;D
Just occurred to me that those screen shots include several 'secret projects' plus some that were in service but are certainly not well known even among enthusiasts.
Quiz questions which only Muttbutt and a few others might be tempted on:
First image:
1. Name the two diver propulsion units top left. Both were in service with top tier NATO special forces. The upper one is much less known about.
2. B&W photos on the bottom part of both pages deals with the evolution of a family of SDVs. Name and what is so very unusual about them?
Second page:
3. Top left images are to do with the 'swimmer sled' DPV, but what's the small dark picture bottom left to do with?
- Right-hand page shows early submarine trials with SDV Mk.VII by US Navy SEALs or UDT
Third page:
4. easier one - what's the cutaway on the left-hand page?
5. Right-hand page. Deals with the development of an indigenous midget sub program. Most are ridiculously difficult 'secret projects', but the final product, bottom right was in the news briefly. Can you ID it?
_____
shedofdread said:
Hope it all goes well for you. One can only imagine the amount of hard work that must've gone into it...
Yeah way more work than I realized when I started out. Everyone told me that, and the guys here who write books will roll their eyes at my newbness. Several years of research and interviews, etc, probably 20hrs per week on average, after work etc. The end result is 270 large-format pages. Cannot easily count the words in current formats but earlier drafts were ~250,000 words which is 3 standard length novels. Have cut it down a bit since then but still big, with loads of previously unpublished info. Editing is a bore. Case in point - this post would need to be re-written several times before it'd meet the minimum standard for publishing.
But I owe it to all the retired SF officers, submariners, submarine designers and others who have put up with my questions to make it into something more permanent and substantial than a website. In fact I consider that I owe it to the thousands of people who have worked with these things, designing, building, maintaining and operating them. Usually without recognition and often without even being able to even tell their families about it.
And there are a few Gurus in the industry who will not have left their memoirs (or at least not been able to reveal much of this topic in those published) which is a crying shame. I cannot replace that class of historical source, but I can at least put their names out there and list their secret craft.
