Recommended reading
 

Having only just got into this Sim recently, it's really inspired me to read about the subject in more depth..

I've already read "Ace of Aces" - Teddy Suhren, "U-boat Ace" - Wolfgang Luth, "Iron Coffins" - Herbert Werner. All fantastic reads, highly recommended!! :D

I've also just ordered U-333 by Peter Cremer and of course - "Das Boot". But wondered if anyone had any other recommendations for me? Doesn't have to be about the U-Bootwaffe specifically, but that's probably my preference... :)

Thanks...

(note- double posted on UBI SH5 forum)

"Run Silent, Run Deep" by Cmdr Edward Beach. Good read!

"Clear the Bridge: The War Patrols of the USS Tang" - by her Captain, Richard O'Kane

Others will undoubtedly recommend "Thunder Below" by the Captain of the USS Barb, Eugene Fluckey. I HATED it (for what that's worth) Granted, Fluckey was a talented, innovative, and highly successful skipper, but his writing style and apparently over-the-top ego was simply grating! One would think he alone was responsible for the Allies winning the war in the Pacific! By the way, every quoted conversation in the book begins with the author addressing, or being addressed, by first name, as in, "Gene, I believe I'll go to the head." "Ralph, I think you should not forget to flush." "Gene, I've been to the head before and never forgotten to flush!" "Ralph, I suspect you're lieing to me and a, 'masting' will inevitably be the result. "Herb, assemble the men to witness punishment!" "Gene, aye aye!" ---- ad nauseum

"Fortunes of War: U-boat Commander" - Gunther Prien

:hmmm: since you're playing an U-Boat, it must be the "Unterseeboot Kommandanten Handbuch".

If you struggle with the german language :D
here's a link to the translated "THE SUBMARINE COMMANDER'S HANDBOOK": http://www.hnsa.org/doc/uboat/index.htm

The Hidden Photographic Diary of U564 by Lawrence Patterson is a great read
Full of great photos

and to have a look at the other side;
the cruel sea by Nicholas Monsarrat

Moved to appropriate forum.

The Management

For the U-Boat side of things...

U-Boats at War by Harald Busch. Out of print, but not hard to find. Contains a concise history of the U-Boat war, mixed with detailed stories of many notable patrols (Prein's Scapa raid, a Q-ship encounter, Erich Topp's patrol in U57 - a type II, etc.) Also has Wolfgang Luth's lecture Command of Men In a U-Boat. An amazing book.


Sharks and Little Fish . Since you're reading Das Boot, you might like the contrast that this book provides. It's also fiction, but it presents a far less romantic view of U-Boat life and operations.

During the war Buchheim was a professional propagandist whereas Ott was a submariner - a fact which I think accounts best for the difference in tone of these two books.

and this...

The Submarine: A History by Thomas Parrish. Title says it all. A very readable history of the submersible warship and the effect it had on naval warfare

Thanks guys..

Will check those out.. But keep the recommendations coming!

Seconded. Also, I think Steel Boats Iron Hearts by Goebbler is far better and more accurate than Iron Coffins.

Like Hidden Photographic Diary, Showell's Wolfpacks At War is full of great pictures and a good read, too.

Before becoming too mired in the standard mythology of the U-Boats check out Michael Hadley Count Not the Dead: The Popular Image of the German Submarine and Clay Blair's seminal Hitler's U-Boat War in two volumes, The Hunters and The Hunted.

Use some caution with U-Boats at War, Harald Busch was a war correspondent like Buchheim of Das Boot fame and his book was the first German work on the subject to appear after WW2 and the first to de-Nazify the U-Boot Waffe. It certainly does contain Wolfgang Luth's essay Problems of Leadership but it has been cleaned up of all the political rhetoric found in the original and Luth, percieved as a hardcore Nazi gets no mention by name. It is valuable but should be looked at in the context of the era when it was written and the fact that the author had no access to official primary sources which were still in the hand of the Allied Occupation forces.

Other titles of interest might include:

The Golden Horseshoe: Terrance Robertson on Otto Kretschmer;

U-Boat Ace, The Story of Wolfgang Luth: Jordan Vause;

Lone Wolf, The Life and Death of U-Boat Ace Werner Henke: Timothy Mulligan;

The Laconia Affair: Leonce Peillard; and

From the other side of the hill, don't forget Patrick Beasley's popular but flawed Very Special Intelligence about Allied code-breaking and the Ultra Secret that ultimately doomed the U-Boats to failure.

Here's a freebie! Regards U-Boat action in WW1 against the Cunard liner, Lusitania. http://www.firstworldwar.com/features/lusitania.htm

(I DO kind of wonder about statements like, "...submerged and approached the large passenger liner at 9 knots," though! That'd make the old U-Boat faster than its WW2 counterparts!)

No need to wonder, the British "R" Class of 1917 was capable of sprinting at 15 knots submerged, a speed not reached again in servce until the Type XXIII U-Boats of late 1944.

:yep: Very true!

The Balentines edition of this book has good foot-notes which correct a number of historical inaccuracies on the authors part (for instance, Busch exaggerated the tonnage sunk, as well as other favorable aspects of the U-Boot Waffe and its commanders) .

Suggest: Red Star Rogue by Kenneth Sewell. Not about WWII submarines but a refitted Golf Soviet submarine K-129 that sank in 1968. A fail-safe system that may have worked and prevented WWIII.