Recomendation for Submarine Books
 

As the title says I'm looking for some history books on submarines. Unfortunately I happened to just developed an interest in them, so my personal library doesn't consist of a lot of books about submarine warfare, and I was hoping the Subsim community could correct my mistake.

My Interest for submarines is predominantly in world war 2 and earlier, but if there is a book that is too good to miss out on please recommend it.

Price isn't an issue, I understand books can get up there. "Anatomy of the Ship"

Thank you in advance:salute:

Cannot speak for WWII but if you've nevertheless interest in the cold war history, I can recommend

http://www.amazon.com/Hostile-Waters...hostile+waters

Tom Clancy's SSN (for beginners)

But this is my all time favorite:
http://www.amazon.com/Blind-Mans-Blu...2124123&sr=8-1

"Iron Coffins" by Herbert Werner, WW2 German subs

http://www.amazon.com/Iron-Coffins-P...sin=030681160X

"Submarine!" by Edward Beach, WW2 US Subs

http://www.amazon.com/Submarine-Blue...RXCQDWKPSVDZM9

I don't know where your interests lie - personal stories, development of the equipment, overviews of entire actions...

I tend toward the technical side myself, and I consider this book to be the best general overview and a great place to start.
http://www.amazon.com/Submarines-Wor.../dp/1854095323

When it comes to literature, I enjoy all three aspects, but I tend to lean towards more historically accurate books, nevertheless all three are just as good.I mostly leans towards the historically accurate, because of my major in college and I like to quote the literature for papers, and other things of that nature.

Hope this helps!

"War Beneath the Sea"by Peter Padfield.

A good, thick book which gives a good overview of the submarine war in WWII. It includes all nationalities without being dry and has quite a few personal accounts.

A real good part of the book is in the beginning where it gives the submarine design philosophies of the various nations which was driven by the strategy that each nation had in its use of the subs. A real eye opener.

It also gives excellent coverage of the British boats in the Med out of Malta. I knew very little about them prior to this book. Some great stories.

Oh yeah, if you want dry, try Clay Blair's two volume "Hitler's U-boat War".

Thick and dry but some good nuggets of information. It will make you reevaluate the common belief that the U-boats nearly brought England to her knees during the war. He backs up most of his conclusions with reams of stats.

They are difficult to read though.

The second volume can be difficult to find cheaply for some reason. I had a hard time finding it a few years ago until I got a used one on e-bay and it was in pretty bad shape when I got it.

He has a similar book on the US boats in the Pacific called "Silent Victory" has well. Pretty dry as well and he does seem pretty biased in that one.

Sorry, I keep thinking of stuff after I hit submit:

They're fiction but try Edward Beach's trilogy:
"Run Silent, Run Deep"
"Dust on the Sea"
"Cold is the Sea"

The first two are during WWII and the third takes place during the Cold War.

They are very realistic as Beach served on US boats during WWII. Very detailed too.

"Steel Boats, Iron Hearts" by Hans Goebeler, WW2 German Subs

Lothar-Günther Buchheim wrote a couple of books that are available in English: his novel Das Boot (also released as The Boat); and U-Boat War, a non-fiction book which features dozens of pictures taken by Buchheim whilst sailing aboard the real U-96. Evidently, there are more books by Buchheim in the German language which have never been translated.

Ron

The U-Boat Offensive 1914-1945

V. E. Tarrant

amazon USA
http://www.amazon.com/The-U-Boat-Off.../dp/087021764X

Review of book
http://uboat.net/books/reviews/264.html

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5131H98462L.jpg