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Title details for Chamber Divers by Rachel Lance - Available

Chamber Divers

The Untold Story of the D-Day Scientists Who Changed Special Operations Forever

by Rachel Lance
Alex Wyndham
Audiobook
3 of 3 copies available
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3 of 3 copies available
The previously classified story of the eccentric researchers who invented cutting-edge underwater science to lead the Allies to D-Day victory
In August 1942, more than 7,000 Allied troops rushed the beaches of Normandy, France, in an all but-forgotten landing. Only a small fraction survived unscathed. It was two summers before D-Day, and the Allies realized that they were in dire need of underwater intelligence if they wanted to stand a chance of launching another beach invasion and of winning the war.
Led by the controversial biologists J. B. S. Haldane and Dr. Helen Spurway, an ingenious team of ragtag scientists worked out of homemade labs during the London Blitz. Beneath a rain of bombs, they pioneered thrilling advances in underwater reconnaissance through tests done on themselves in painful and potentially fatal experiments. Their discoveries led to the safe use of miniature submarines and breathing apparatuses, which ultimately let the Allies take the beaches of Normandy.
Blast injury specialist Dr. Rachel Lance unpacks the harrowing narratives of these experiments while bringing to life the men and women whose brilliance and self-sacrifice shaped the outcome of the war, including their personal relationships with one another and the ways they faced skepticism and danger in their quest to enable Allied troops to breathe underwater.
The riveting science leading up to D-Day has been classified for generations, but Chamber Divers finally brings these scientists’ stories—and their heroism—to light.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    April 16, 2024

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593827550
      • File size: 309591 KB
      • Duration: 10:44:58

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from January 15, 2024
      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 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.

    • Library Journal

      Starred review from May 31, 2024

      Biomedical engineer Lance (Duke Univ. Sch. of Medicine; In the Waves) offers her distinctive perspective on the previously classified story of how underwater engineers during World War II willingly exposed themselves to extraordinary life-threatening risks to make D-Day successful. She vividly describes how brave, eccentric researchers experimented on themselves to understand better the science of lethal undersea pressure and underwater breathing apparatuses to provide support for the Allied invasion. These courageous researchers undertook life-threatening risks as they investigated new technologies and scrutinized Normandy beaches, underwater sea floor mines, and defensive construction. Lance immersed herself in declassified intelligence and includes striking descriptions of the personalities of the maverick scientists who risked their lives in their endeavor. British actor Alex Wyndham's distinctive baritone is an impressive match to this account of little-known details from the perilous preparation for the Normandy invasion. VERDICT Lance's important work reveals how chamber divers helped develop much of the technology that has enabled today's popular underwater diving and military stealth diving. Her work significantly updates and expands R. Frank Busby's Manned Submersibles and Robert F. Marx's The History of Underwater Exploration. This one is destined for Hollywood and is essential for all World War II collections.--Dale Farris

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      With a stentorian delivery and an English accent, Alex Wyndham narrates this account of an overlooked aspect of the D-Day invasion. Beginning with the fiasco of the Dieppe Raid in 1942, Wyndham tells the story of how J.B.S. Haldane and Dr. Helen Spurway led a group of scientists to develop an underwater breathing apparatus and a miniature submarine for underwater reconnaissance purposes. The development involved carrying out dangerous, and even possibly fatal, experiments to learn how the human body reacts to various depths of water pressure. The author is a biomedical engineer, and she brings all the challenges and perils of this work to life. Wyndham's narration is a splendid match to the text, enlivening a small but very important aspect of WWII. M.T.F. © AudioFile 2025, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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