When was scuba first used by the military?

Answer 1

It is hard to put an exact date on this because it was probably top secret. Being under water is covert and many submarine war devices were considered 'unsporting' or at the very least you wouldn't let people know you were employing such nefarious devices. Submersible designs intended for military applications date to the 1620 but it was probably in 1808 when Sieur, who was in the Napoleonic Navy created the first re-breather that military applications were considered using what you might call Scuba. in 1900 re-breathers were mass produced for submarine escape and the availability of these units meant they were used widely from then for spear-fishing etc. 'Frogmen' from various countries used re-breathers in the second world war extensively for covert operations planting mines and overcoming submarine defences.