Those wonderful men in their submersible machines
Many of you will know that I wrote a book called The Real X-Men a few years ago on the subject of the Royal Navy’s Chariots and X-Craft. These were extraordinary and innovative underwater vessels that, when combined with the extreme courage of their mainly teenager crews, resulted in devastating attacks against enemy shipping, not least of all the Tirpitz.
The lovely folk at Scottish Field have published an article I’ve written for them on the subject of X-craft on and in Loch Striven. I hope you enjoy the article and buy a copy of this excellent magazine!
We saw these waters on our most recent visit to Scotland and the Hebrides Islands. I believe I read one of the earlier accounts of the X-craft years ago and probably saw the film Submarine X-1 (and I apologize for the insertion of James Caan in that) when it first came around in the US. The midget subs and divers were an impressive group on all sides. As I recall, they finally tracked down all of the Japanese midget subs that were involved in the attack on Pearl Harbor.