BALTIC ASSIGNMENT - British Submariners in Russia: 1914-1919.

UK,8vo slim HB+dw/dj,illustrated,1st edn.NFINE-/FINE.No owner inscrptn but price-clip to dw/dj.Bright,crisp,clean, glossy,wrap-around colour pictorial artwork illustrated dw/dj,with capitalised,black-lettered part-title,other black-lettered sub-title and author's name; spine/backstrip with similarly coloured+lettered part-title+author name and publisher's capitalised,black-lettered and b/w illustrated colophon to foot of same,rear panel with continuation of illustration and without any text. Negligible shelf-wear, bumping,creasing to edges and corners – no nicks,tears or splits present and minimal,superficial scoring/indent to either panel - none with penetration to boards beneath.. Top edges minimally and sporadically dust-flecked,fore-edges clean with one blemish but without other foxing/ spotting; contents bright,tight and clean top edges of all 4 sets of b/w photographs were once stuck but are now unstuck with some minimal loss mainly to top unstuck edges - photographs largely unaffected - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corner tips,else appears unread,other than my own collation.Publisher's bright, crisp,clean,sharp-cornered,original plain pale grey cloth boards with bright,crisp,blocked gilt lettered spine/ backstrip,and immaculate repeated pale blue+black regional (Baltic Sea) map illustrated endpapers.UK,slim 8vo HB+dw/dj,illustrated,1st edn,vii-xiipp+1-243pp [paginated] includes Contents list/table with Gazetteer to its reverse, List of illustrations+maps,author's separate Preface and Introduction,XIV (14) chapters+Epilogue,16pp contemporary b/w photographs in 4 blocks of 4pp apiece, between pp84/5, pp116/17, pp148/49 and pp180/81 respectively, 4 b/w maps interspersed throughout the text and the book,a 2pp Bibliography,and an Index; plus [unpaginated] half-title+title pages,and a dedication with a blank reverse. Visually the exterior appearance is exceptional,and even internally,the book is also in an exceptional condition/state of preservation and presentation for a book of its age, notwithstanding the unstuck photographs. It is only the minimalf faults described that prevents a slightly higher grading overall.Despite them,it really is still an exceptional, exemplary copy for its cleanliness and brightness and historical and little known WW1 naval content and also the title's scarcity. It is surprising but nevertheless true,that the story of the British Submarine Flotilla in the Baltic during the First World War has hitherto been revealed only to thse who have had the diligence to ferret it out from the dusty recesses of official histories and Admiralty files.Fir it is,as Michael Wilson now reveals,a very remarkable story. At the outbreak of WW1 the submarine,if not exctly in its infancy,was certainly far from adulthood and could be as wayward as any headstrong schoolboy.Add to these temperamental craft the inhospitality of the Baltic climate and the shifting moods of their Russian allies,and one can see that the lot of the Royal Navy's submariners through four years,endlessly prolonged by the bitter winters which kept their craft icebound in harbour,was not a particularly happy one.That they endured all this and more is a remarkable tribute to the fortitude of these pioneers of submarine warfare.The 'and more' in this case was the Russian Revolution which was to add a political headache of stunning proportions to those they already had to endure. The names of Max Horton and Martin Nasmith will be familiar to anyone who has read about submarines in the First or Second World Wars,the name of Noel Laurence will also be familiar to many.The name of Francis Cromie, however,is not so well known,but it was his personality that dominated the Baltic submarine campign from September 1915 until the Russian Revolution brought matters to a singularly unsatisfactory conclusion.Cromie was far more than just a dedicated and skilful submariner and the extraordinary situation in which he found himself after the Revolution provides one of the most bizarre and dramatic episodes in this enthralling book. Michael Wilson has filled a curiously overlooked gap in the naval history of the First World War and it is indeed an epic tale that he tells here.
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