Down to the Sea in Submarines; A Cold War Odessey. By Dan Conley. Seaforth Publishing, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, 2024.
Reviewed by Kim Pitt and Peter Horobin
For those familiar with his first book, we start by commending this second of Captain Conley’s published works firmly of the belief it is even better.
He starts by stating his intent is to: “…describe my experience serving in the Royal Navy submarine flotilla during the three decades from 1967 when I participated in the intense and highly secretive Cold War undersea confrontation with the massive Soviet submarine force which only in the early 1990s began to decrease in numbers
(…to) recount these experiences and other events from a more personal perspective and in greater detail. Importantly it uniquely captures life at sea in a British submarine during the height of the Cold War.”
And in his foreword, Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope GCB, OBE, DL is quoted as saying:
“… This fine memoir is an absorbing read which vividly captures the key events during the Cold War undersea confrontation with the Soviet Navy and, in doing so, will open the reader’s eyes to the significance and importance today of the Royal Navy Submarine Service.”
And it is a fascinating memoir, an absorbing read, and we highly recommend it.
We share a kinship of sorts with the author as we are of the same era, we trained in the same schools of the British submarine flotilla and until the 1970s we followed a similar pathway aboard Royal Navy submarines operating from the same bases in the same areas. We served in the same squadrons and one of us served in the same submarine with him for a while; we recall similar experiences at sea and ashore.
Captain Conley tells his story with considerable modesty and in the first few chapters introduces the reader to the submarine culture of the Royal Navy Submarine Flotilla with informality; he refers to popular mess games such as ‘skats’; to popular ports of call such as Londonderry in Northern Ireland; to the places of respite and entertainment such as the Maiden City Bar; and to the innocent joy shared with the young female employees of the shirt factory in that city. Throughout he cleverly includes personal anecdotes; the names of people involved and relates personal stories to illustrate and bring colour to the narrative. This with discussion of how he gained experience and was developed professionally as a young officer is important to understanding what follows.
We enjoyed his clarity when writing of submarine technical matters and were impressed by the balance he has achieved when discussing the technical aspects involved. He has provided sufficient detail for the reader to understand what is happening, but not so much that it is difficult to comprehend. The same is true regarding his depiction of the operating profile, of the culture and of life in the world of Britain’s submarine force. And his personal assessments of both successes and failures, of the good and not so good, the incidents and operational successes; the lessons learned are candid and illuminating. By the time he writes of the Perisher course, of command of his first submarine and related experiences he successfully delivers on his stated goal to do so from a more personal perspective and in greater detail.
His commentary is presented easily i.e. as events unfolded and in a style that is neither dramatic nor alarmist and avoids self-aggrandizement of any sort – it is simply put, understated and factual. We especially enjoyed his way of calm semi chronological delivery; one moment writing of port calls and runs ashore, of sailors and domestic issues, the mundane even boring elements of submarine activities, and then as if setting sail, to shift gear and with a modest quickening of pace present in the same chapter events such as a system failure or emergency, to operational/intelligence related matters presenting real risk and complexity with a disturbing immediacy.
And so it was; in reality the Cold War was very intense and demanding, interactions with the Soviets were unpredictable, regular, and frequent. Threading within this personal memoir he weaves a sequence of observations, analysis and a commentary embracing the key elements of Cold War undersea operations, tensions/confrontation, of weapon system effectiveness, of stealth, sensor development and the efforts to exploit the potential tactical advantage of each change as it occurred. Importantly, new technologies introduced by each of the protagonists led to changing relative threat profiles and required effective and timely response; and he remarks on these too.
There are explanations of the failures, emergencies, and accidents he endured over three decades of operations – those that occurred in conventional and in nuclear powered submarines; most examples are of incidents when dived; however, those he puts forward that were on the surface also are unsettling. Each is alarming, frightening and demonstrate the challenges of remaining safe at sea and especially underwater; he shows that matters can become critically dangerous with little or no warning.
He also illustrates that in a nuclear submarine the impact can be even more disturbing and the consequences of control surface system failures at speeds above 20 knots are most severe. He mentions a number of alarming incidents resulting from the use of large amounts of rudder or plane angle. He refers to fires, floods, and machinery failures; to propulsion plant/reactor issues – steam leaks, control system defects/ failures issues leading to potential reactor shut down.
His description of such events quickens the heart.
The memoir covers the three decades spanning the 60s, 70s and 80s, the busiest part of the Cold War, and he says a great deal about the work he did.
It seems it was standard for British submarines to encounter several different Soviet submarines on a single patrol; e.g. in a three week period in the summer of 1985 – HMS Valiant encountered/detected/trailed and/or covertly closed to weapons range (and met attack criteria) on several, e.g. a special fit Victor SSN, a Victor Three SSN, a new build Udaloy frigate, a Charlie Two SSGN, a Soviet SSBN, and detected a third party submarine contact later assessed to be a probable SSBN.
He goes into some detail to inform of operational experiences, intelligence gathering patrols, the once highly classified interactions (favourable and otherwise) with Soviet submarines and surface forces, of surveillance techniques, methods, and philosophies even. He discusses the arrangements in place between the RN and USN in these matters and he quietly alludes to Australia’s involvement in this sensitive arena too.
We found ourselves keenly attentive and fascinated by his explanation of the tactics used in interactions with Soviet submarines; Captain Conley’s observations are interesting and astute. He speaks of the very serious damage caused by the espionage of the “Walker/Whitworth” spies; of the loss of operational /tactical advantage that followed and the way it affected interactions at sea. It led to improvements in Soviet submarine design, stealth, speed, sensor performance etc. and these were of extraordinary consequence operationally.
His candour includes discussion of intelligence gathering and of the many successes, but of failures too. The capabilities of western versus soviet submarines is laid bare and the importance of gleaning how to tactically exploit every advantage e.g. improved detection ranges of either party, each impacting approach and trail methods; or to develop tactics to respond to Soviet stealth improvements (including increased risks of being counter detected; of close quarter encounters and resultant melees) are there to read also.
It was a time of intense security and to read of these issues, especially in the open and candid way that he offers, and with his personal analysis of relative capabilities and consequences of each, is most interesting. For us it brought to the open forum matters only partially disclosed elsewhere. Operational security once hid the world of Cold War submarine versus submarine engagements but no longer; here he speaks candidly and with pride of the Royal Navy’s effectiveness.
At all stages of his story, he includes impressive levels of detail and when he critiques or comments, he also offers rational explanation of his reasoning.
He writes of command on South Atlantic patrols to the Falkland operating areas against Argentinian forces and includes commentary on the effectiveness of British and Argentinian submarine capabilities, of weapons performance in theatre, of the rules of engagement used to counter the Argentinian diesel boat threat.
When he ended his period in command he reflected with disarming candour of feeling sad at leaving HMS Valiant (“the Black Pig”), of the regard he felt for his team, that he considered himself extremely lucky to have avoided a serious, even catastrophic, breakdown or failure, and he acknowledged that he had owed much to the unsung heroes of his engineering department; and he remarks of himself too.
But there is so much more in this book, e.g. he has written a separate chapter on each of the following:
- his experiences serving with the USN;
- submarine under ice operations;
- new submarine weapons;
- his frustrations working within the Procurement Executive; and
- Submarine Escape and Rescue.
These are important parts of his narrative, and it is here that the two of us focussed on several disclosures of special personal interest, e.g. he mentions the ‘trouser leg’ problem; corrosion issues with reactor cooling systems that required major repair action fleet wide. In doing so we think he has provided the clearest explanation yet of the problem and how the coincidence of resolving this, at a time of cuts to the Defence Budget demoralised serving submariners and diminished the overall capability of the Flotilla.
In his closing pages of his epilogue, he refers to an awareness of the then emerging relationship being formed between the USA, the UK and Australia on nuclear submarine matters and uses the acronym AUSUK (what we now know of as AUKUS). He comments on the importance of this to Britain. And as his career in the Royal Navy finishes, he brings attention to the future for the RN Submarine Flotilla.
It is our firm belief as reviewers (and as keenly interested Australian readers ourselves) that the publication of Captain Conley’s book is timely. So much so we also suggest It could fit easily into the evolving national conversation about AUKUS and Australia’s transition to nuclear powered submarines.
It certainly is a wonderful memoire of Captain Conley’s extraordinary experiences in the RN Submarine Flotilla; we are reminded of what Admiral Stanhope said in the forward:
” … will open the readers minds to the significance and importance today of the Royal Navy submarine service …”
At risk of being declared opportunistic and of exploiting our privileged position as reviewers we proffer the view the book also could help Australian readers to “understand the significance and importance today of the Royal Australian Navy submarine force”; allowing them greater awareness of the complexities of AUKUS, of Australia’s contemporary Strategic environment; and of related issues such as Social Licence and Sovereign Risk.
So, in concluding we are in strict alignment and jointly agree to recommend it to Australian readers as being entirely relevant. We make two observations for consideration by potential readers:
- To those who want to understand the difference in capability between a diesel electric submarine and a nuclear-powered submarine, this book will provide all you need; for those who want to understand what nuclear submarines do, this book will provide all you need; and
- Captain Conley has written what could become a valuable contribution to the discussion on a social licence for our nuclear-powered submarines.
We recommend it most highly.
