Gripping, well-written history of the scientific experiments and engineering that made underwater special operations possible.

An exhaustive chronicle of Britain's effort during WW Two to develop a critical safety measure for its submariners: an escape mechanism/nonlethal oxygen+gas mix for free ascents out of crippled and sinking submarines. When I call this book 'exhaustive' I'm not exaggerating: it reads much more slowly than its stated length would indicate. It's a microscopic look at the hero scientists and volunteers who pioneered this breakthrough triumph. While the detail is fascinating and the underlying story uplifting, we too often get bogged down in the morass of detail. If you have an abiding interest in chronicles of England's war years and you can't delve deeply enough, you'll love this book.

Rachel Lance, the biomedical engineer who authored the first book I reviewed at my blog Will o'the Glen on Books – “In The Waves”, about the fate of the Confederate States submarine CSS Hunley and its crew after the sinking of the USS Housatonic in Charleston Harbor on February 17th, 1864 – is back with another deeply researched scientific thriller: “The Chamber Divers”.

In “The Chamber Divers” Dr Lance has jumped forward in time 70+ years from the time of the Hunley to one of the most critical periods in modern history, the Second World War, bringing to light the efforts of a dedicated group of scientists who put their own bodies on the line in support of the Allied effort to conquer fascism.

“The Chamber Divers” draws the reader in with a prologue chapter about the ill-fated Dieppe raid, an infamously failed landing at the French resort town of Dieppe on 19 August, 1942. A 10,500-man Allied force assaulted Dieppe from the sea and from the air with the objective of capturing and holding the port, for a time, as a test case for a future, larger Allied landing.

There were many factors that led to the complete and utter failure of the operation – nearly half of the Allied force were captured, wounded, or killed – but chief among them was the lack of adequate information about the terrain and enemy defenses. The information-gathering effort prior to the landing consisted of sparse aerial reconnaissance efforts; the composition and gradient of the beach, and its suitability for landing personnel and armored vehicles, was assessed on the basis of holiday snapshots.

With the 20-20 hindsight that is typical in the aftermath of massive failures of this sort, the Allied military authorities realized that extensive beach re-connaissance, and more importantly, undetected beach reconnaissance, would be key in the eventual assault on Festung Europa – and that hiding reconnaissance personnel underwater was going to be necessary to that task.

From that jumping-off point, and with a short but important and informa-tive detour to Gilded Age New York City and the decompression sickness problems that plagued the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, Dr Lance weaves a narrative that introduces us to a varied cast of characters which in-cludes some of the most dedicated and intrepid scientific investigators you will ever hear of; names such as JBS Haldane, Helen Spurway, Elizabeth Jermyn, Hans Grüneberg, Martin Case, Jim Rendel, and Ursula Philip.

Dedicated and intrepid they needed to be, because investigating the world of the high- (and low-) pressure environments, underwater and in the upper atmosphere, that divers and submariners, and aviators in unpressurized air-craft, inhabit, is dangerous and exacting work. To understand the effects of these foreign environments on the human body, humans must be subjected to those conditions. The effects of those environments on the human body range from slightly uncomfortable to excruciatingly painful, and even life-threatening. Because of the risk to life and limb, the scientists who were conducting the experiments that expanded our knowledge of these foreign worlds which lay mere yards below the surface of the ocean, and thousands of feet above us, in the upper atmosphere, couldn’t ask human subjects to volunteer. So they experimented on themselves.

In order to learn what effects exposure to high- and low-pressure environ-ments have on the human body, how much CO2, how much pure (or just high-concentration) oxygen a human can tolerate, these scientists spent hours in hyperbaric chambers. Under conditions simulating exploration deep underwater, or confined in a submarine with a limited supply of air, they experienced symptoms that ranged from sinus pain to blurred vision, toothaches, nausea, and bone-wrenching – even bone-breaking – muscular spasms.

A line can be drawn directly from the work these people did to the eventual victory of the Allied forces in World War II, because without the knowledge that was gained at such painful expense, the successful invasion of the European continent, and the eventual casting-off of the Nazi yoke from the subjugated people of Europe would not have been possible. The research that was conducted by these selfless, and maybe slightly wacko, re-searchers, enabled the divers and submariners who scouted the stoutly de-fended coastline of Europe to gather vital knowledge of the water and beach conditions that would affect military landings. They were able to map – and later, on the eve of the invasion – neutralize, the manmade defenses that had been put in place to repel an invasion. In the days after the successful landings on the Normandy beaches, divers continued their work, expanding the safe lanes of access to the shore that allowed the flow of men and materials that was necessary to expand the Allies’ tenuous toehold on the Continent and begin the inland push toward a final victory over Nazi Germany.
The story behind the creation of this book is also quite remarkable. Rachel Lance teed-up the research effort on this book just as the Covid-19 pandem-ic shut the world down, so digging into archives became more than slightly problematic. Despite that hard start, Dr Lance has produced a thorough and deeply researched book – qualities which, when combined with her light and sometimes whimsical touch when it comes to storytelling*, have result-ed in a true-life scientific thriller that is a worthy follow-up to “In The Waves”.

In “The Chamber Divers” Rachel Lance recounts in admirable fashion one of the most unbelievable, yet 100% true, stories of the pursuit of scientific knowledge for the betterment of mankind that you will ever read. As with her first book, In The Waves, I give it my highest recommendation.

(I would proffer some examples, but I don’t want to spoil the serendipitous joy the reader will have upon encountering her little gems on their own.)

In 1942 some 7,000 Allied troops made an amphibious attack at Dieppe with a huge loss of life, a failed “dress rehearsal” for D-Day due to lack of knowledge of the beaches. For two years an odd group of scientists experimented to develop tests of how humans could breathe underwater and infiltrate France’s German-held beaches and gather pre-invasion information of water depth, tides, soil and sand makeup and how far soldier would have to wade to gain cover. Risking death, the scientists used themselves as trial and error test objects to discover which gas mixes are needed to survive at various depths. These unsung heroes ultimately determined safe use guidelines for miniature submarines and breathing apparatuses. Sadly, their knowledge was only put to use during D-Day by the British. American forces at Omaha Beach did not accept the prior exploration of the area by the “frogmen.” A great narrative about the work of dedicated scientists which has been held secret for years.

The author did a wonderful job of giving the background of each scientist so the reader felt like they knew each character making it very fun to read. For being a nonfiction 500 page book, it sure read as a light and easy read.

Chamber divers is a well written, well researched story of the previously classified account of a group of scientists whose research went on to help build the technology needed to make underwater military missions successful.

This story weaves the accounts of so many sources into a well written narrative. Knowing the big successes in WWII and how they were ultimately accomplished thanks to science was interesting to learn about. I love stories that reveal the truth about the people who work behind the scenes, finally giving them the credit they deserve.

Reads Almost Like Fiction - And Should Give Soraya M. Lane Inspiration For A Future Novel. First, this is one of the better researched books I've come across in all of my Advance Review Copy reading efforts - over 1100 books since 2018 - at 45% documentation. Kudos to Lance for being so thorough there.

And she needs it - because this is one of the more fantastical nonfiction books you're ever going to come across. A brother and sister experimenting on themselves - as their father, who also experimented on himself *even with chlorine gas*, had trained them to do - gathering a team of like minded scientists to push the limits of the human condition under extreme environments, later in a direct race to help save their country from annihilation.

Before Jacques Cousteau developed SCUBA, there were the scientists working to discover what, exactly, humans could survive under water. What, exactly, happened as the human body was compressed to ever higher pressures? What happened as that pressure was relaxed - either suddenly or gradually? How could we allow humans to survive at ever increasing pressures, and what, exactly, were the limits?

And then... Normandy.

It had already been tried once, and failed miserably - because the soldiers didn't have the data these very scientists were racing to obtain. Could they get it in time for the next invasion attempt?

They could... and they would change the face of warfare (and, to be honest, some entertainment and other scientific pursuits) forever when they did.

This is their story, told for seemingly the very first time.

Very much recommended. And please tag Soraya Lane and beg her to bring this story to actual fiction.

My thank to both NetGalley and the publisher Penguin Group- Dutton for an advance copy of this book that looks at the scientists and inventors who helped the allied war effort in World War II with discoveries about surviving both in the sky, and underwater, and whose efforts have been mainly forgotten, or pushed aside.

For a person who loved science fiction, I was not into science when I was in school. I think I was in college and reading history that I began to notice the importance of science and technology in many key events. Especially in war. However while there would be pages about people using this technology, there would be just a paragraph, maybe, describing, how this technology was developed. People reading about war don't want to read about nerds experimenting on each other, sometimes at great pressure. Or drawing on skills used to study genetics and bugs to find out how to go to deeper depths of escaping detection. However without them, the face of war would have been quite different. Chamber Divers: The Untold Story of the D-Day Scientists Who Changed Special Operations Forever by Rachel Lance is a look at a group of thinkers, men and women, who put themselves to the test to develop ways to help England fight in World War II, methods that are still used today.

The book begin with a a disaster, the 1942 raid on the French town of Dieppe by Canadian and English troops. This invasion was a half-hearted affair, meant mainly to appease Stalin, and cost the lives of many, many Allied troops. The lesson learned from this was that without proper reconnaissance of beaches, man and material could be trapped off shore, targets to picked off by enemy forces. From here we meet the scientists who had been working on problems, like designing suits to breath underwater, to deal with problems that develop from nitrogen and oxygen. And what better test patients than themselves. The people are a mixed group, scientists with a long standing interest in gases, Communism, and fighting for what tey believed in. Women, some who were refugees, some with the courage to fight every convention that science laid before them. What united them was a thirst for knowledge and a bravery to try everything they though of on themselves. Testing oxygen systems in pressure chambers. Setting explosives off in water. All to gain knowledge for the battles that were sure to be coming.

A book that is a great mix of science, military history and human persistance, and even humanity stupidity. Books that an convey a odd scientist, the pain of the bends, even an explanation of what the bends are, and lots of military action, are few and far between. Lance explain the science, the importance of what was needed, plus scenes using the technology that were riveting. However it all comes down to the human factor, and Lance excels. The small stories, the aches, the pains the burst lungs that many of these people had to live with, after testing in the pressure chamber. The easy way there achievements were forgotten, and the fact that they never shared them with their family out of a sense of duty. The is a rich book filled with a lot of fascinating stories, ideas, acts of bravery, and foolhardiness.

Recommended for science lovers and people who love to read about technology in war. Also for people who like to read stories about people who thought about others first, risking life and limb to find ways to stop evil from coming to their shores. A great book for Father's Day or really any day.

Thanka to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of Chamber Divers. This account of a portion of the 1940s provided a great deal of information to me. Learning the extensive research put into solving the deep water pressure and effects was not initially something that I would have thought about. It was fascinating.

Anyone who enjoys a good book about a little covered area of war should read this book. Just when you think you have read everything about WWII, along comes a book like Chamber Divers that changes everything.

An interesting read on how researchers impacted WW2 in the use of divers and submersibles. What is intriguing is how the research has carried over into other fields such as work on bridges, and other below water occupations. The incredible bravery of the individuals was inspiring as they performed much of the research on themselves. Overall, a good read.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.