K Boats: Steam-Powered Submarines in World War I [Paperback]

Don Everitt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1999

Only today's 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 became the best-concealed debacle in British naval history. This book provides some answers to what went wrong during the series of dreadful mishaps.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Naval Inst Pr (June 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557504679
• ISBN-13: 978-1557504678
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,107,803 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent work on the K-Boats, July 13, 2008

By 

Donald Lima (Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: K Boats: Steam-Powered Submarines in World War I (Paperback)

The K-Boats were an attempt to build a fleet of "underwater cruisers"-- huge submarines that could travel on the surface and operate with surface vessels, rather than alone (as had been the norm) and then dive to attack, thus increasing protection of the surface vessels. The key was that they were equipped with steam powered surface turbines rather than standard diesel engines (but were equipped with electric motors for undersea use.) The "Ks" were the largest, most powerful submarines built until the advent of the nuclear boat fleets in the 1950s.

The vessels were plagued with disasters-- crewmembers were killed in virtually all of them. They had been posted to picket duties, with the result that the crews were bored with little to do; they were undertrained and the submarines incorporated technology that was completely unfamiliar.

This book traces the boats from their genesis to their end. They were originally planned to counter Germany's high speed, ocean-going submarines. After WWI, when the files of the German High Seas Fleet were investigated by the British, they found that Germany had no such submarines and had never planned any. The K Boats were developed to counter a threat which had never existed at all.

Readers with an interest in naval submarine history and the way in which politics determines naval decision making should read this book. In addition to text it contains a host of photographs of K Boats underway and a fold-out of a schematic of a K. An excellent read.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars History of the ill-fated K Boats and the brave men who served in them, May 21, 2007

By 

J. A. Godfrey Attorney "Godders" (Scotland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: K Boats: Steam-Powered Submarines in World War I (Paperback)

This is a concise and highly interesting book of a time of early submarine development and the ill fated K Boats. My Grandfather Stoker 1st Class Henry Fulcher was one of the few survivors following a collision at night during the Battle of May Island (Jan 31st 1918) where his submarine(K17) was rammed and sunk by one of our own ships (HMS Fearless). There were 9 survivors and there would have been more if our own destroyers were aware of them in the water that fateful night and did not mow them down !