
Chamber Divers
The Untold Story of the D-Day Scientists Who Changed Special Operations Forever
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Narrated by:
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Alex Wyndham
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By:
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Rachel Lance
About this listen
The previously classified story of the eccentric researchers who invented cutting-edge underwater science to lead the Allies to D-Day victory
In August 1942, more than 7,000 Allied troops rushed the beaches of Normandy, France, in an all but-forgotten landing. Only a small fraction survived unscathed. It was two summers before D-Day, and the Allies realized that they were in dire need of underwater intelligence if they wanted to stand a chance of launching another beach invasion and of winning the war.
Led by the controversial biologists J. B. S. Haldane and Dr. Helen Spurway, an ingenious team of ragtag scientists worked out of homemade labs during the London Blitz. Beneath a rain of bombs, they pioneered thrilling advances in underwater reconnaissance through tests done on themselves in painful and potentially fatal experiments. Their discoveries led to the safe use of miniature submarines and breathing apparatuses, which ultimately let the Allies take the beaches of Normandy.
Blast injury specialist Dr. Rachel Lance unpacks the harrowing narratives of these experiments while bringing to life the men and women whose brilliance and self-sacrifice shaped the outcome of the war, including their personal relationships with one another and the ways they faced skepticism and danger in their quest to enable Allied troops to breathe underwater.
The riveting science leading up to D-Day has been classified for generations, but Chamber Divers finally brings these scientists’ stories—and their heroism—to light.
©2024 Rachel Lance (P)2024 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"Meticulously researched, the unbelievable yet true story of the eccentric, maverick submarine scientists whose courage and expertise ensured the success of D-Day. Inspirational reading."—Dr Helen Fry, author of MI9
“Rachel Lance has produced a gripping, beautifully researched narrative that plunges readers deep into the drama of one of the most important military operations in history. WWII buffs and those looking for a genuine page turner will be delighted.”—Alex Kershaw, New York Times bestselling author of Against All Odds
“With skill and heart, Rachel Lance tells the story of a group of unlikely heroes, who sacrificed their own bodies to advance a hidden world of warfare. Exploring the unseen depths of WWII’s most dangerous operations, Lance reveals the secret wartime science that remains essential to protecting our freedoms.” —Nathalia Holt, New York Times bestselling author of Rise of the Rocket Girls and Wise Gals
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- By: Mensun Bound
- Narrated by: Mensun Bound - preface, Charles Armstrong
- Length: 11 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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On November 21, 1914, after sailing more than ten thousand miles from Norway to the Antarctic Ocean, the Endurance finally succumbed to the surrounding ice. Ernest Shackleton and his crew had navigated the 144-foot, three-masted wooden vessel to Antarctica to become the first to cross the barren continent, but early season pack ice trapped them in place offshore. They watched in silence as the ship’s stern rose twenty feet in the air and disappeared into the frigid sea, then spent six harrowing months marooned on the ice in its wake.
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Dragged out story
- By Bill on 09-14-23
By: Mensun Bound
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The Soldier's Truth
- Ernie Pyle and the Story of World War II
- By: David Chrisinger
- Narrated by: David Chrisinger
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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At the height of his fame and influence during World War II, Ernie Pyle’s nationally syndicated dispatches from combat zones shaped America’s understanding of what the war felt like to ordinary soldiers, as no writer’s work had before or has since. From North Africa to Sicily, from the beaches of Anzio to the beaches of Normandy, and on to the war in the Pacific, where he would meet his end, Ernie Pyle had a genius for connecting with his beloved dogfaced grunts. In The Soldier's Truth, acclaimed writer David Chrisinger brings Pyle’s journey to vivid life in all its heroism and pathos.
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Truth
- By Dawn L. on 09-24-24
By: David Chrisinger
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Empireland
- How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain
- By: Sathnam Sanghera, Marlon James - foreword
- Narrated by: Homer Todiwala, Marlon James
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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A best-selling journalist’s illuminating tour through the hidden legacies and modern realities of British empire that exposes how much of the present-day United Kingdom is actually rooted in its colonial past. Empireland boldly and lucidly makes the case that in order to understand America, we must first understand British imperialism. Empire—whether British or otherwise—informs nearly everything we do.
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Important history
- By Maggie A. on 07-02-23
By: Sathnam Sanghera, and others
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The Good Virus
- The Amazing Story and Forgotten Promise of the Phage
- By: Tom Ireland
- Narrated by: Ben Deery
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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At every moment, within our bodies and all around us, trillions of microscopic combatants are waging a war that shapes our health and life on Earth. Countless times per second, viruses known as phages attack and destroy bacteria while leaving all other life forms, including us, unscathed. Vastly outnumbering the viruses that do us harm, phages power ecosystems, drive evolutionary innovation, and harbor a remarkable capacity to heal life-threatening infections when conventional antibiotics fail. Yet most of us have never heard of them, thinking of viruses only as enemies to be feared.
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No brainer
- By Paul on 10-11-23
By: Tom Ireland
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We the Poisoned
- Exposing the Flint Water Crisis Cover-Up and the Poisoning of 100,000 Americans
- By: Jordan Chariton, Erin Brockovich - foreword
- Narrated by: Pete Cross, Sophie Amoss
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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As the ongoing Flint water crisis marks its tenth anniversary, Chariton reveals shocking new evidence of the major government cover-up that resulted in the poisoning of Flint—and shatters what you think you know about what caused the water crisis.
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I thought I had learned what I could, until now
- By Anonymous User on 10-18-24
By: Jordan Chariton, and others
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I Dread the Thought of the Place
- The Battle of Antietam and the End of the Maryland Campaign
- By: D. Scott Hartwig
- Narrated by: David Stifel
- Length: 47 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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The memory of the Battle of Antietam was so haunting that when, nine months later, Major Rufus Dawes learned another Antietam battle might be on the horizon, he wrote, "I hope not, I dread the thought of the place." In this definitive account, historian D. Scott Hartwig chronicles the single bloodiest day in American history, which resulted in 23,000 casualties.
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Great Followup
- By Jeff G on 01-28-25
By: D. Scott Hartwig
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Continental Reckoning
- The American West in the Age of Expansion
- By: Elliott West
- Narrated by: Christopher Grove
- Length: 23 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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In Continental Reckoning renowned historian Elliott West presents a sweeping narrative of the American West and its vital role in the transformation of the nation. In the 1840s, by which time the United States had expanded to the Pacific, what would become the West was home to numerous vibrant Native cultures and vague claims by other nations.
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Great Historian, Worth Listening
- By Janice on 01-19-25
By: Elliott West
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Patton's Payback
- The Battle of El Guettar and General Patton's Rise to Glory
- By: Stephen L. Moore
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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In March 1943, in their first fight with the Germans, American soldiers in North Africa were pushed back 50 miles by Rommel’s Afrika Korps and nearly annihilated. Only the German decision not to pursue them allowed the Americans to maintain a foothold in the area. General Eisenhower, the supreme commander, knew he needed a new leader on the ground, one who could raise the severely damaged morale of his troops. He handed the job to a new man: Lieutenant General George Patton.
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Very educational
- By Mark Mears on 10-01-23
By: Stephen L. Moore
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The Embarrassment of Riches
- An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age
- By: Simon Schama
- Narrated by: Mike Cooper
- Length: 20 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Simon Schama explores the mysterious contradictions of the Dutch nation that invented itself from the ground up, attained an unprecedented level of affluence, and lived in constant dread of being corrupted by happiness. Drawing on a vast array of period documents and sumptuously reproduced art, Schama recreates in precise detail a nation's mental state. He tells of bloody uprisings and beached whales, of the cult of hygiene and the plague of tobacco, of thrifty housewives and profligate tulip-speculators.
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Great!
- By Noe on 12-05-24
By: Simon Schama
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Headwaters
- The Adventures, Obsession and Evolution of a Fly Fisherman (Patagonia)
- By: Dylan Tomine, John Larison - foreward
- Narrated by: Dylan Tomine
- Length: 7 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Dylan Tomine takes us to the far reaches of the planet in search of fish and adventure, with keen insight, a strong stomach, and plenty of laughs along the way. Closer to home, he wades deeper into his beloved steelhead rivers of the Pacific Northwest and the politics of saving them. Tomine celebrates the joy - and pain - of exploration, fatherhood, and the comforts of home waters from a vantage point well off the beaten path. Headwaters traces the evolution of a lifelong angler’s priorities from fishing to the survival of the fish themselves.
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Because fishing is about more than catching fish
- By Paul O. on 04-12-25
By: Dylan Tomine, and others
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My Hijacking
- A Personal History of Forgetting and Remembering
- By: Martha Hodes
- Narrated by: Laurel Lefkow
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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On September 6, 1970, twelve-year-old Martha Hodes and her thirteen-year-old sister were flying unaccompanied back to New York City from Israel when their plane was hijacked by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and forced to land in the Jordan desert. Too young to understand the sheer gravity of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Martha coped by suppressing her fear and anxiety. Nearly a half-century later, her memories of those six days and nights as a hostage are hazy and scattered.
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Such an interesting story made dull by narrator
- By Lissa Goldman on 05-01-25
By: Martha Hodes
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In the Waves
- My Quest to Solve the Mystery of a Civil War Submarine
- By: Rachel Lance
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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On the night of February 17, 1864, the tiny Confederate submarine HL Hunley made its way toward the USS Housatonic just outside Charleston harbor. Within a matter of hours, the Union ship’s stern was blown open in a spray of wood planks. The explosion sank the ship, killing many of its crew. And the submarine, the first ever to be successful in combat, disappeared without a trace. For 131 years the eight-man crew of the HL Hunley lay in their watery graves, undiscovered.
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A wonderful scientific dive!
- By Stephen on 05-01-20
By: Rachel Lance
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The Trail of Gold and Silver
- Mining in Colorado, 1859-2009 (Timberline Books)
- By: Duane A. Smith
- Narrated by: Chuck Buell
- Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Trail of Gold and Silver, historian Duane A. Smith details Colorado's mining saga - a story that stretches from the beginning of the gold and silver mining rush in the mid-19th century into the 21st century. Gold and silver mining laid the foundation for Colorado's economy, and 1859 marked the beginning of a fever for these precious metals.
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Great Read for any Coloradan
- By John J. Baich on 11-23-23
By: Duane A. Smith
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The Underworld
- Journeys to the Depths of the Ocean
- By: Susan Casey
- Narrated by: Susan Casey
- Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Susan Casey is our premiere chronicler of the aquatic world. For The Underworld she traversed the globe, joining scientists and explorers on dives to the deepest places on the planet, interviewing the marine geologists, marine biologists, and oceanographers who are searching for knowledge in this vast unseen realm. She takes us on a fascinating journey through the history of deep-sea exploration, from the myths and legends of the ancient world to storied shipwrecks we can now reach on the bottom.
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narrator ruined it
- By Amazon Customer on 05-12-24
By: Susan Casey
I am a new fan of Rachel’s lectures and thought this casting strange.
I returned it reluctantly…
Really missed casting a woman for Rachel!
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Unknown heroes
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Science and history
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Unsung heroes
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Good narrative structure
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A Very Well Told Story
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As a US Navy DMT I knew some of this story.
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History of the Diving World from UK Perspective
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Historical facts
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Amazing Dive Into the Foundations of Dive Science and WW2 History
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