One of Our Submarines
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One of Our Submarines
Narrated by:
Derek Perkins
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Narrated by:
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Derek Perkins
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By:
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Edward Young
About this listen
Commander Edward Young (RNRV, DSO, DSC and Bar) started the war as an amateur yachtsman and finished it as a highly decorated submarine commander. Indeed, he was the first RNVR officer to hold independent command of a warship.
One of Our Submarines is his gripping and thrilling biography of his adventures below the waves, showing how officers had to transform themselves from amateurs into the equals and, at times, the superiors of the professionals in meeting the demands imposed upon them by war.
©1952, 2004 Edward Young (P)2023 Podium AudioListeners also enjoyed...
Critic reviews
“[Young] immortalized his distinguished war service as a submariner in the bestselling autobiography, One of Our Submarines . . . [a] gripping memoir.” The Guardian
"In the very highest rank of books about the last war. [Edward Young] writes beautifully, economically and with humour, and in the actions he commands he manages to put the reader at the voice-pipe and the periscope so that sometimes the tension is so great that one has to put the book down." The Sunday Times
Life in a RN submarine
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If you enjoy listening to war time first hand accounts I can highly recommend it.
Enjoyable and Enlightening
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Great book
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Firstly, you can tell by the prose style that this book was written in the fifties without looking at the publishing info. Of course, that's not an issue at all, just a casual observation on how the use of language alters subtly over the decades. While discussing the language used, a word on the narrator. Derek Perkins perfectly compliments this book and the time period the memoir is set in. At times I forgot this was a narrator and believed it was the actual author telling his story. The voice, inflections and tone all perfect for the material. My only tiny gripe was the way the narrator often pronounced the word "ballast". It was as if he had never come across the word, pronouncing it bal-last. Other than that, Perkins was perfect.
Edward Young describes the way in which he found himself in the submarine service, the training needed and life aboard a Royal Navy submarine during World War II. Of particular interest to me, was the section covering the construction of a new boat and how he had to oversee much of the admin dealing with it. Of note here was the fact that not all fittings and fixtures were standardised as I had always believed within a specific class of boat. Young had to negotiate with the shipyards over minor design details that made his boat somewhat unique in minor terms. Discovering this little fact was a revelation to me in itself.
In a typically understated English manner, Young recounts the one incident in his career in which he survives the collision and sinking of HMS Umpire, a brand new U class submarine. Similarly, His telling of depth charge attacks and some cat and mouse manoeuvres is told without the use of heavily dramatised writing. This is smart, mature and sensible, but sometimes robs the book of the visceral fear endured by submariners at times.
The book covers patrols by HMS Storm as far apart as Soviet waters to Sri Lanka and Australia. Some highlights include his battles with Japanese surface ships, as well as a frustrating miss on a Japanese submarine.
The combat accounts are interesting and make for a stark comparison between the U.S and Royal Navies prosecution of the undersea war. The Americans had the far superior fleet boats with longer range, much better facilities and harder hitting power with nearly double the torpedo load out of the British S Class boats.
Perhaps what surprised me most, was how many torpedoes Captain Young expended against what I'd have thought of as low value, low tonnage targets. In one case, firing a salvo of four torpedoes at a Japanese submarine chaser, a relatively tiny vessel. I was also surprised at how relatively shallow he operated, typically going no deeper than 150 feet (Approximately 45 metres). A test dive did see Young descend to 380 feet (Approximately 115 metres). However, I never recall his boat even reaching 300 feet in combat, something I found astonishing, especially considering the Japanese's propensity to set their depth charges shallow. When you consider that German U-boats routinely reached depths of 500 feet and more, it is a striking contrast.
All in all, this is a fascinating book with a very British perspective. It fills in some of the gaps in my knowledge of British submarine operations during the second World War. I'd recommend this book to even those with a passing interest in submarine warfare with the caveat that the author tends to throw in naval acronyms that many readers will not be familiar with. This book is a must for those more interested in the study of this under represented subject.
A Very British Perspective
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An enjoyable listen.
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Inspiring.
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Well worth it.
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Safer under water than on it
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Young's career took him all over the world, giving the reader a very grand view of submarine operations of the war, but rather than the top down view of the admiralty chart, we are given the singular view through the periscope as Young gives short yet memorable and warm sketches of people, places and events in what remains firmly a memoir rather than a history.
There are thrilling chapters of hot action, but equally fascinating are the glimpses of daily life at sea which have their own flow and couch the extraordinary feats of bravery and the vicissitudes of fortune in a relatable, though still very different, setting.
The prose is easily digestible, but full of character, and while Young employs classic British restraint in his descriptions, peppered throughout are vibrant, poetic passages capturing life's meditative moments between action.
For this production, the choice of narrator is superb. Derek Perkins is convincing and meticulously judges Young's tone to give a performance which feels inseparable from the text. Though here I will make my only criticism, and it's not an issue with Perkins but with the production decision to pronounce 'buoy' the American English way rather than the British English way Young would have used; I cannot think of a strong enough reason to account for this decision.
For me, this work and production has instantly become one of those purchases you're grateful you made and look forward to revisiting.
A Gripping and Warm Personal Account
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A simple but very interesting story
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