WE DIVE AT DAWN by Edwards, Lt Cdr Kenneth , RN

Chicago, 1941, Reilly & Lee, first US edition, hard bound in dust jacket, VG/VG- condition ( dj has several small chips at edges, plus large inch & half chip from head of spine ), 6x9, 412 pages, illustrations, index.--------------------------------------------------------Once again submarines are influencing the history of the world. Now, even more than in the First World War, they are deciding our future. We feel we must know all about them. And here's the book that tells us.At the beginning, Lieutenant-Commander Edwards takes us down with him in a submarine and shows us how it works. We dive at dawn. The dawn is slow in coming . . . To the `submariner' it is the hour demanding a greater alertness than any other of the twenty-four. Always the men in submarines must defeat Nature as well as the enemy." We hold our breath as we hear the commanding officer's words, "Up periscope , slowly." A quick look. "Stop ,down." The periscope was clear of the water for only a couple of seconds. But that was enough to see the bows of the enemy coming into the field of vision. This time the periscope is only lowered a foot or two, and it goes up again almost immediately. "Stop periscope." The bridge of the enemy is just passing the hairline which marks the center of the periscope field. "FIRE."-------------------------------------------All the salty lure of the adventure and danger of the sea are in Lieutenant-Commander Edwards' account of the exploits of the British submarines during and after the First World War. He gives a complete history of submarines, with an "insider's" understanding of the emotions of the men in their crews. In the last section of the book, he analyses recent submarine news events from a submariner's own viewpoint. He makes us feel all the elation and then the sick disappointment of the British submarine's commanding officer who refrained from firing without warning on the merchant "Bremen" when he met that tantalizing prize in midocean soon after the opening of the present war.