The Long Silence: G.A.G Haggard of Submarine AE2
Naval History Biography & Memoir Military History Submarine Warfare World War I Prisoner-of-War Memoir Australian Military Collectible Military History
The Long Silence: G.A.G. Haggard of Submarine AE2 is a scarce 2007 Australian hard-cover that collectors of Great War naval history avidly hunt for. Jennifer Smyth’s meticulously researched biography rescues from obscurity the story of her grandfather, Lieutenant-Commander Geoffrey Haggard, the last officer to command the Royal Australian Navy submarine AE2 before it was scuttled in the Sea of Marmara on 30 April 1915. Only 134 pages, yet every page is packed with first-hand family papers, Turkish archival material, and never-before-published photographs that explain how AE2’s daring penetration of the Dardanelles helped change the strategic course of the Gallipoli campaign. Because the boat was lost, the crew spent the rest of the war in Ottoman captivity; Smyth’s narrative therefore doubles as a prisoner-of-war memoir, offering a rare Allied view of Turkish military prisons and the long silence that followed the submarine’s final wireless signal.
What makes this copy especially desirable is that it is personally signed “Jennifer Haggard” (the author’s birth name) on the title-page, a detail often missing even in fine copies. The volume is bound in navy-blue cloth with the distinctive dust jacket showing AE2 under way on the surface, and the book is preserved in very good condition—square, tight, and internally fresh—ideal for both reference shelf and display cabinet. First-edition hard-covers with the jacket and author signature seldom surface on the secondary market, making this a cornerstone piece for anyone building a Great War at sea, Australian military, or submarine warfare collection.
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