Customer Reviews

Cold War Submarines: The Design and Construction of U.S. and Soviet Submarines, 1945-2001

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4 star:		(1)
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I just received my copy of the long-awaited book "Cold War Submarines: US & Soviet Design & Construction" by Norman Polmar and Kenneth Moore. I found I could not put it down, and it was well worth the wait. The authors spent years interviewing key figures and reading material from both sides of the Cold War. It starts just after the Second World War, and looks at each side's diesel and exotic propulsion plants and designs. Early submarine cruise missile and ballistic missile programs on both sides are detailed. In the section on submerged speed, the US Albacore and Skipjack class are highlighted, as is the early Soviet Papa class and the Alfa class. The book examines each generation of nuclear submarines, both attack and missile firing, on the two sides (US & Soviet). The design decisions and compromises made with each class are detailed. The text is complemented with some excellent photographs. Several but not all of the very good photos are familiar to those of us who have massive sub book collections, but will probably be new to most with "casual" submarine interests. There are newly drawn, superb line drawings of both US and Soviet submarines throughout the book, complete with some (non-classified) details of internal layouts. These drawings include some "might have been" designs. Such long sought after details as the 1960's CONFORM submarine, a truly remarkable design concept are covered, and there is a picture of a model of the submarine (now I can die in peace). This is the innovative Concept Formulation submarine that Rickover had killed in favor of the 688 class. In the process of killing the program, he ordered almost all details and documents on CONFORM destroyed. The book also delves into other fascinating topics on both sides, such mini-subs, special purpose submarines, and an amazing section on aircraft carrier submarines (with some unique line drawings!).

The two "gold standard" books in submarine design history are Friedman's two volume account of US Submarines ("US Submarines through 1945" and "US Submarines since 1945") and Polmar's one volume "Submarines of the Russian and Soviet Navies 1718-1990". This book easily belongs with these other volumes. The overall production is extremely good, printed on glossy paper. On a scale of 1-10, I gave it a 15! (and I'm a harsh grader!)

I thoroughly agree with Mr. Dougherty's enthusiastic reader review. The authors have put together a virtual encyclopedia on modern sub design and construction with real insight into what the subs were intended to do, and how some politicians and bureaucrats sabotaged the projects. I found particularly illuminating how each side of the Soviet-US conflict used the records and existing prototypes of Nazi Germany's U-Boat experiments. Baker's line drawings and diagrams are quite helpful in visualizing the boats, as are the ample photos of the real subs and scale models. This is a book to which I will return again and again whenever there is some news item about
undersea naval competition.

I knew about a Polmar from reading references in some papers, so I finally decided to give a try. I wasn't disappointed. There were lots of technical details giving an overview. Better yet, it is a balanced account - by no means are Americans portrayed as all powerful.

If there were two things it can be improved on - well, one would be the placement of the endnotes. It is a matter of taste, but considering how many there were and how interesting they were, it might have been more convenient to have put them at the bottom of the main text as footnotes for each page.

The second is that I would have killed for a chapter or two on "other than the equipment". Subs are not just their designers, their admirals and the technicals - it is also the men, their organization and their training. Polmar briefly goes over the differences, but it could have been given a full chapter or at least an Appendix if extra efficiency measures were applied to the pre-Cold War history stuff.

Now, I'm going to buy another Polmar book that would hopefully fill up the gap. Wish me luck.

I sought a book with a serious overview of the topic of Cold War submarines, and not a book about one or another aspect of the topic. I ended up with a book that contains both an excellent overview as well as serious discussion of specific submarines, strategies, technologies and the men behind the scenes.
The story is well placed within the historical context of the political, military and economical events and processes of the Cold War. The text is well written and well structured.
Especially fascinating is the look behind the scenes of Soviet submarine design, construction and operations - those were among the best-kept secrets of the Soviet Union.
Besides dealing with "main stream" submarines, there are several interesting chapters about different experimental projects; rescue submarines and several fantasy projects, like freight vessels and aircraft carrying submarines.
Although the story is focused on the Cold War period, there is a detailed discussion of WWII technology that highly influenced Cold War designs, as well as descriptions of post Cold War vessels and fleets.
The book is well illustrated with photographs and line drawings.

This is an excellent book! Full of detailed references it is the first book on early to modern submarines that gives us a look behind the scene. It explains very well the important role the submarines played during the cold war. We learn how design decisions were made in the U.S. as well as the Soviet Union, how such decisions were implemented, and we learn that rather few personalities played a very decisive role on both sides of the iron curtain. Near the end of the cold war, both, the U.S. and the Soviet Union were struggling with the problem of having to design a new generation of submarines which however started to be excessively expensive to build. Only the very knowledgeable reader may be missing here and there a more detailed account concerning "the design and construction" issues. It is clear that the authors have collected more information on these questions than what they were able to put in a single volume of reasonable size. But then this was probably also not their main goal, and the title of the book is exactly right: this is information about the cold war, on the people who fought this war, their political views and the way these views influenced the construction of the submarines they built to fight this war. Truly interesting.

This is an excellent book! Full of detailed references it is the first book on early to modern submarines that gives us a look behind the scene. It explains very well the important role the submarines played during the cold war. We learn how design decisions were made in the U.S. as well as the Soviet Union, how such decisions were implemented, and we learn that rather few personalities played a very decisive role on both sides of the iron curtain. Near the end of the cold war, both, the U.S. and the Soviet Union were struggling with the problem of having to design a new generation of submarines which however started to be excessively expensive to build. Only the very knowledgeable reader may be missing here and there a more detailed account concerning "the design and construction" issues. It is clear that the authors have collected more information on these questions than what they were able to put in a single volume of reasonable size. But then this was probably also not their main goal and the title of the book is exactly right: this is information about the cold war, on the people who fought this war, their political views and the way these views influenced the construction of the submarines they built to fight this war. Truly interesting.

In light of the previously posted shining reviews on this text, I suppose there is not much more to be said, but I felt compelled to bolster what has already been written. This book is, along with Norman Friedman's US Submarines since 1945, without question, among the definetive works on submarines of this period. Outstandingly researched and presented. Do not hesitate to buy this book. Top notch.

Cold War Submarines is without doubt one of Norman Polmar's best books on US and Soviet submarine design and operations. I have several of Mr. Polmar's previous works on Soviet submarines: Guide to the Soviet Navy,Submarines of the Russian and Soviet Navies, 1718-1990 and other's. This particular work has new data, interpretations of design, and operational information both for the US Navy and the Soviet Navy. I particullary liked the layout comparing and illustrating the generational designs by both nations. Submarine operations and design information are obscure and fairley hard to data to come by; Mr. Polmar has made the information available for both the historian and technical specialist. Well done!

Not as many actual pix of subs as most books but it is very well written and also dabbles into the politics and design that went on with each new design of submarine. Nice charts and missile specs and things like that. Goes into greater detail of the US boats more than Soviet.

This material is really good... An impressive source of information about de development process of US and Soviet submarine. This work left behind the traditional american military propaganda and let us know the very good machines the soviet had. I highly recommend it...