Writers @ Stanton: Mike Carlton

Submariners are a special breed. Not for them a life on the ocean wave, the fresh air and sunshine of other naval sailors.

With stealth and daring they go deep and dark, alone and unseen, in often dangerous waters. They sometimes call themselves the Silent Service, with good reason.

Australian submariners have done extraordinary deeds in the First and Second World Wars and, more recently, the Cold War. In April 1915 the Australian submarine AE2 penetrated the Dardanelles Strait to ‘run amuck’, a historic feat that was a turning point in the Gallipoli campaign. Eventually captured, her crew spent three harrowing years as prisoners-of-war in Turkey.

In the Second World War Australian naval volunteers made their name serving in midget submarines, attacking Hitler’s mightiest battleship, the Tirpitz, in the icy waters of a Norwegian fjord. Later, they fought the Japanese in the South China Sea.

And in the last half of the twentieth century, RAN submarines played a vital role tracking the Soviet navy in the Pacific Ocean. One wrong move could have led to outright war. The risks they ran, the perils they met and the intelligence they gathered are still classified Top Secret.

About the author

In a working life of more than fifty years, Mike Carlton was one of Australia's best-known media figures in radio, television and newspapers. Mike has had a life-long passion for naval history and is the author of Cruiser, First Victory, Flagship and The Scrap Iron Flotilla.

In 1980 Mike turned to talk radio, first at Sydney's 2UE and then 2GB, and later at London’s LBC Newstalk 97.3FM, where he won a coveted Sony Radio Academy award in 1993 for Britain's best talk breakfast show. His radio satire on current affairs, Friday News Review, was ‘must listening’ in Australia and the UK.

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