I read a bunch of submarine books lately. Right now I'm in John Coote's "Submariner", just getting to the chapter on his time in command of the HMS Totem, which is pretty much why I bought the book.
Some time ago I also read "Red star under the Baltic" - and it is frankly awe-inspiring. I picked this book just after some of the well-known here American testimonials and the contrast is imressive. Obviously, the Russians were not nearly as goog sailors as the Americans and their (WWII) subs were way less advanced. But the amount of effort and danger theslightest thing required is just insane. Starting with the initial anecdote where three sailors are sent to repair an excavator in a cemetery, in the middle of winter in besieged Leningrad, and try to hitch a ride, then yell at a truck driver who wouldn't stop, only to see that the lorry was full of corpses... There is also the maintenance on screws done by divers who descend through a hole cut in the ice because they don't have drydocks and plenty of times where they have to invent a way to perform a complex task with near to no ressources... And then they do to patrol the desperately shallow Baltic sea where they take shelter from German ASW vessels in the middle of minefields....
Speaking of that, could anybody recommend some good reads on Soviet/Red side of underwater Cold War? I know they wrote less testimonials and I dont't read Russian but I still feel that perspective lacks.
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