U Boat War Patrol

“[A] book of rare photographs . . . detailing life aboard a German Second World War submarine” from the author of Operation Colossus (History Today). This unique account charts the complete story of a single U-boat patrol through the summer of 1942 based around a remarkable collection of photographs that were “liberated” from a concrete U-boat pen in Brest at the end of the war and which had, until recently, remained hidden in a shoe box. The boat in question, U-564, carried the famous three black cat motif of Reinhard “Teddy” Suhren who, along with Prien and Kretschmer, was one of the top U-boat commanders during the battles of the Atlantic. This remarkable book provides unique access into both the day-to-day life of a U-boat at sea and into the detailed workings of the Kriegsmarine. Through the successes and trials of U-564 the reader is transported to that vast and watery battlefield that was perhaps the most significant theatre of the Second World War. “The text tells the story of U 564, and the images display the cramped conditions and the way of life on a war patrol. This is an absorbing story with the most memorable and unique collection of images filmed under patrol conditions.” —Firetrench

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

"U-boat In New Zealand Waters is a book about the farthest U-boat patrol of World War Two, a journey which brought the ultra-long-range submarine U 862 to New Zealand's East Coast in January 1945. U 862 was one of three U-boats based in the Far East chosen in Berlin for operations against merchant shipping off the Australian coast in 1944. After sinking the US Liberty ship Robert J. Walker south of Sydney on Christmas Day, 1944, U 862 headed for New Zealand waters and conducted a war patrol along the East Coast of the North Island. Looking for ships to sink, U 862's Commander Timm made a daring entry into Gisborne harbour at midnight on 15 January and the following night chased and fired a torpedo at a merchant ship in Hawkes Bay. These operations in New Zealand waters remained known only to a small number of Allied codebreakers until 1992 when the First Watch Officer of U 862, Gunther Reiffenstuhl made his personal diary available to the German U-boat Archive in Cuxhaven-Altenbruch. In 1997, the author met and interviewed Gunther Reiffenstuhl as well as the medical officer aboard U 862, Dr Jobst Schaefer and radio operator Gunter Nethge. The book is based mainly on the First Watch Officer's personal war diary and investigates in detail the war patrol of U 862 in New Zealand and Australian waters"--Author's summary.

The untold story of 142 German and one Italian submarines, which patrolled the waters around BermudaThe Axis powers sank eighty Allied ships, one of them naval, for the loss of two submarines1,224 Allied sailors and passengers were landed in Bermuda during the warMore than steel on steel: this book tells of their survival voyages, rescue and reception For the first time, a book exposes an obscure theatre of the Second World War in great detail and comprehensively, not just in terms of geography, but also from the perspectives of both Allied and Axis participants. U-Boats off Bermuda provides details of specific U-Boat patrols and their commanders, as well as a general overview of the situation in the theatre of war around Bermuda. It is a detailed analysis of individual casualties, broken down by a) background of ship, b) background of U-Boat, c) attack method (surface and/or submersed), d) details of survivors and their plight at sea and e) their rescue, recuperation and repatriation. Detailed maps and illustrations provide a human face to what were often tragic attacks with fatal consequences. Did you know that half a dozen German submarines came close enough to the US Naval Operating Base in Bermuda to see Gibbs Hill? Or that hardy Canadians from a sunken trading schooner rowed and sailed their way to the remote island on their own? Allied pilots based in Bermuda sank two German U-Boats, rescued dozens in daring water landings and several crashed.

Karl Baumann was born in the Ruhr Valley of Germany during the desperate and tumultuous years of the Great Depression. His pursuit of an occupation is hindered by an abbreviated formal education, unenthusiastic participation in the Hitler youth movement, and the whims of Nazi officials. Baumann's decision to become a sailor at the age of fourteen is both fortuitous and fateful. Baumann comes of age at sea with the German fishing and merchant fleets. He becomes a member of the Kriegsmarine's legendary U-boat force and participates in the Battle of the Atlantic during World War II. He also takes part in the underwater German counteroffensive that attempts to breach the English Channel and attack the Allied armada delivering troops and supplies onto the D-Day landing beaches. Baumann is one of only ten thousand U-boat crewmen who survives the war--and the even smaller fraternity of captured submariners. His personal struggle as a prisoner of war reaches across the Atlantic to a small POW camp located in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. His unusual experiences at Camp Lyndhurst in Augusta County produce life-transforming consequences he never could have contemplated before his capture and imprisonment in the land of his sworn enemy. Fully researched and footnoted, with fifty illustrations. The Longest Patrol is the captivating story of Karl Baumann's wartime odyssey.

Starting weeks after Hitler declared war on the United States in mid-December 1941 and lasting until the war with Germany was all but over, 73 German U-Boats sustainably attacked New England waters, from Montauk New York to the tip of Nova Scotia at Cape Sable. Fifteen percent of these boats were sunk by Allied counter-attacks, five surrendered in the region, and three were sunk off New England--Block Island, Massachusetts Bay, and off Nantucket. These have proven appealing to divers, with a result that at least three German naval officers or ratings are buried in New England, one having killed himself in the Boston jail cell. There were 34 Allied merchant or naval ships sunk by these subs, one of them, the 'Eagle', was not admitted to have been sunk by the Germans until decades later. Over 1,100 men were thrown in the water and 545 of them made it ashore in New England ports; 428 were killed. Importantly, saboteurs were landed three places: Long Island, Frenchman's Bay Maine and New Brunswick Canada, and Boston was mined. Very little was known about this.

As the land war raged along the Eastern Front between 1941 and 1945, an equally fierce and unrelenting war ensued on the seas. From German Wolf Pack attacks on Russian convoy traffic and military vessels to close-quarter combat undertaken by small U-boats transported by land and river to the Black Sea, the Kriegsmarine wrestled for control of the seas fringing an embattled Soviet Union. Combined with the fortitude of U-boat crews who fought in some of the harshest weather conditions found at sea, ingenuity on behalf of German military engineers also facilitated the transfer of U-boats from Germany to Romania. From there, the Kriegsmarine engaged Soviet military might and pioneered the use of submarine-based rocket firing technology against land targets. The struggle between the Kriegsmarine s U-boats and the Red Navy lasted from the opening salvos of Operation Barbarossa to the final chaotic days of Germany s defeat. Available in English for the first time, "Steel and Ice" is well-illustrated, containing never-before-published color and black and white photos."

"U-Boat War in Photos" volume 1 (U-1 through U-29) The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest continuously running battle in the history of war. The German U-Bootfahrer were some of the most honorable fighters in the war despite wartime propaganda to the contrary. They did not machine gun men in the water but rather, they helped struggling survivors of the sunken ships in the early years. After 'Black May' of 1943 when the German codes were broken and 'Huff-Duff' (or High Frequency Directional Finder = HFDF) came on the scene and U-Boats did not dare linger on the surface did the U-Boats cease giving aid; they never murdered men at sea. Nearly 3,000 ships were sunk, tens of thousand merchant sailors died, more than 800 U-Boats were lost and nearly 29,000 U-Bootfahrer perished in the cold oceans of the world. At the end of the war however, the U-Bootwaffe was the only oversubscribed branch of the Wehrmacht (German military forces). After 'Black May' U-Boats had one chance in ten of returning from their first Feindfahrt (war patrol) and nine out of ten chances of being sunk. Still they enlisted.....still they went to sea, most never to return.