Submarine

This is the latest addition to the library, this time from a different second hand book source at the local cathedral, which I hadn't visited for a long time but will return to soon as it has an excellent history section. This almost perfect condition hardback only cost me three quid but just a quick flick through convinced me that it would be worth it's not inconsiderable weight in gold as a source of fascinating information and insight. 

Here's the blurb from an online review:

Submarine is almost certainly the first book to bring together eye-witness accounts from almost every navy that deployed submarines in WW2, and it is far more than an account of WW2 missions. With self-deprecating modesty, humour, pride, sadness and sometimes bitterness, submariners from Britain, Germany, the USA, Italy, France, the former USSR and Yugoslavia, Norway, Greece, Poland, the Netherlands and Japan describe every facet of operational submarine life, from firing torpedoes, the illicit distillation of alcohol, going to the toilet in heavy weather, rescuing a cat and how to treat appendicitis, to the terrifying experiences of being depth-charged, disposing of a bomb, escaping a doomed boat and planting charges beneath an enemy warship.