Best book on U-Boats

[GibClaret1980]

Originally Posted by Dowly

Blair's book is not without some serious flaws:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clay_Blair#Criticism

Thanks for this. Most U-boat books have some flaws in them haha.

This 1 has just come out

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/15267187...v_ov_lig_dp_it

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Dowly

Blair's book is not without some serious flaws:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clay_Blair#Criticism

Originally Posted by GibClaret1980

Thanks for this. Most U-boat books have some flaws in them haha.

INDEED! ALL HISTORIES STARTING WITH PLATO(ALLEGORIC TALE OF ATLANTIS) INCLUDING WINSTON CHURCHILL'S 6 VOL. HISTORY OF WWII HAVE FLAWS-GENERALLY BEING A PERSONAL AGENDA OF THE AUTHOR INFLICTED ON THE READER-I MEAN REALLY, WINSTON WAS THE ONLY ONE OF THE 'BIG THREE' WHO WROTE....PRESUMABLY WITH THE INSIGHT OF A PARTICIPANT. MOST HISTORIES ARE TRITE, SUGARCOATED, FOR PROFIT, BUT OCCASIONALLY AS WITH DAS BOOT MAKE A GOOD FLICK. MR. BLAIR, ON SEVERAL LEVELS IS THE LEAST WORST OF THESE:

The first volume of Clay Blair's magisterial, highly praised narrative history of the German submarine war against Allied shipping in World War II, The Hunters, 1939-1942, described the Battle of the Atlantic waged first against the British Empire and then against the Americas. This second and concluding volume, The Hunted, 1942-1945, covers the period when the fortunes of the German Navy were completely reversed, and it suffered perhaps the most devastating defeat of any of the German forces.

In unprecedented detail and drawing on sources never used before, Clay Blair continues the dramatic and authoritative story of the failures and fortunes of the German U-boat campaign against the United States and Great Britain. All the major patrols and sorties made by the Germans are described in detail and with considerable human interest: the Peleus and Laconia affairs; the capture at sea of U-505; the crisis of German command; the futile operations against the Americas; and the mounting and devastating losses that, in effect, entirely destroyed the German submarine service....military historian Blair, who served on an American submarine in the Pacific against Japan, postulates that the German U-boat peril in the Atlantic has been "vastly overblown" in previously published histories and memoirs of that naval struggle, as well as in films. As a consequence, Blair writes, a false mythology about the effectiveness of U-boats has taken root, and in order to clearly and fully understand World War II, one must put the U-boat threat into proper perspective.

Although neither volume is intended to be "technical" in nature, Blair does not neglect the scientific developments of the U-boat war. These include radar and radar detectors, active and passive sonar, Axis encoding machines and exotic Allied decoding machines, high-frequency direction finding (Huff Duff), Hedgehogs, depth charges, and sophisticated U-boat torpedoes. He describes how these devices worked and how they influenced the course of the naval battle.

AS A B.A. IN HISTORY MYSELF, RULE 1 IS ALWAYS: READER BEWARE; WITH MR BLAIR WE GET A VETERAN WWII SUBMARINER WHO HAS COMPETENTLY WRITTEN SEVERAL MILTARY HISTORIES AND DOES NOT SUGARCOAT. IN FACT HE DE- MYTHOLOGIZES THE EFFICACY OF DOENITZ'S ULTIMATELY MISERABLE ATLANTIC BATTLE STRATEGY AND FOR THAT ALONE IT IS 'REQUIRED READING' FOR ANY TRUE STUDENT OF THE U-BOAT WAR. HIS UNAVOIDABLE CONCLUSION (PG 707):

"FROM SEPTEMBER 1942 TO MAY 1945...THE ALLIES SAILED 953 CONVOYS EAST AND WEST...43,926 MERCHANT VESSELS...OF THESE 272 WERE SUNK BY U-BOATS...99.4% OF ALL MERCHANT SHIPS MADE IT..." TURNING ON ITS EAR THE ACCEPTED WISDOM THAT THE U-BOATS EVER CAME CLOSE TO CUTTING THE STRATEGIC SUPPLY LINE...'

I PREFER COLD STATISTICS TO ROMANTIC SUGAR COATING! BOTTOM LINE: THE U-BOAT WAR WAS A HOPELESS WASTE OF TEUTONIC-ARYAN RESOURCES IN THE PURSUIT OF GLOBAL LEBENSRAUM; BUT ALL THE GAMES SURE R FUN. EDIT:

Originally Posted by BILGE_RAT

Clay Blair's two volume set which I have read twice over and have used countless times as a reference is hands down the best on the subject.

YOU'VE READ APPROX 1800 PAGES TWICE!!! "YER A BETTER MAN THAN I, GUNGA DIN!"

[Bilge_Rat]

Originally Posted by Aktungbby

YOU'VE READ APPROX 1800 PAGES TWICE!!! "YER A BETTER MAN THAN I, GUNGA DIN!"

well that was over a long period of time and truth be told, I did read them all the way through once and then re-read selected sections depending what I was looking for, the 1st volume more than the 2nd. The 1942-45 volume is interesting, but a depressing read for the U-Boats.

but yes, highly recommended. The sections on Enigma, allied code breaking and German countermeasures alone would make a book on its own. The movie "The Imitation Game" tells the story superficially, but here it is really fleshed out, especially how the Allies would use the info to save ships while making sure the Germans would not catch on.