Things that bother me about "Iron Coffins"

[sharkbit]

Originally Posted by Subnuts

The amount of blatant fabrication contained within. Werner has U-557 sinking seven ships on her first patrol, when only one was sunk in reality. He then has her sinking six ships on her third patrol, when again, only one was sunk. He then has U-230 attacking Convoy HX-229/SC-122, sinking seven ships of the 22 in total sunk from the two convoys. However, the boat never got close enough to either convoy to fire a single torpedo or shell at it! Finally, he describes attacking a convoy in January, 1945 near England, observing three distinct torpedo strikes. Official records fail to credit him with sinking or damaging a single ship during his career as a U-boat captain.

I'm currently reading Clay Blair's "Hitler's U-Boat War: The Hunters, 1939-1942" and I'm constantly amazed at the over inflation(sometimes by a huge amount) of tonnage sunk by the individual commanders and the claims of ships sunk that never were sunk. I realize that the fog of war and human failings are a big part of those excessive claims. I think that, at least to some degree, that may be one of the reasons for Werner's "over claiming" in his book. I'd still bet there was a certain amount of embellishment on Werner's part to make for "a good read".

I think it's been previously agreed in other threads on the subject that the best thing is not to use the book for any reference data.

I don't think I'll ever shelve the book forever and I'd even recommend it to people with the warning that it is closer to fiction than the truth. So many people believe everything they read in a book, even from a fiction book, as the truth.
Very good points though subnuts. I'll look forward to reading your entire review.