Iron Coffins (To Be or Not To Be)

[K_Sea6]

I just got my copy of Iron Coffins today
So far just made through the foreword and half way through the intro
Pretty excited :rock: Just had to brag :smug:

Kerry

[Oleif]

I got my copy of that book about a week and a half ago and Im already half way through it..... for my second time. Prepare yourself for a GREAT read.

[Dowly]

Really great book! :rock:

[gdogghenrikson]

Really great book! :rock:

it is good, I know people questin it integrety though

[K_Sea6]

You think the story is made up because that would make a big difference on my opinion of the book, a'hem excuse me for being so naive. But if you think about it who really knows if any of the stories of submarine life are completely true except for the saliors that lived and worked on them... and died on them. So while there may be alot of stories that are exagerated or totally false at the same time there are alot of heroic stories That went to the bottom entombed with the saliors that lived them, that can be true of any country any branch of any war. It is this reader's opinion that it all balances out, so let your imagination run away with you and read on :rock:

[Salvadoreno]

Some of the battles he talks about didnt even happen. His sub wasnt even part of one of the convoy battles, i dnno, guess he wanted an intriguing read so he added some stuff.

Either way, when u get towards the end of the war, its incredibly sad. The book get EXTREMELY GOOD towards the end.

I dont wanna give it away.

But the part when the subs leave in a line, the battle ensuing, and the results...WOW!!!!

[Floater]

Agreed - it's a terrific read - very well-written and spell-binding, but if you're looking for historical accuracy, there are other books in the genre that are much closer to the real thing.

Better to treat is a gem of semi-fiction and just enjoy the book, IMO.

[Torplexed]

Would this make Herbert A. Werner the James Frey of U-boat history? :hmm:

[Capn Tucker]

Werner's book isn't bad. I read it many years ago when it first came out. If you want accuracy, Peter Cremer's "U-boat Commander" is a better choice.
"U-boat 977" by Heinz Schaeffer is worth reading too, although it covers only a small part of the U-boat war. I'd love to read Erich Topp's book, but it's out of print,and way too expensive...

[AntEater]

Actually I didnt like Topp's book that much, at least it is not really a book about the U-Boat war.
Topp was trying to write about a lot more than the UBoat-War, about the time and his own thoughts of world events.
Topp was a very educated man and his book is strewn with quotes of Hegel, Nietzsche and other Philosophers.
He doesnt actually tell much of U-Boat excitement except for the Battle of Narvik (as IWO of U 46), the Reuben James sinking and the HMCS Sackville episode.
It is surely an interesting book written by a very intelligent and capable man, but it is not primarily centered on the U-Boat war.

Another very interesting book is "Nach Kompaß" by Karl-Friedrich Merten (U 68).
He not only covers his UBoat time in minute detail, but also narrates his life until about 1970.
Given that he wrote this book age 92 it is remarkable. On the other hand, he wrote it with a clear agenda of a very conservative officer (Merten was the premier "das Boot" critic), but he seems to be honest about his motives.

[Khayman]

That's the book that started me off, the one that got me buying Silent Hunter II then III, and buying a fair few other books on submarine warfare.

IIRC the author states in the intro that he used diaries and research to help him write it. However he later admitted to another author that he did no such thing.

I found "Hirschfeld : The Secret Diary Of A U-Boat" just as interesting and immediate. He served under Bleichrodt in U-109 when he had a breakdown, and was also in U-234 at the wars end (the boat that was possibly carrying radioactive material to Japan).