Dimensions
240 x 245 x 13mm
During the two World Wars, German submarines sank over 8,000 merchant vessels grossing more than 27 million tons. U-boats came close to bringing Britain to defeat. In the Second World War the battle for supremacy was hard fought, won only at great cost, as technical advances swayed the advantage from one side to the other. U-boats became faster and better armed, while detection and anti-submarine weapons developed apace. It took time to realise that escorted convoys provided the only real security for merchantmen.
This book tells the twin stories of the Battles of the Atlantic in a fair and impartial account. Strategic failings, on both sides, became apparent at almost every turn, but there can be no doubting the valour of U-boat crews and those who pursued them.
Eyewitness accounts of submarine operations, a remarkable discourse on the art of submarine command by a U-boat ace, and extracts from contemporary German naval documents underline the reality of the U-boat wars. Appendices, tables, charts and diagrams supply a wealth of relevant statistics to complete this remarkable book by the noted naval historian V E Tarrant.
