Could someone kindly recommend a good U-Boat novel?

[tiger_tim_34]

I have a couple of good historical books (currently reading 'Business in Great Waters) but would also like to dive into (no pun intended) a really immersive U-Boat novel.

Which would you Kaleuns recommend?

Best regards, and happy hunting to you all

[Myxale]

Well "Das Boot" by Lothar-Günther Buchheim is a good one. :hmm:
This is one of the "you must read" on this board.
It's probably one of the best known U-Books ever.

Well this is a somewhat baised opinion, but generally you can't do wrong wit this one for starters.
The same goes for the Movie "Das Boot" :hmm:

[KL Seestern]

Well, I think there's one obvious answer to this question: Lothar-Guenther Buchheim's Das Boot, the 1973 novel which inspired the film. It's available in various English translations, of which I have two: one by J. Maxwell Brownjohn (published in 1974) which reads very well but is a little 'loose' with the German, and another recently re-printed in the Cassell Military Paperbacks series (no translator named: just says 'this translation copyright Alfred A. Knopf 1975') which is a little more faithful to the German in some respects (e.g. present tense narration), but annoyingly not in others: all the measurements have been converted into Imperial units, which somewhat ruins the 'immersion' factor (another pun ).

But it's a great novel, whatever translation you can get hold of. Or if you can read German, even better!

[Threadfin]

Iron Coffins is a good novel

[Oleif]

iron coffins

[U-Dog]

Operation Drumbeat reads as well as a novel.

There is on out there about a U-boat stranded off the coast around new orleans and one of the officers falls for a Cajun girl or something like that. Can't seem to find it at the moment tho.

[don1reed]

With Honor in Battle by J.T. McDaniel

U-Boat:Typ XXI

[tiger_tim_34]

*Many* thanks indeedy. As I know the Superbit (Director's Cut) version of Das Boot very well and have just ordered the mini series, I have just placed an Amazon order for Iron Coffins and With Honour in Battle.

Now, all I need is a sufficiently debilitating cold that confines me to bed for a week, yet allows me concentrate on reading. <-- There's GOT to be a market for selling a bug like that. :-)

[Joe S]

Das Boot is a fabulous novel. If you want non-fiction, Operation Drumbeat is excellent and Night Raider of the Atlantic is very good also. For US Sub action, Thunder Below by Fluckey is the best in my opinion. Have Fun, Joe S

[CptGrayWolf]

Originally Posted by Threadfin

Iron Coffins is a good novel

:rotfl: Poor Werner...

[tiger_tim_34]

Thanks guys! Starting to look forward to my 3 hour daily commute now. :-)

[PeriscopeDepth]

For non fiction you should also read Doenitz's memoirs, Ten Years and Twenty Days. Provides an interesting insight into the U-boat arm from BdU himself.

PD

[hairydynamicist]

Any of you guys read 'The Real Cruel Sea'? Non-fiction based around the allied merchant navy during the battle of the Atlantic. Not read it myself, but sounds very interesting.

[don1reed]

It's great. The British side of the story from the skipper's point of view from the bridge of the "Compass Rose".

edit: Low budget movie, with Jack Hawkins as the skipper, is also pretty dang good.

Cheers,

[Myszkin]

"Peter Erich Cremer. U-333" by Fritz Brustat-Naval
"Another Place, Another Time" by Werner Hirschmann
"U-38" by Max Valentiner (I WW)