Find and Destroy: Antisubmarine Warfare in World War I

World War I was the crucible of antisubmarine warfare (ASW), and the years of trial and error between 1914 and 1918 gave rise to the weapons and tactics used by today's ASW forces. In this study, military historian Dwight Messimer examines the weapons, tactics and organisation employed by all the belligerents during the War and provides many surprising findings. Messimer tells the story from both sides. German survivors who escaped from sunken U-boats explain what it was like to face the newly-developed ASW weapons beneath the surface, and pilots tell what it was like from above. He describes the German's well-organised and efficient ASW systems in the Baltic and the Heligoland Bight. He also discusses the weapons developed during the War which turned out to be largely ineffective or outright failures. His evaluations of the contributions made by aircraft and Q ships puts them in the category of only marginally effective; his analysis of the effectiveness of politics deems that ASW 'weapon' the most successful of all. Drawing heavily from personal accounts as well as primary sources in England, Germany and the United States, this book addresses the ASW of all World War I belligerents and is designed to appeal to both serious readers seeking hard facts and to general readers who enjoy stories about war at sea.

Dwight Messimer
Hardcover 312 pages 2003