Michael White produced the first edition of his work back in 1992. It was a solid volume and well researched.
This new edition has brought us up to date with the Australian Submarine service. More than that, he has published a second volume of appendices to accompany it. The sheer detail available in the appendices is mindboggling. Details of ships crews and where they ended up, special units deployed by submarine in WW2, Honours and Awards to Australian submariners. There are five appendices detailing the AE1 and AE2, tech specs, crews, and inquiry papers on their loss.
Hardback 1580pp in two volumes RRP $140.0
White has included extensive detail on the Australians who served in submarines in the RN, as well as those vital but unrecognized members who manned the depot ships. With almost 1600 pages as well as an exhaustive index, these books set the standard. If readers ever wanted to find out about the Australian Submarine Service, these two weighty volumes will serve them well.
Reviewed for RUSIV by Bob Hart, January 2017
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