Customer Reviews

Subsmash: The Mysterious Disappearance Of HM Submarine Affray

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SUBSMASH is a very well written account of a disaster most do not recall. Britain's last submarine disaster is still a mystery similar to the unexplained sinking of the USS Scorpion in 1968, the United States' last lost submarine. The book goes into great detail on England in the Post WWII years, a specific history of the AFFRAY, and the sometimes difficult life aboard a submarine. Letters from doomed crewmembers hit a particularly disturbing chord. The book could have used more photographs, especially of the wreck, but there are some fine pictures of the sub when she was operational. All around some facinating reading, even if it does not fully explain AFFRAY's sinking, which probably never will be.

Fantastic. My Father was on a Sister ship of the Affray at the time of the loss. HMS Amphion, (which is pictured during the search, Strange to for me to think that my father was in the engineroom during that picture) The author did a fantastic Job putting the incident in the context of the time. Hard for us to understand how indifferent the RN was during the time, but I can vouch for the authenticity of this based upon the recollections of my father". Too often the through the distant lens of history we judge the incidents and action through our contemporary standards, and consequently the meaning importance of the events and impact is loss.
I remember my father telling me the ghost story related to the loss, which again the author relates here without hyperbole. I leave it to the readers to decide on its veracity, but could be one of the most compelling accounts of a dead or near dead apparition I have ever read (other than that of Admiral Lord Tryon HMS Victoria).
If you want to learn about England, The Royal Navy in the 1950s. The loss of the affray and the impact on these institutions and the Families. Read this Book.