Uboat Books?

[Piggy]

Hey all, Ive always been a WW2 buff, I have a fairly large selection of books most of them on planes though. Submarines and Uboats specifically have always fascinated me but I only have one book on Uboats and that was given to me by a friend last christmas as a set of three. The book is called "kriegsmarines Uboats" by Chris Bishop and I have the other two, Luftwaffe and Panzer divisions.

I like the Uboat book, lots of pics of different types and write up's on the more famous captains/boats. As Im waiting for the game to load and during slow times I browse throught it to find the boat Im currently in to see its history and fate. Its also where Ive got the name I use for careers.

Im curious if anyone here has this book and if anyone could suggest some other books, either personal storys or general information etc.. all are welcome.

Thanks.

Edit: Should have just looked at amazon, it appears the book I have isnt rated very high, cant say Ive noticed the typos or anything but I use it mostly for passing the time, anyway there's alot of books listed, but I would like to hear some recommendations.

[kylania]

There's a few good ones I bought but I can't remember them all...

Here's a few good ones:

U-Boat War Patrol: The Hidden Photo Diary of U-564 (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1591148901) written by a Subsim member!

Iron Coffins (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/030681160X) was spectacular as well.

[von Zelda]

Im curious if anyone here has this book and if anyone could suggest some other books, either personal storys or general information etc.. all are welcome.


There have been many books published on U-boats, the Kriegsmarine, Battle of the Atlantic, etc. over the last 50 years. It's hard to recommend a book not knowing your taste in reading. Some books are very detail oriented or in fact, reference material. Others are written by the participants in the U-boat arm, thus deal with a lot of personal history and are quite interesting. And others, are more photographic in nature with captions.

If you plan to collect as I do, always buy hardcover books, 1st editions if possible. I made the mistake of buying soft cover books when I first began reading U-boat books. I have now replaced all but a few with the original hardback edition. If you're careful and selective, you can buy the original hardcover books cheaper than new soft cover editions.

A few recommendations:

Hitler's U-boat War: the Hunters, 1939 - 1942 by Clay Blair
Hitler's U-boat War: the Hunted, 1942 - 1945 by Clay Blair
The Hunters and the Hunted by Jochen Brennecke
Iron Coffins by Herbert Werner
Night Raider of the Atlantic by Terence Robertson
The Boat or Das Boote a novel by Lothar-Gunther Buchheim
Operation Drumbeat by Michael Gannon
Teddy Suhren Ace of Aces by Teddy Suhren
Twenty Million Tons Under the Sea (or U-505) by Daniel V. Gallery
U-boat: Combat Missions by Lawrence Paterson
Memoirs: 10 years and 20 days by Karl Donitz
U-boat Commander by Peter Cremer
U-boat Commander by Gunter Prien

[bookworm_020]

I've got a book on the Type VII sub, from it's inception and throught it's development over the years. It tells of the highlights and setback suffered by the type over the war years.

A good read.

I try and get the title for you;)

[Randomizer]

U-Boats Under the Swastika - Jak P. Mallmann Showell; general and technical, lots of photos many not found elsewhere.
U-Boat Ace - Jordan Vause; Biography of Wolfgang Luth.
Lone Wolf - Timothy P. Mulligan; Biography of Werner Henke.
Type VII U-Boats - Robert C. Stern; This is probably the title Bookworm_020 is looking for.
Black May - Michael Gannon; May 1943, a bad month to be a U-Boat in the Atlantic.
The Laconia Affair - Leonce Peillard; Written before the release of ULTRA documents, this is still an acceptable account of U-156's sinking of RMS Laconia and the fallout that the incident caused.
U-Boats at War - Harold Busch; One of the first post WW2 books written in Germany on the U-Boat war. Badly dated as a reference but still containing some interesting vignettes and personal narrative's of the U-Boot Waffe.

Von Zelda's collection pretty much covers off the high points.

[kgsuarez]

There's been some great books posted already, but I'll try too add. (There's only so many)

Sharks and Little Fish - Wolfgang Ott. This one is probably one of my favorite books. Only the end of the book really deals with U-boats. It's basically about a young guy (16 or so) who joins the German Navy in WWII, first in a minesweeper, and finally in U-boats. It does not focus on the war in the larger scheme as some of these other books do, instead it is more of a personal account of a sailor who endured the hardships of the Battle of the Atlantic. A very good read, if you can find a copy. Originally a German novel. It's out of print, so look around on Amazon and Ebay. I have a first edition English copy myself.:|\\

U-boat Commander - Peter Cremer. Cremer came into the war a little later than most of the "Aces," did not rack up as much tonnage, but still manages to tell a great story. I've read this book about 4 times now probably. After reading this book the first time Peter Cremer became my favorite Kaluen. A great a read.

Das Boot - Lothar-Gunther Buchheim. Enough said. :stare: (Seriously though, why wasn't this mentioned yet?) This book is really cool because of the amount of detail put into it. If you don't like reading stuff with a lot of description you might not like this one too much. Personally, the ongoing descriptions of the scenery kind of bore me, but the details on the mechanical workings of the boat are really neat (Out of all the books I have read, Das Boot gives the most detail on the boats themselves). If you're going to start reading about these things, you have to get this book (my opinion).:)

[GoldenRivet]

I highly recommed "Steel boat, Iron Hearts" By Hans Goebler.

It is a well writen book about his experiences while serving aboard U-505 up until and somewhat beyond the day of it's capture at sea.

The book is at times deeply personal, and you can feel the joy and the pain as you read the various chapters.

I thought that his love affair with the french girl was particularly sad, and in some ways i can relate to that part of the story personally.

Steel boats iron hearts is probably one of my favorite U-boat books.

If operation drumb beat fascinates you i would check out "Torpedo Junction" by Homer Hickman, Jr. it is quiete a bit more clinical in its text than steel boat iron hearts but it paints a detailed, and accurate picture of what the situation was on the US east coast in 1942

[Reece]

Probably the best U-Boat book I've read is "Iron Coffins by Herbert Werner", I have a large selection but this would be on top of the list, the next is ww1 era "From U-Boat to Pulpit by Martin Niemoller".:yep:

[nikbear]

CONVOY,by martin middlebrook,Subtitle,the greatest u-boat battle of the war.tells the story of the fight to save/kill 2 convoys,SC.122/HX229,really goes into detail how convoys were defended and how u-boats went about the job of attacking them,full of story's that are an utter wonder,highly recommended,excellent book:up:

[WeeBubba]

http://www.amazon.com/U-Boat-Far-Home-David-Stevens/dp/1864482672

Great book

[Murr44]

"Another Place, Another Time: A U-boat Officer's Wartime Album" is a very good book. Lots of interesting photos, particularly the detailed tour of a Type IXC/40 appendix. Available here: http://www.amazon.com/Another-Place-Time-Officers-Wartime/dp/1591140137. Overall 5 star rating...

I'm reading "Hitler's Grey Wolves: U-Boats in the Indian Ocean" at present. It's an interesting book as well. Here is a good review of this book at Stone & Stone: http://stonebooks.com/archives/050213.shtml to help you decide.

[ReallyDedPoet]

I highly recommed "Steel boat, Iron Hearts" By Hans Goebler.

It is a well writen book about his experiences while serving aboard U-505 up until and somewhat beyond the day of it's capture at sea.

The book is at times deeply personal, and you can feel the joy and the pain as you read the various chapters.

I thought that his love affair with the french girl was particularly sad, and in some ways i can relate to that part of the story personally.

Steel boats iron hearts is probably one of my favorite U-boat books.


Good read :yep: The author when alive, used to give impromptu tours of U-505. Must have been quite the experience for those lucky enough to witness this.


RDP

[Murr44]

Forgot about this one: Wolfpack: The Story of the U-Boat in World War Two by Gordon Williamson. Good, fairly thick introductory book with detailed coverage of all U-Boat types, bases, etc. It was reprinted in a softcover edition in 2006 which is not as pricey as the original harcover.

[Piggy]

Wow, Im a little overwhelmed by the responses, thanks everyone, I have my work cut out for me just looking at all of the books mentioned.

I always buy hardcover if I can, (curious about why the 1st edition is best though?) Im into the techincal books as well as personal stories, the latter I find the most intriguing but a great techincal book with pics & detialed specs are great as well.

"The Boat" is definitely on my list (seen the movie at least 10 times, have to read the book!). I'll have to copy all these responses and save them somewhere, I cant possibly buy them all right away but I want to keep the suggestions around where I can find them. I do like to collect books on WW2, so already having a large plane library its time to move onto ships, and U-boats.

Again, thank you all very much! (this community is awesome btw)

Cheers

[Reece]

"The Boat" is definitely on my list You'll be in for a shock with that one, definitely not for kids!!:yep::lol:

[sharkbit]

"The Boat" is definitely on my list You'll be in for a shock with that one, definitely not for kids!!:yep::lol:

My 6 year old son loves the movie. We watched it during some boy bonding while mom and daughter were at a wedding shower doing girl bonding one Saturday. The boy was full of questions. It was a lot of fun. Afterwards, we played SH3 and had a blast. :D

The other night, he was looking at my copy of the book and asked if he could read it. I told him it was pretty hard to read for a six year old and said there was some parts not quite appropriate for little children. Told him he'd have to wait a few years before taking that one on.

I've been expanding my library quite a bit with U-boat books and my son loves looking at the pictures in the books and asking a million questions as well as watching me play and asking a million and one questions.
:)

[Piggy]

"The Boat" is definitely on my list You'll be in for a shock with that one, definitely not for kids!!:yep::lol:

Well if the movie was any "hint" at what was in the book I think I have a good idea of what you're talking about :o , no worries Im 34.

I do have a 2-1/2 year old boy though, a little young to watch the movie (or even sit still for 1 minute...) but in the future Im pretty sure he'll be into dads movies/games/books. He does have a toy sub he plays with in the bath, seems to really like it... :cool:

Cheers

[Stingray67]

I have just finished reading Wolf: U-boat commanders in World War II by Jordan Vause
I found it impossible to put down and read it through in one day.

It deals not so much with the events of the war and the u-boat campaign but rather concentrates on the commanders involved, notably tracking the careers of Jürgen Oesten, Victor Oehrn and Wolfgang Lüth as well as painting a detailed portrait of Karl Dönitz.

This is a must-read for anyone even remotely interested in the u-boat war.

[wireman]

Wow, Im a little overwhelmed by the responses, thanks everyone, I have my work cut out for me just looking at all of the books mentioned.

I always buy hardcover if I can, (curious about why the 1st edition is best though?) Im into the techincal books as well as personal stories, the latter I find the most intriguing but a great techincal book with pics & detialed specs are great as well.


Cheers

1st. edition isn't always the best. They often contain the errors that are fixed in later editions. Hardcover is always better for endurance and resale.