors, Walter "Butch" Hendrick and Andrea Zaferes in Minnesota in 2001. This is essentially the reference book for their course. It covers all of the basics of departmental diving both rigorously and thoughtfully, from the organisation of a dive team through to the training of its members, the selection and usage of their equipment, and their operational deployment. It describes how to work in contaminated water and how to conduct searches.There is far more instructional material here than is needed for diving for old bottles. Moreover, whereas bottle diving is essentially a solo activity, the techniques advocated by Hendrick and Zaferes in this book are oriented around tethered diving operations. Nevertheless, when used in conjunction with a proper training course, this book does cover the basics, and helps provoke thoughtful analysis of the blackwater search and recovery problem.

Frogmen: First Battles

William Schofield and P.J. Carisella, Brandon Books, 2005. Soft cover.

This is a book about the beginnings of combat frogmen in the Second World War. In the early years it was an area of underwater operations that was dominated by the Italians, and marked by their extensive operations in the Mediterranean against the Royal Navy.

Schofield and Carisella place a clear focus upon the pioneering work carried out by Italian divers, and upon one organisation in particular - the Decima MAS. This was an elite body of divers who were the first to use manned torpedoes, and also the first to develop and apply the skin diving apparatus that would become indelibly associated with the term "frogman". The authors provide a carefully paced account of their beginnings and their missions in Gibraltar, Malta, and Alexandria. It also covers the Decima's plans to attack New York, which were aborted following the Italian armistice.

It's an interesting read, but for such an important account it leaves a good deal missing. It pays scant regard to the role of Decima MAS after the Italian capitulation in September 1943. Admittedly the book is titled "First Battles", and in that sense it does what it says on the tin. But a more complete history would describe how some Decima MAS members joined with the Allies, while in the German-occupied north it continued in a very savage, pro-fascist, anti-semitic, and anti-partisan role alongside German army units commanded by SS General Karl Wolff.

In summary it smacks of self-censorship and selective memory. This book is a missed opportunity to provide an insight into what made a truly elite body of men make the most important individual decisions of their lives: whether to take the opportunity provided by the armistice to fight against Hitler, or to commit war crimes in further support of his twisted ambitions. That decision - and not the operations in Malta, Gibraltar, or Alexandria - was the first and only battle upon which reputations would be made and lost.

The Frogmen

Tom Waldron & James Gleeson, The Quality Book Club (also Pan Books), 1950's/60's. Hardcover.

This book is arguably the most widely recognised account of diving operations in the Second World War. It shares much in common with Above us The Waves by Warren & Benson in that it was written by British combatants shortly after hostilities ended. The emphasis is placed upon British initiatives, but German and Italian efforts are not short-changed.

Waldron and Gleeson start with Italian innovations in the Mediterranean, and how they provoked the British into developing a similar capability. Whereas the Royal Navy spent the early part of the war developing miniature dry submarines such as the X-Craft, and the Sladen-suited divers who were deployed in Norway, the Italians pioneered the manned torpedo concept and a much sleeker skin diving apparatus. The authors describe how these innovations spurred the British into playing catch-up and developing both. The evolution of what was to become a quite comprehensive British approach to combat diving is therefore placed into context.

There is interesting coverage of German developments in this area, which were comparatively late and half-hearted, and did not come into effect until 1944. Waldron and Gleeson describe how the German navy formed a skin diving unit which was trained in Venice, only to be played against a rival SS unit consisting of ill-disciplined thugs. The tensions between them is one of the highlights of this book.