Secret Operation by Robert Taylor.

Submariners are a special breed of sailor. Their environment, operating deep beneath the surface of the waves, is both unnatural and dangerous, and demands men of cool courage and exceptional quality. Prowling the depths like a mammoth shark, sometimes hunted, submarine crews live and fight, and sometimes die together, alone in the remote expanses of the worlds great oceans. Regardless of national flag under which they sail, this small elite Silent Service is both feared and admired by all who sail the seas. Plying their deadly trade in World War Two, the German U-boats posed such threat to the vital Atlantic convoys; Winston Churchill feared the submarine threat more than anything Hitler had at his disposal. Hunting in wolf packs, roaming the shipping lanes far beyond the reach of protective aircraft, they decimated the Allied merchant vessels during the Battle of the Atlantic. Manned entirely by volunteers, British and American submarines saw action in every maritime theatre during the great conflict of 1939 - 1945, the crews fighting their solitary, stealthy, secret war with courage and nerves of steel. This print captures the menacing beauty of a submarine on the surface: S-Class type HMS Sceptre slips her moorings in Scapa Flow, Scotland, and glides quietly into the North Sea to begin another top secret underwater operation. On the conning tower the skipper takes a final look across the water to the distant highlands while the crew savour the fresh salt air knowing soon they will submerge into their eerie, silent, artificial world, beneath the waves.

Signed by Vice-Admiral Sir Michael Lumby KCB, OBE, DSO, DSC,
Vice-Admiral Sir lan McGeoch KCB DSO DFC (deceased),
Vice-Admiral Sir Ian McIntosh KBE, CB, DSO, DSC (deceased)
and
Commander Edward Young DSO, DSC*, RNV (S) R (deceased).

Signed limited edition of 700 prints.

Image size 13.5 inches x 10 inches (34cm x 25cm)