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Book Recommendations for Layman -- Uboats in World Wars 1 and 2

Garrette

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A friend is asking, and I don't specialize in that area, and any books I recommend will likely be too technical.

What is prompting their request is a visit to the Uboat exhibit at the Chicago Museum (??). She says, and I quote, "Doug and I had no idea any of that happened."

Thanks


ETA: I suspect their interest is less the Uboat campaigns in general and more the activity off the east coast.
 
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A book that I have read and enjoyed is:
"The Burning Shore: How Hitler's U-Boats Brought World War II to America"
I think it might cover a good deal of what your friend is interested in.

There is also: "Operation Drumbeat: Germany's U-Boat Attacks Along the American Coast in World War II"
I have not read this book, but it gets pretty good reviews.

A work of fiction but based on the author's real experience on submarines in WW2 is "Das Boot". You can find an English translation on Amazon. The book and its now deceased author are not without criticism, but it is an extremely captivating story and supposed to be a fairly realistic account. It tells the story of a German submarine crew on one or two sorties in the Atlantic. There is also a good movie based on the book that was made in 1981.
 
Thanks. I should have thought of Das Boot myself. I will pass on all your recommendations plus the film version of Das Boot.

And if there are other recommendations, please keep them coming.
 
Pianoro said:
A book that I have read and enjoyed is:
"The Burning Shore: How Hitler's U-Boats Brought World War II to America"
I think it might cover a good deal of what your friend is interested in.

There is also: "Operation Drumbeat: Germany's U-Boat Attacks Along the American Coast in World War II"
I have not read this book, but it gets pretty good reviews.
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Second both.
 
About Das Boot, if they don't like subtitles, the dubbed version has probably the best job of dubbing I've ever seen.

As for books, I read Iron Coffins: A Personal Account of the German U-boat Battles of World War II, by Herbert A. Werner, when I was about 12 or 13. I don't remember any specifics, but I remember I liked it.

And I see this as a suggested option on Amazon.com's page on the above: Steel Boat Iron Hearts: A U-boat Crewman's Life Aboard U-505, by Hans Goebeler.

Finally, if anyone is interested in a scholarly treatment of the entire u-boat campaign, I'm going to conditionally recommend Clay Blair's two-volume Hitler's U-Boat War. I haven't read it yet, but fairly recently I read his Silent Victory: The U.S. Submarine War Against Japan, which is outstanding.
 
These are great. Anyone have thoughts on Uboats in the Great War?
 
Garrette said:
These are great. Anyone have thoughts on Uboats in the Great War?
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"Wars not make one great." /yoda ;)


Gibson, R.H.; Maurice Prendergast (2002). The German Submarine War 1914–1918. Periscope Publishing Ltd. ISBN 1-904381-08-1.
Compton-Hall, Richard (2004). Submarines at War 1914–18. Periscope Publishing Ltd. ISBN 1-55750-447-4.
Grey, Edwyn (1972)The Killing Time Seeley ISBN 0-85422-070-4
Halpern, Paul G. (1994). A Naval History of World War I. U.S. Naval Institute. ISBN 1-85728-498-4.
 
Garrette said:
A friend is asking, and I don't specialize in that area, and any books I recommend will likely be too technical.

What is prompting their request is a visit to the Uboat exhibit at the Chicago Museum (??). She says, and I quote, "Doug and I had no idea any of that happened."

Thanks


ETA: I suspect their interest is less the Uboat campaigns in general and more the activity off the east coast.
Click to expand...

I do not have any good sources on World War I U-Boats, but as for World War II U-Boats I suggest the book Operation Drumbeat by Michael Gannon. The book covers use of German U-Boats against the east coast of the USA during the early part of 1942, which may well be just what you are interested in.

The Chicago museum case you speak of, is U-Boat 505 and several years after it was captured, the naval officer who did the deed wrote a rather good book about it; but unfortunately I cannot recall the title or the name of the author. However, it would make a good topic for your friend.

Also, there are some other good books on World War II U-Boats as well, but right off-hand I cannot think of the their titles and/or authors.
 
Crossbow said:
The Chicago museum case you speak of, is U-Boat 505 and several years after it was captured, the naval officer who did the deed wrote a rather good book about it; but unfortunately I cannot recall the title or the name of the author. However, it would make a good topic for your friend.
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You may be referring to Clear the Decks! by RADM Daniel V. Gallery. I'd forgotten all about it, but I also read that when I was about 12, shortly after my first visit to U-505. It's a humorous but informative account of Gallery's service as a hunter-killer group commander in the Atlantic in WWII, including the capture of the U-boat.

According to Amazon.com, it's long out of print and a bit pricey, but it can be obtained through interlibrary loan.
 
SpitfireIX said:
You may be referring to Clear the Decks! by RADM Daniel V. Gallery. I'd forgotten all about it, but I also read that when I was about 12, shortly after my first visit to U-505. It's a humorous but informative account of Gallery's service as a hunter-killer group commander in the Atlantic in WWII, including the capture of the U-boat.

According to Amazon.com, it's long out of print and a bit pricey, but it can be obtained through interlibrary loan.
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Mucho thanks!

I think that is indeed the book that I was referring to. I read it about 35 years ago.

:)
 
Wow - everyone's already mentioned the books I was going to recommend.

Das Boot, both book (and a bit less so) the movie would probably be the first, best starting point. Although it is fiction, it's solid enough that Hitler's U-Boat War specifically notes historical events called out in the text. To really creep people out, point out that the novel is set in the time before things got really bad for the U-Boats.

Also, U-505 is a Type IX, much larger and more luxurious than the Type VIIC which did most of the fighting.
 
SpitfireIX said:
Iron Coffins: A Personal Account of the German U-boat Battles of World War II, by Herbert A. Werner, when I was about 12 or 13. I don't remember any specifics, but I remember I liked it.
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I really like Iron Coffins, but Herr Warner seems to have exaggerated a lot. The official records for U-557 and U-230 aren't even close to what he claims.
 
Corsair 115 said:
It's worth noting there are several versions of Das Boot available.
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Quite correct; I'd forgotten all about the extended versions.

Corsair 115 said:
Also, if the folks mentioned in the opening post find the Atlantic submarine campaign interesting, they then might want to follow up by looking at the Pacific submarine campaign.
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All kinds of good books about that are available, in addition to Blair, which I mentioned above, there are several excellent first-hand accounts, including, but not limited to, those by Dick O'Kane (USS Wahoo, USS Tang), Gene Fluckey (USS Barb), and Forest Sterling (USS Wahoo). Edward L. Beach also wrote several non-fiction and fiction books about submarines, though of those I've so far only read his novel Dust on the Sea. Some may find Sterling's book of special interest, as he was an enlisted man.
 
As for World War I, I can't believe I didn't think of this one sooner: Lusitania: Murder on the Atlantic. I take issue with the title (it was toned down for subsequent releases), but it's still an outstanding film overall, and includes a number of scenes aboard U-20. If you have a choice, watch the British version; the American release on A&E was cut for time and profanity.

One caveat: They used the U-boat from Das Boot, so it's not a historically accurate 1915 sub.
 
SpitfireIX said:
As for World War I, I can't believe I didn't think of this one sooner: Lusitania: Murder on the Atlantic. I take issue with the title (it was toned down for subsequent releases), but it's still an outstanding film overall, and includes a number of scenes aboard U-20. If you have a choice, watch the British version; the American release on A&E was cut for time and profanity.

One caveat: They used the U-boat from Das Boot, so it's not a historically accurate 1915 sub.
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Specifically, they used the SET from Das Boot. It was a full-blown, correct version of the complete internals of the type VIIC built on a gimbal. Apart from that, Das Boot featured a full-sized conning tower in the studio, a full-sized replica of the hull (without internals and power, but built by the original shipyard), an RC miniature (using standard Ken and Barbie dolls, dressed by the costume department, in the conning tower if needed. The Barbies were cross-dressed and standing in for shorter cast members :) ) which was used on location in the North Sea, and two more scale models for underwater shooting (in the studio resp. private pool of the Special FX guy. They also shot the depth charge explosions in this private pool, much to the dismay of the Special FX guy's wife).

As a German, I recommend the full-length mini series of Das Boot, with the subtitles made for British TV. There's a set of subtitles used on US TV that's much more toned down in profanity and political commentary. There's also the Director's Cut, which is slightly shorter, but also OK. Better quality and better sound than the series, but, as said, running a bit shorter (as far as I can tell from the commentaries, the mini series WAS intended to be the DC, re-mastered and with re-done sound, but some of the original negative was irretrievably damaged, which is the only reason it's not included in the DC).

There were two dubs, one for the original movie and series, the other for the DC. The first dub featured only a few of the German actors; the rest are being overdubbed by British actors. The dub is very much toned down in profanity, but the subtitles are pretty close. The second dub for the DC is much better, and features most of the original German actors (who were all fluent in English). It's acceptably close to the original, but the subtitles are still better, though I think that the subtitles made for the original movie and series are still better and more correct than the ones for the DC.
 
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