U-Boat War Patrol - The Hidden Photographic Diary of U564

History

Paterson, Lawrence

Military

The Military Book Club

Steel and Ice: The U-Boat Battle in the Arctic and Black Sea 1941-45

The History Press

On the eve of Germany's surrender in May 1945, Grossadmiral Karl Dönitz commanded thousands of loyal and active men of the U-boat service. Still fully armed and unbroken in morale, enclaves of these men occupied bases stretching from Norway to France, where cadres of Uboat men fought on in ports that defied besieging Allied troops to the last. At sea U-boats still operated on a war footing around Britain, the coasts of the United States and as far as Malaya.
Following the agreement to surrender, these large formations needed to be disarmed – often by markedly inferior forces – and the boats at sea located and escorted into the harbours of their erstwhile enemies. Neither side knew entirely what to expect, and many of the encounters were tense; in some cases there were unsavoury incidents, and stories of worse. For many Allied personnel it was their first glimpse of the dreaded U-boat menace and both sides were forced to exercise considerable restraint to avoid compromising the terms of Germany's surrender.
One of the last but most dramatic acts of the naval war, the story of how the surrender was handled has never been treated at length before. This book uncovers much new material about the process itself and the ruthless aftermath for both the crews and their boats.

Black Flag: The Surrender of Germany's U-Boat Forces

Zenith Pr

In this dramatic story, Lawrence Paterson draws on the original war diary entries of Germany's premier submarine unit, the 1st U-boat Flotilla, to describe events of the war at sea from 1939 to 1944. Compiled by the flotilla commander, the war diary was a formal record that included combat results. From laying mines along Britain's eastern seaboard to the desperate final battles, the roller-coaster fortunes of Karl Doenitz's "Grey Wolves" are recorded in detail. War diary entries include the commencement of hostilities, the first clashes, the Battle of the Atlantic, and much more. Appendixes detail the U-boat types of the first flotilla and German submarine development between the wars. Both U-boat enthusiasts and those with a taste for adventure will be engrossed by the skilled narrative that captures the immediacy of the day-to-day high-risk operations.

First U-Boat-Flotilla

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

At the forefront of Nazi U-boat attacks in the Atlantic, the large cruiser submarines of the Karl Dönitz's Second U-boat Flotilla--the Saltzwedel--littered the ocean with sunken ships while under the command of such legendary figures as Albrecht Achilles, Reinhard Hardegen, and Werner Hartenstein. Their tumultuous fortunes are fully documented in this book by an acknowledged U-boat expert, who draws on the personal reminiscences of these veteran undersea warriors and their war diaries. A companion volume to the author's First U-Boat Flotilla, the new study describes the flotilla's dramatic nine-year history, from its formation in 1936 to the bitter combat of World War II and the eventual intact capture of two of its boats, complete with Enigma code machines, that ultimately spelled its doom. 224 pages. Hardcover. 6 1/2 x 9 1/2 inches.

Second U-Boat Flotilla

Naval_Institute_Press

First U-Boat Flotilla

Americas

Pen and Sword Military

The Kriegsmarine's Schnellboote fast attack boats, or E-boats to the Allies, were the primary German naval attack units in coastal waters throughout the Second World War. Operating close to their various bases they became a devastatingly effective weapon in nearly all the Kriegsmarine's theatres of war, from the Baltic to the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. It was in the English Channel, however, that they scored their most notable successes, destroying some forty warships and more than one hundred merchant ships. In addition to interception and attack, they were also used for minelaying, landing sabotage troops and general escort duties.\nThere had been, until this book was published, no comprehensive operational history of the S-boat service in all the theatres in which it saw service, but due to the relatively small number of units it is possible to recount the duties and fates of each individual craft and in this book the author examines the career of each in detail. In addition, operations alongside the commando units of the Kleinkampfverbande are covered. As the war progressed, S-boats suffered from the increased Allied mastery of the seas and skies but they were a formidable foe right to the end; this fine book was the first to do full justice to their record of success, and remains the foremost work on their operational history.\n"The history of naval warfare in the Second World War is a well-worn path, and it is refreshing to encounter a work that is significant and adds to our understanding. This is quite simply an outstanding book." - The Mariner's Mirror

Schnellboote: A Complete Operational History

Seaforth Publishing

The accepted historical narrative of the Second World War predominantly assigns U-boats to the so-called 'Battle of the Atlantic', almost as if the struggle over convoys between the new world and the old can be viewed in isolation from simultaneous events on land and in the air. This has become an almost accepted error. The U-boats war did not exist solely between 1940 and 1943, nor did the Atlantic battle occur in seclusion from other theatres of action. The story of Germany's second U-boat war began on the first day of hostilities with Britain and France and ended with the final torpedo sinking on 7 May 1945. U-boats were active in nearly every theatre of operation in which the Wehrmacht served, and within all but the Southern Ocean. Moreover, these deployments were not undertaken in isolation from one another; instead they were frequently interconnected in what became an increasingly inefficient German naval strategy. This fascinating new book places each theatre of action in which U-boats were deployed into the broader context of the Second World War in its entirety while also studying the interdependence of the various geographic deployments. It illustrates the U-boats' often direct relationship with land, sea and aerial campaigns of both the Allied and Axis powers, dispels certain accepted mythologies, and reveals how the ultimate failure of the U-boats stemmed as much from chaotic German military and industrial mismanagement as it did from Allied advances in code-breaking and weaponry.

U-Boat War, The: A Global History 1939–45

Europe

Osprey_Publishing

Kriegsmarine Atlantic Command 1939–42: Naval Group West's surface menace (Fleet, 11)

This study of the Kriegsmarine's Sicherungsstreitkräfte, their security forces, fills a gap in the study of the German navy in World War II. This book describes the wide array of vessels including patrol boats, minesweepers, submarine hunters, barrage breakers, landing craft, minelayers, and even the riverine flotilla that patrolled the Danube as it snaked towards the Black Sea. These vessels may not have provided the glamour associated with capital ships and U-boats, but they were crucial to the survival of the Kriegsmarine at every stage of hostilities.
As naval construction was unable to keep pace with the likely demand for security vessels, Grossadmiral Erich Raeder turned to the conversion of merchant vessels. For example, trawlers were requisitioned as patrol boats (Vorpostenboote) and minesweepers (Minensucher), while freighters, designated Sperrbrecher, were filled with buoyant materials and sent to clear minefields. Submarine hunters (U-Boot Jäger) were requisitioned fishing vessels. More than 120 flotillas operated in wildly different conditions, from the Arctic to the Mediterranean, and eighty-one men were to be awarded the Knight's Cross; some were still operating after the cessation of hostilities clearing German minefields. Paterson documents organizational changes, describes the vessels, and recounts individual actions of ships at sea. Extensive appendices are included.

Hitler's Forgotten Flotillas: Kriegsmarine Security Forces

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