John Winton, a retired Royal Navy officer, presents a selection of personal accounts covering the Royal Navy submarine service, from the first Holland boats of 1901 to the giant Trident nuclear submarines of today. Commentary by the author links the descriptions of tense patrols of World War I and World War II, the torpedo attacks on enemy warships, U-boats and merchant vessels, the horrors of depth charging, the operations carried out by bodies such as Force 136 and the midget-submarine attacks on the Tirpitz. The deterrent patrols of the Cold War are also described, as well as the sinking of the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano in the Falklands War. The book includes stories of survival and heroism, as well as anecdotes about daily life aboard.