K BOATS - A Dramatic First Report on the World's Most Calamitous Submarines by Everitt, Don

New York, 1963 US . first edition, hard bound in dust jacket, 5 1/2 x 8 1/4, 206 pages, illus, bibliog, appendice, index. VG/ good ( dj shows extensive wear and chips)------------------------------------Only todays atomic submarines have outstripped the fabulous twin-funneled K boats--the biggest, fastest submarines of World War I. But no other class of warship suffered so much calamity and controversy. Authorized by Churchill, these steam-powered submarines were the best-concealed debacle in British naval history. Their crews called themselves the suicide club and in this authoritative documentary their story is vividly reconstructed.---------------------------------------Built secretly to meet a threat that existed only in the minds of the flag officers, the so-called "submersible destroyers" suffered an unprecedented series of accidents from the day they began their trials. Six sank with an appalling death toll. The forty-seven men of K 13 were luckier. They were rescued after fifty-seven hours trapped underwater. During the Battle of May Island when British ships carved through their own K flotillas one night, two K boats sank, two were crippled, and a cruiser lost her bows. Then there was the mysterious disappearance of K 5 in the Atlantic. All told, not one K boat escaped. The product of two years research, this fascinating book looks for answers to what went wrong during the series of dreadful mishaps described