U-boat Combat Missions: The Pursuers and the Pursued - First-hand Accounts of U-boat Life and Operations [Hardcover]

Lawrence Paterson has been writing about U Boats for many years with previous books being a detailed analysis of, for example, 1st U Boat Flotilla, 2nd U Boat Flotilla, U Boats in the Mediterranean and in the Indian Ocean and so forth. In this work, however, he writes not about the war - but about those who fought and died for their country inside U Boats.

There were two occasions during the 20th Century when the dreaded U Boat went to war - i.e. the wars of 1914-1918 and 1939-1945. Whilst World War Two may be fresher in people's minds, the U Boat was recognised as a lethal weapon capable of making a decisive difference very early in World War One. With the United Kingdom being an island nation, the U Boat was able to hold that nation as a hostage were it ever allowed so to do.

As more and more of Europe gave way to German domination, the Battle of the Atlantic was to become a battle of wits between those on the surface and the captains and crews of individual U Boats. Those men, whose place of work was in a metal sweat-box below the surface of the sea, often fought heroic battles for which few were ever recognised. Their death rate was greater than in any other branch of the German forces. Quite often, their deaths went unrecorded with nobody knowing their last resting place.

This is the story of those men and their place of work. It is a large and fully illustrated book with many photographs people have not bothered to publish before. They include details of every aspect of U Boat life - from how the men washed to how they ate. What makes this book so good is the attention to detail.

On the one hand, there are photographs of different pennants and various emblems, cartoons of the day, the book by Gunther Prien, typical U Boat crockery, an enigma machine, wireless key, arctic underwear and uniforms. On the other, there are pictures of different U Boats at sea and detailed photographs of specific features from within a preserved U Boat which would help any reader identify a specific part of a U Boat's interior or engine.

With all that photography and illustration being expertly supported by an easy-to-read and informative text, what we have is a first rate book about the U Boat put together in a very different way - and different is good.

NM

U-BOAT COMBAT MISSIONS takes a fresh look at Germany's WWII Unterseebooten in this book by well-known U-boat author Lawrence Paterson. An English author, Patterson has authored a half-dozen books on the subject and his latest book will be enjoyed by U-boat enthusiasts.

Paterson's book is divided into three parts: 'History & Development/Preparing for a War Patrol;' 'The Crew,' which constitutes the bulk of the book's 156 pages; and 'Rest & Recreation.' The middle section takes the reader on a compartment-by-compartment tour of a surviving U-boat (U-995), explaining what duties were carried out in, for example, the Torpedo Room and Forward Quarters. Within each of these sections paterson includes first-person accounts of U-boat life from interviews he conducted with surviving U-boat veterans, wartime letters, etc. Color illustrations are used throughout the book to bring U-boats to life.

The combination of color photos, first-person accounts and low price-tag makes U-BOAT COMBAT MISSIONS a winner. Recommended for anyone interested in 'Iron Coffins.'

******
N.B. My copy of the book is not the English imprint but one marketed under the Barnes & Noble Publishing brand. It has a different ISBN than the English version but otherwise seems identical.

This book does not cover the U-boat war from a high level strategic perspective, like so many books on U-boats during the Second World War, but instead from the perspective of the individual crewman manning these vessels. It contains many firsthand accounts from U-boat crews not only from the combat related perspective (i.e., being depth charged or fighting off an air attack) but from the perspective of day-to-day "mundane" activities such as maintenance, cooking, dealing with the perpetual smell of diesel fuel in both the air and food, the claustrophobic work conditions, etc. The bulk of the book is dedicated to these "mundane" activities, not only in terms of the stories contained therein (told by U-boat crews) but, just as importantly, with photographs that do an excellent job illustrating the stories. For example, the photos do an excellent job at showing how difficult maintenance work on the diesels was and how much of a problem it was even sleeping in the crew's quarters due to the fact it was jammed with torpedoes and other items such as food supplies. The book's coffee table format insures that there are a sizeable number of such photos. They do an excellent job at bringing to life the stories contained therein. The photos and illustrations also insure that this book makes an excellent complement to other books containing firsthand accounts of life on U-boats such as Herbert Werner's "Iron Coffins: A Personal Account of the German U-Boat Battles of World War II" and Heinz Schaeffer's "U-Boat 977: The U-Boat that Escaped to Argentina".

Such a high quality book coming from Lawrence Paterson, one of the world's leading authorities on U-boats, is no surprise. His many other well researched works (including the extensive use of original German language documents) on various aspects of the U-boat war (he has written books on the First U-Boat Flotilla, U-boat activity in the Mediterranean, German midget submarine activity towards the end of the war and U-boat activity towards the end of the second world war, in England's coastal waters) as well as half a dozen other books, clearly show the author's expertise in the fields. Paterson has also written a book similar to "U-Boat Combat Missions" entitled "U-boat War Patrol: The Hidden Photographic Diary of U-564". This is another coffee table style book that is based on photographs discovered in Germany in a shoe box in the early 2000s. In this book the author takes the discovered photographs and with the accompanying text he wrote, describes the one patrol that they document. Although the patrol is a bit esoteric in that it was in the Southern Atlantic instead of North Atlantic (only a tiny percentage of U-boat sorties were to this theatre of the war) the book still does an extraordinary job at showing what a patrol was like. For readers who would find "U-Boat Combat Missions" of interest "U-Boat War Patrol" is also highly recommended.

Despite "U-Boat Combat Missions'" many strong points, it still has a few weaknesses, albeit relatively minor, that prevent this reviewer from giving it a five star review. These involve primarily the fact that the book does not contain any cut-away illustrations of the major types of U-boats discussed in the book (type VII and IX) or illustrations showing the boats as a whole. This may sound relatively trivial but in reality it is not as without a collection of such illustrations (probably best contained in an appendix) the reader finds it difficult to place exactly where different parts of the vessel are relative to each other. In the book there is a mention that the control room is located near the sonar room, etc. but without a high level series of cut-aways it makes it difficult to follow the author's discussion in many sections. In addition, some detailed scale cut-away illustrations of the various compartments of the vessel (i.e., torpedo room, engine room, etc.) would go far to complement the photographs in the books. Despite this relatively minor weakness the book covers its topic well and is highly recommended.