Submarine Warfare

Submarine warfare runs from David Bushnell’s hand-cranked Turtle, which attacked a British warship in New York harbor in 1776, through the diesel-electric U-boats and fleet submarines of the two World Wars to nuclear-powered boats. The submarine matured as a commerce raider in the First World War, when German unrestricted campaigns nearly cut Britain’s supply lines, and again in the Atlantic and Pacific in the Second. Sonar, depth charges, convoy escort, and code-breaking drove the long contest between submarine and anti-submarine forces.