For a novel Big Sharks and Little Fish would be hard to beat. It is a fictional account of a group of young roughneck German sailors and follows their lives from able seamen on mine sweepers in the early war North Sea through their training as cadets to become U-Boat officers.

If I remember correctly it was written by a real life U-Boat submariner and I suspect the things he writes about actually happened to him. I took it to be a fair glimpse into how the war affected these men.

Thanks for the link...I might just have to buy this one.

Grey Wolf, Grey Sea by E.B. Gasaway

Wonderful book about a Type IX boat's entire career, relatively concise but detailed - and really just awesome read, very well-written. Still my favorite :up:

Real Books about real war
 

"The Key", aka "Stella," by Jan deHartog
"The Enemy Below" by D.A. Raynor

Both became major motion pictures.

My all time favorite is "The Good Shepherd" by C.S. Forester.

Not to be confused with Monserrat's "The Cruel Sea", 'The Real Cruel Sea' by Richard Woodman, a professional mariner and an excellent writer, gives the merchant seaman's view of the Battle of the Atlantic. There's no glory here, just the war through the eyes of the targets.

re: your recommendations
 

Just started reading 'Iron Coffins'. :up:

John Biggins' "A Sailor of Austria" is an excellent novel about First World War submarine combat. Seen from the prespective of the Austro-Hungarian Navy it is informative, accurate and, at times, very funny. It's the best submarine novel that I have ever read. :up:

Mein Kampf

It can be interpeted in a way so that you think its about subs. Especially if you dont understand german

Buchheim's "The Fortress" is also IMO a very interesting novel. Lots of Uboat stuff of course but also a look at the situation in France before and after the invasion in Normandy.

And if you're interested in what happened to the Kaleun of U-96 after WW2, read the last part of the trilogy, "The Goodbye".

Well so far im into chapter 2. He gives a real good account of life on a uboat as so far. Some of the details he gives really sticks in your mind. His first war patrol was to the south atlantic in the waters off of freetown. His descriptions of the eniroment were really vivid.

I particuarly enjoyed this part about eggs. Yess, eggs. He says in the chilly north atlantic, they'd last anywhere from 2 to 3 months before going rotton. On U505's outsdet they had 3000 of them onboard, and theyd rott in 2 or 3 weeks in the humid south atlantic , espcially inside a sweltering uboat pressure hull. So they had to scarf down 3000 eggs in two weeks. blech. The heat inside a uboat was intense. WHen they dived the water would cool down the hull, but it would create condensation. he said he had "rain water" dripping into his books while reading or what not.

Lots of other small details, really good reading as so far. He even went into talking uboat school at the time. Pretty intense training, with a high washout rate.

That was funny. :)