New light is shed on one of the world's deepest submarine rescues

It had all the twists and turns of a Hollywood movie - only this was no work of fiction.

Two men from Cumbria were left fighting for breath trapped in a sunken submarine at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. 

The engineers, Roger Mallison and Roger Chapman were on a routine dive in August 1973 to lay telecommunication cables when their mini-submarine sank to a third of a mile below the surface.

As the story gripped the world an international rescue was underway to save the men.

After three days of several sailed attempts, it was a small team from Vickers Oceanics in Barrow that came to their rescue.

The men, didn't panic and had tremendous presence of mind even though time was running out.

They had just 12 minutes of oxygen left when they were finally brought to the surface, in what remains the world's deepest ever submarine rescue.

Speaking to ITV News before his death Roger Chapman said 'the people who rescued us, had to do everything, invent things to rescue us and work for three or four days without sleep.'

Now, almost 50 years on the incredible story has been documented for the first time, in a new book, called 'The Dive,' by Stephen McGinty.

He said researching the book showed it is a story of heroism and stoicism.

He said if you see the footage of the two men who were brought to the surface, they played it down. He described their reaction as 'this was the epitome of the British stiff upper lip'.

June Chapman, widow of Roger said her sons didn't know the whole story until they read the book about what their father and how he and his friend survived.