Royal Navy Submarine Manual: 1945 onward ('A' class - HMS Alliance)

Haynes have at last produced a really worth-while warship book. Their first, on the RN Type 45 Destroyer was quite good, albeit reading more like a sales brochure for BAE in many parts, but the two subsequent books were exceedingly disappointing on most levels.This however is a good book for everyone from the casual Alliance museum visitor to model-makers and the serious historical and technical buffs.It comprises A chapter giving a necessarily brief history of British submarine development 1901 -1945. Nothing new, but a good introduction for the non-naval reader A very much more detailed chapter on the development and service of the "A" class submarines , and a little on the subsequent classes Chapters covering basic submarine operation and very considerable details of Alliance's construction, internal arrangements, machinery, weapons, sensor systems, operation and crewing. All well illustrated Short chapters on submarine escape and her restoration and conservation Appendices of sources, specifications of the "A" class and a glossary of terms . Plus a handy list of worldwide preserved submarines currently open to the public. An Index - adequate but not perfectThe Good, the Bad , and the UglyGoodThe photos on the whole are good, plenteous, varied and appropriate. In particular the interiors vary from exceedingly good to perfectly acceptable.Some very unusual shoots, including the capstan for a towed array - I'd not realised they ever had a towed array ! Whether this was a sonar or for a communication aerial is not certain.The diagrams, mainly from varying dates of "BR 1963: Handbook for Submarines of the "A" class", are outstanding and show the splendid colour printing of the older Books of Reference. Oh , that the modern ones were of similar quality ! At least one have been revamped by a Mr Roy Scorer in an exemplary way.There is a general internal colour cutaway view - uncredited and unlabelled but gives a good impression of the overall vesselThe technical coverage is superb, going into great detail and extensive coverage. A real Haynes manual at last !The editoral overall balance of the book is excellent. Virtually everything a serious reader wants is there, and easy to find . A thirteen year old , with no prior knowledge of naval vessels will still find it an interesting read although they may skip the more technical sections. Some people may consider the extensive use of Admiralty BR drawings of obscure engineering minutiae a little excessive but I love them !BadSome very elementary proof reading mistakes and omissions. The excellent picture captioned as "Alliance .... in 1965" shows her with the 4" gun which was removed in 1960. By 1965 I believe she carried only a 20mm gun , as shown in the camouflaged view below it . . I suspect the photo is actually probably Andrew .The list of preserved ships states that all except " Redoubtable , which is nuclear-powered...are powered by diesel engines". I seem to remember that the also listed USS Nautilus (SSN-571) was nuclear as well ! But such errors are fewThere is the strangest statement :-"The first torpedoes embarked would be loaded directly into each of the torpedo tubes (with warheads pointing towards the rear end of the tube )".The author gives us no idea why this was done. If indeed it was, which I doubt, as I'm almost certain there is not enough internal room for the torpedo to be withdrawn and reversed for firing. Even with the warhead section separated .The coverage of radars and sonars is somewhat perfunctory. . I feel more emphasis should have been given to these, especially the sonarsUglyThe last page of the index is actually stuck to the back cover as an endpaper. Horrible !Overall the book is extremely good and highly recommended.Mr Goodwin and his editor are to congratulated on as near perfect a book as is possible.

Well, you might not be able to carry a maintainance servicing routine on the Alliance after reading this, but you will certainly have gained a real insight into RN submarine operations during the early Cold War in general, into the design and operation of a typical diesel boat of that generation and the principles of submarines in general. There's even a fascinating section on the restoration of the Alliance.There's a wealth of pictures and explanatory text, but I was a little disappointed by the lack of decent systems general arrangement drawings and diagrams. Those that are included are few and far between and reproduced so small that the annotations are virtually unreadable.I strongly recommend a visit to the Alliance at the RN Submarine Museum at Gosport and certainly advise doing it after having read this volume - it adds a whole new dimension to the experience.

Lovely book.

First class p & p, first class condition and first class seller. I'm building a model of this submarine and thanks to this book I'll be able to get all the details right.

A very accurate informative introduction to submarines and particularly to Alliance which is preserved and available to inspect at the Submarine museum in Gosport Hants.

Purchased this for the father in law who was a chief engineer on this actual Submarine - Absolutely fantastic, he even recognised some of the crew.

Another brilliant manual from Haynes so very informative and interesting.

Great book even for non geeks. Disappointed book not even waterproof.