As David Miller says in the introduction of his book, U-boats have exerted a great fascination since the end of World War II, and he covers such fascination thoroughly, along 203 pages, more than 150 photos, 41 diagrams, 29 tables, and four special sections regarding the career of Kapitänleutnant Lothar de la Perrière and his U 35, the most successful submarine ever, the appearance and operation of the Enigma code machine, the operation zones of U-boats and a concise biography of Gröss Admiral Dönitz.

Covering the development of the German submarine force from the Brandtaucher of 1850 to Operation Deadlight of 1945 (the sinking of the defeated U-boats north of Northern Ireland) the book has four main sections, and one Appendix: Introduction 1. World War 1: The Beginnings 2. The U-boats, Weapons and Equipment. 3. The Operations. While the Appendix deals with the fate of every boat lost at sea during the war.

Thanks to such extensive coverage, you could know how the German Navy tried to rebuild the Submarine force abroad against the limits of the Versailles Treaty, how type II subs were transported from Germany to Black Sea in 1942, the career of such prominent submariners as Prien, Krestchmer, or Luth, the life and duties aboard a submarine, the interior of boats of type VII or XXI, the success or failure of certain boats (U-505, U-181), the production process of type XXI boats, the origins of modern submarines via the development of the late war models such as those from Walter the operation of their weapons, especially the torpedoes and their control systems , the electronic and weather battlefields, foreign subs, operations in the Indian Ocean and Japan, the ill-managed air support issue, and interesting anecdotes such as the U-2511 waiting the end of the Easter vacation to accomplish some needed modifications.

Such a complete work isn't without faults, however. Some may be attributed to typographical defaults, as a switch between Balkan/Balkon Gerät (a German listening device), as in the caption of p. 67 photo. Also, when listing the Italian boats operating from Bordeaux you have 3 boats listed but 2 names, or when dealing about the fate of the Italians submarines seized by the Japanese, UIT-24 ( ex-Commandante Capellini) is listed as I-501, when it was I-503.

Others, however, deal with facts themselves: There is some confusion between Vesikko and Vetehinen boats in pages 17 and 20, as both are cited as ancestor of Type II (but Vetehinen was a minelayer about the size of an Type VII boat; it was Vessiko which evolved into Type II). Again about Italian submarines, regarding those considered to be employed as transports (p. 85), Ammiraglio Cagni is cited first as excluded from that scheme, but later it is assigned codename Aquila VIII. Also when dealing with the determination to fight (p.139) is cited the affair of U-573, which was damaged in the Mediterranean in 1942. Miller says it was interned in Spain and later sold to the Spanish Navy, but that is not exact. The boat was given a three months period for reparations. As the Spanish Navy wished to build some type VII, and after several talks, the Kriegsmarine sold the U-573 and, on August 2 of 1942 the Spanish navy took over the ship one day before the conceded period finished.

All in all, it is a very fascinating book about one of the most fascinating issues of World War II, full of data and images for the historian and modeller alike and a very enjoyable reading from the beginning to the end.

Published by: Conway Maritime Press, 2000.