The Long Silence: G.A.G. Haggard of Submarine AE2
Australian History Biography Naval History Military History Submarine Warfare World War I Prisoners of War Gallipoli Campaign
The Long Silence: G.A.G. Haggard of Submarine AE2 is a scarce 2007 Australian hard-cover that collectors of Great War naval history actively hunt for. Only 134 pages, yet every one is packed with never-before-published letters and diary excerpts from Lieutenant-Commander Geoffrey Haggard, the man who took H.M. Submarine AE2 through the Dardanelles on 25 April 1915—the first Allied warship to breach the Narrows. Jennifer Smyth, the commander’s great-niece, complements the primary sources with freshly-released Royal Navy and Turkish archival material, giving readers a riveting deck-level view of the mission that changed the Gallipoli campaign and a vivid account of the three-and-a-half-year POW ordeal that followed AE2’s scuttling.
What makes this copy especially desirable is that it carries the author’s neat signature on the title-page—no inscription, just the clean autograph of “Jennifer Smyth” (who also publishes under Jennifer Haggard). The book is bound in its original navy-and-gold dust jacket, now protected; the boards are square, the pages are crisp and unmarked, and there are no ex-library stamps or previous-owner markings. Condition is uniformly rated “very good,” making it suitable for both display and reading.
Military historians prize The Long Silence because it is the only full-length biography of AE2’s captain, correcting a century of myth and finally giving credit to the boat whose daring penetration of the Turkish minefields diverted enemy attention at the critical moment of the Anzac landings. Submarine enthusiasts value the technical diagrams of AE2’s layout and the rare photographs of life inside an early British E-class boat, while genealogists appreciate the detailed Haggard family tree and the roll of every AE2 rating who shared the long captivity. With signed copies seldom appearing on the secondary market, this is an opportunity to secure a cornerstone title for any Australiana, submarine, or Gallipoli collection.
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