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Online Catalogue last updated 12th of November 2015
Diesels for the First Stealth Weapon: Submarine Power 1902-1945 by Lyle Cummins
cover photo
A comprehensive and profusely illustrated history of the world's submarine diesels from origins to peak of perfection in World War II. It tells of their designers, builders and dedicated submariners caring for these always state of the art engines in their demanding roles.
In 1921 a United States Navy officer wrote that "the requirements of a submarine diesel engine might be considered as a quest of the absolute." His statement is this book's theme, a long neglected subject. Much has been written on the diesel boats which played such destructive roles in two world wars of the last century. Yet rarely do they tell about the engines propelling them or charging their batteries for the power to run submerged. For the first time the submarine diesels of all the world's navies are described beginning with their less than proven designs when Rudolf Diesel's brainchild was still in its infancy.
Included are the people and engine makers who transformed the diesel into a reliable and durable submarine power plant. Here also are first hand accounts from the enginemen serving on these boats and how politics and government bureaucracies affected diesel progress. This unique history will appeal to navy veterans, engine enthusiasts and readers interested in a technology's evolution.
Chapter titles trace the course of the engine's development:
- Prologue: Travelling Under Water - and Surviving
- Rudolf Diesel and His Contributions
- French Diesels Go to Sea 1904-1918
- Experience Pays Off - Pre-1914 German Progress
- Baltic and Mediterranean Diesels 1908-1918
- Switzerland - Engines but No Navy 1910-1918
- The British Navy's Unique Submarine Diesels 1906-1918
- Starting from Nothing - U.S. Navy Diesels 1909-1918
- The Standard Setters - Germany 1914-1918
- Domestic or Foreign? U.S. Navy Diesels 1919-1931
- Veiled Groundwork- Germany 1920-1931
- Interwar Sulzer - Supplier to the World 1919-1940
- The French Foreign Legion of Diesels 1920-1940
- Soviet and Scandinavian Submarine Diesels 1919-1945
- Italian Domestic Submarine Power 1920-1943
- Japan Builds Beyond Licensed Designs 1919-1945
- The British Royal Navy's Potpourri of Engines 1920-1945
- Germany - Successful Complexity 1931-1945
- Locomotive Diesels Join the U.S. Navy 1932-1945
With 450 illustrations.
Code No. 012548, 740 pages, ISBN 9780917308062, $70.00
This item is listed under the following subjects:
Engine
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