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Author: Jirí Novák While the First World War is mainly thought of as a land and air war, there was also a significant naval side to the conflict, during which submarines were first introduced to combat. While German submarine operations capture the lion's share of research, the Austro-Hungarian Navy also had submarines, and they operated in the Mediterranean with good results. This new title from Mushroom Model Publications covers that little-known story of Hapsburg submarines, and does so in a very thorough manner. While the German submarines plied the Atlantic trade routes, the submarines of the Austro-Hungarian Empire had a much narrower coast to sail from. With a stretch of coastline running from Trieste to Kotor as the only sea access for Austro-Hungary, their navy was understandably smaller than that of their larger northern neighbor. Such was the case with their submarines as well, and the first A-H submarines were tiny vessels. For patrolling the Adriatic, though, they were plenty big enough, and quite a few Allied vessels fell to these boats. The book follows the exploits of these submarines chronologically, highlighting their construction (or capture, in some cases) as well as the operational record. In addition to the written text, which is very well done, this book has what is easily the most thorough photographic collection of Austro-Hungarian submarines in print. The photos cover all aspects of the submarines, from construction to operations. There are also several appendices that document the technical specifications, the vessels sunk, submarines lost, and more. Finally, there are several pages of scale drawings that document all of the Austro-Hungarian submarines. These fill the page, which is nice, but they are not to scale with one another, so it is somewhat challenging to get a feel for the size of some of these ships. Still, having these drawings available far outweighs that issue. Overall, this is an outstanding reference on a little-known side of the First World War. The story of Austro-Hungarian submarines is one that definitely needed to be told, and this book does a superlative job in doing just that. My thanks to Mushroom Model Publications for the review copy. |
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