SUBMARINES IN WAR

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22100, 4 May 1935, Page 9 (Supplement)

SUBMARINES IN WAR

TORPEDOMAN'S NARRATIVE It is a comparatively rare event for a naval man to turn author, but much more rare is it when a man from the lower deck of the Navy takes to the pen for self expression. For that reason if for noue other " Watchdogs of the Deep" must be regarded as something unusual. Written by ex-Leading Torpedoman T. M. Jones, R.N., the book deals with the record of Submarine J 2, in war and peace, and the life of the men who served in her. The author was one of those men, and he has to tell of the hazards of U-boat chasing and the rigours and perils of life in the underwater craft. He does his job well. If the reader is disappointed at the lack of " fireworks " where enemy encounters are concerned, that may possibly be from a failure to realise fully that fireworks were only incidental to naval warfare.

The real struggle was one with weather, suspense, monotony,—a depressing grind of wearisome routine in an atmosphere of oppressive uncertainty. After the war J 2 became a unit of the Royal Australian Navy and the author served in her in Australian waters. The book has a foreword by Rear Admiral W. T. Randle Ford, commander of tho Royal Australian Navy and a recent visitor to Auckland in H.M.A.S. Canberra..

"Watchdogs of the Deep," by T. M Jones. (Angus and Robertson.)