Aircraft vesus submarine. The evolution of the anti-submarine aircraft, 1912 to 1980

Article number 10125100

On the eve of the First World War the aircraft seemed a spectacular if relatively harmless technological oddity with no real military application other than reconnaissance. The submarine however apparently totally undetectable, perhaps even invincible when submerged, had already gravely alarmed the Admiralties of the World. By the end of the First World War both aircraft and submarine had transformed warfare on land and sea and taken their place as not only decisive weapons of war but as deadly foes. The aircraft was the submarine’s natural predator. As early as 1912 aircraft were first thought of as a counter to the underwater threat and this book traces seventy years of subsequent development from the airship to the Nimrod. It is a story of see-saw technology with the advantage swinging to and from hunter and hunted, and this story reaches its climax during the Battle of the Atlantic 1941-43 when German submarines once again came close to severing Great Britain’s transatlantic lifelines. Alfred Price, author of Instruments of Darkness, excels at explaining in clear and understandable language the complexities of technological warfare, and he expertly describes the actions, the aircraft and the men involved, aircrew, submariners, scientists and Intelligence. Now once again the submarine represents a threat of immense potency and once again specialist anti-submarine aircraft and weapon systems are developing in parallel. This completely revised and updated edition of this famous book includes the latest available information and photographs on this most important aspect of modern warfare.