Tag: Midget

Free Download X3 to X54: The History of the British Midget Submarine by Keith Hall
English | December 7, 2023 | ISBN: 1803991992 | 192 pages | PDF | 32 Mb
The X Class submarines were conceived during WW2, small craft of around 51ft (16m) long, designed to be towed by a ‘mother’ submarine with a passage crew on board. Their midget size meant they could attack with stealth, and return to their towing submarine. Beginning with a look back over the wartime craft, this new study from ex-submariner Keith Hall charts the evolution of the X class subs, from X3 through X and XE, and onto the 1950s short-lived and unique Stickleback class. Only four Stickleback submarines were ever produced, with grand plans to use them to carry a 15-kiloton nuclear naval mine codenamed Cudgel deep into Soviet harbours. Nearly all scrapped, just one remains, an X51 now residing in the Scottish Submarine Centre in Helensburgh. With a wealth of imagery including archive X craft photographs as well as up-to-date views of the X51 Stickleback from the Helensburgh Museum, this book tells the little-known story of Britain’s midget class subs.

Free Download C.E.T. Warren, James Benson – Above Us the Waves: The Story of Midget Submarines & Human Torpedoes
Pen & Sword | 2006 | ISBN: 1844154408 | English | 282 pages | PDF | 75.37 MB
It was the Italians who pioneered the use of two-man human torpedoes or ‘chariots’, and their attacks on ships of the Royal Navy in Alexandria Harbour in 1941 caused Winston Churchill to write to the Chief of Staffs committee to enquire what was being done to emulate these daring attacks. The result was the development of British ‘chariots’ which were regarded as stop-gaps until the X-craft or midget submarines could be deployed.

Free Download Weapons of Desperation: German Frogmen and Midget Submarines of World War II by Lawrence Paterson
English | July 8th, 2022 | ISBN: 1526713470, 1591149290 | 256 pages | True EPUB | 12.62 MB
As the Third Reich headed for destruction, German ingenuity in the naval field turned to unconventional weapons – midget submarines, radio-controlled explosive boats, and various forms of underwater sabotage. This is one of the last un-chronicled areas of World War II naval history and this well-known author describes how, facing overwhelming odds, German sailors – most of them volunteers – mounted attacks that were little better than suicide missions. Judged by their effect on the Allied advance, their successes were slight, but there seems to have been no collapse of morale and the indomitable bravery of those involved makes riveting reading. Pieced together from fragmentary sources, this largely untold story uncovers some of the most desperate operations of the War.