Chamber Divers: The Untold Story of the D-Day Specialists Who Changed Special Operations Forever

Biomedical engineer Lance (In the Waves) delivers a riveting account of the daredevil Allied researchers who made advances in underwater warfare possible during WWII. Drawing on previously classified documents, Lance profiles academics led by geneticist J.B.S. Haldane at University College London who unraveled the scientific mysteries of diving for the Royal Navy, often using themselves as test subjects inside decompression chambers to simulate the effect of deep underwater pressure on the human body. Researchers frequently paid a heavy toll; one scientist carefully mapped the damage to his own lungs after volunteering to be a subject in an underwater blast test. As research progressed and diving became more tenable, underwater attacks proliferated on both sides of the conflict; Lance narrates numerous clashes, including a 1941 raid against the British fleet in Alexandria, Egypt, by Italian “torpedo riders” (divers literally astride torpedoes that they floated into position). Divers eventually played a crucial role in the 1944 Allied D-Day invasion of Europe, both providing reconnaissance and removing underwater obstacles prior to the amphibious landing. Lance remarks that most of these divers “would never know where their oxygen and [decompression sickness] guidance came from or at what risk it had been obtained.” Propulsively narrated and full of moments of astonishing sacrifice, this brings a remarkable history to light. (Apr.)