The U Boat War

Chronicles submarine warfare in the North Atlantic during the Second World War, and describes the battles above and below the surface

The second volume in Clay Blair's history of Hitler's U-boat war, covering years 1942 to 1945. Told chronologically, it is divided into two sections: the war against Britain and her empire, and the war against the Americas. Clay Blair served in World War II in the submarines. He chronicles dramatic scenes of naval actions and makes interpretations and conclusions about all aspects of the Battle of the Atlantic.

A history of Germany’s usage of submarine warfare during World War I, by the author of Operation Pacific. In 1914, U-Boats were a new and untried weapon, and when such a weapon can bring a mighty empire to the brink of defeat there is a story worth telling. Edwyn Gray’s The U-Boat War is the history of the Kaiser’s attempt to destroy the British Empire by a ruthless campaign of unrestricted submarine warfare. It opens with Germany’s first tentative experiments with the submarines and climaxes with the naval mutiny that helped bring down the Kaiser. In between is a detailed account of a campaign of terror which, by April, 1917, had the British Empire on the verge of surrender. The cost in lives and equipment was staggering. On the German side, 4,894 sailors and 515 officers lost their lives in action; 178 German Submarines were destroyed by the allies; 14 were scuttled and 122 surrendered. According to the most reliable sources, 5,708 ships were destroyed by the U-Boats and 13,333 non-combatants perished in British Ships. World figures for civilian casualties were never released. The U-Boat War is a savage but thrilling account of men fighting for their lives beneath the sea, and of the boats that changed the face of naval warfare.

One of WWII's pivotal events was the capture of U-505 on June 4, 1944. The top secret seizure of this massive Type IX submarine provided the Allies with priceless information on German technology and innovation. After the war U-505 was transported to Chicago, where today 1,000,000 visitors a year pass through her at the Museum of Science and Industry. Hunt and Kill offers the first definitive study of U-505. The chapters cover her construction, crew and commanders, combat history, general Type IX operations, naval intelligence, the eight fatal German mistakes that doomed the boat, and her capture, transportation, and restoration for posterity. The contributors to this fascinating volume--a Who's Who of U-boat historians--include: Erich Topp (U-Boat Ace, commander of U-552); Eric Rust (Naval Officers Under Hitler); Timothy Mulligan (Neither Sharks Nor Wolves); Jak Mallman Showell (Hitler's U-boat Bases); Jordan Vause (Wolf); Lawrence Patterson (First U-boat Flotilla); Mark Wise (Enigma and the Battle of the Atlantic); Keith Gill (Curator, Museum of Science and Industry), and Theodore Savas (Silent Hunters; Nazi Millionaries).

Clay Blair's best-selling naval classic Silent Victory: The U.S. Submarine War Against Japan, is regarded as the definitive account of that decisive phase of the war in the Pacific. Nine years in the making, Hitler's U-boat War is destined to become the definitive account of the German submarine war against the Allies, or "The Battle of the Atlantic." It is an epic sea story, the most arduous and prolonged naval battle in all history. For a period of nearly six years, the German U-boat force attempted to blockade and isolate the British Isles, in hopes of forcing the British out of the war, thereby thwarting the Allied strategic air assault on German cities as well as Overlord, the Allied invasion of Occupied France. Fortunately for the Allies, the U-boat force failed to achieve either of these objectives, but in the attempt they sank 2,800 Allied merchant ships, while the Allies sank nearly 800 U-boats. On both sides, tens of thousands of sailors perished. The top secret Allied penetration of German naval codes, and, conversely, the top secret German penetration of Allied naval codes played important roles in the Atlantic naval battle. In order to safeguard the secrets of codebreaking in the postwar years, London and Washington agreed to withhold all official codebreaking and U-boat records. Thus for decade upon decade an authoritative and definitive history of the Battle of the Atlantic could not be attempted. The accounts that did appear were incomplete and full of errors of fact and false interpretations and conclusions, often leaving the entirely wrong impression that the German U-boats came within a whisker of defeating the Allies, a myth that persists. When London and Washington finally began to release the official records in the 1980s, Clay Blair and his wife, Joan, commenced work on this history in Washington, London, and Germany. They relied on the official records as well as the work of German, British, American, and Canadian naval scholars who published studies of bits and pieces of the story. The end result is this magnificent and monumental work, crammed with vivid and dramatic scenes of naval actions and dispassionate but startling new revelations and interpretations and conclusions about all aspects of the Battle of the Atlantic. The Blair history will be published in two volumes. This first volume, The Hunters, covers the first three years of the war, August 1939 to August 1942. Told chronologically, it is subdivided into two major sections, the War Against the British Empire, and the War Against the Americas. Volume II, The Hunted, to follow a year later, will cover the last years of the naval war in Europe, August 1942 to May 1945, when the Allies finally overcame the U-boat threat. Never before has Hitler's U-boat war been chronicled with such authority, fidelity, objectivity, and detail. Nothing is omitted. Even those who fought the Battle of the Atlantic will find no end of surprises. Later generations will benefit by having at hand an account of this important phase of World War II, free of bias and mythology.

Packed with rich detail and analysis, this exciting tale of war at sea relates the dramatic and moving true story of the sinking of the British liner Laconia and its consequences for the conduct of marine warfare. Duffy discusses in rich detail the dire and dramatic true story of the sinking of the British Liner Laconia by the dreaded U-Boat 156, a vessel crowded with 1800 Italian POWs, 103 Polish soldiers, and 463 officers and crew. As Laconia went down, U-156 surfaced and sent a signal that brought two other U-boats, an Italian submarine, and three Vichy French warships to assist with rescue operations. But on the morning of September 16, a U.S. bomber flew over U-156, now packed with several hundred Laconia survivors. The crew unfurled a large Red Cross flag. Nevertheless, the submarine was attacked. The Laconia survivors were ordered over the side into lifeboats. Damaged, U-156 left the area as other U-boats commenced rescue operations. In the wake of the incident, German Admiral Karl Donitz issued the Laconia Order demanding that all attempts to rescue Allied survivors of merchant ships be ended. The order provoked an international outcry against inhumane treatment of survivors stranded at sea. In the aftermath of the war, Donitz was charged and acquitted of war crimes in connection with this order.

The second and final volume of the definitive account of the German submarine war. Acclaimed on its publication in 1997 ('should become the standard history of the Unterseeboote' - Washington Post) volume one of Clay Blair's magnum opus is here followed by volume two, The Hunted covering 1942-45. In this volume the fortunes of the German navy are completely reversed - due in no small part to Allied codebreaking - and they suffer perhaps the most devastating defeat of any of the Germany forces. destroying their submarine service entirely. Blair has been at work on this history for nine years since the British and American governments began to release official WWII records in the 1980s. Blair himself served in submarines in combat in WWII. He chronicles the U-Boat war with authority, fidelity, objectivity and extraordinary detail. He also writes vivid and dramatic scenes of naval actions and dispassionate, but startling new revelations, interpretations and conclusions about all aspects of the Battle of the Atlantic.

This book is an in-depth study of the U-boat section of the German navy, which came so very close to bringing Britain to its knees during the Battle of the Atlantic in 1941-2. It looks at pre-war German efforts to buildup and reinvigorate the U-boat theory of war, consulting hitherto lightly-researched material in the Bundesarchiv, and the U-Boat Diary during the war. It follows the clandestine U-boat research of the 1920s and early 1930s, and the effects of the assumption of power by the Nazi Party in 1933. It investigates Doentiz's early career and his subsequent efforts to run the U-boat arm during the Second World War. It does not stop here; it will constitute a thorough new look at the entire U-boat campaign from the start of the war through to the final days, and points out the moments when fortunes changed for both sides.