The Battle of the Atlantic: Hitler's Gray Wolves of the Sea and the Allies' Desperate Struggle to Defeat Them [Hardcover]

Andrew Williams (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 25, 2003

What history calls the "Battle of the Atlantic" was really a full-scale war-within-a-war, fought from the beginning of hostilities in 1939 to the moment of cease-fire in 1945. Andrew Williams focuses on the first four years of this bitter conflict, during which time German submarines sank an astounding twelve million tons of Allied shipping. The story reaches its climax in May 1943, when the introduction of new weapons and tactics turned the tide of the battle and enabled the Allies to contain and finally defeat the dreaded German "wolf packs." Interweaving scores of first-person accounts from survivors of both sides, The Battle of the Atlantic follows the exploits of the charismatic U-boat commanders who led their crews to the hunt-and often to their deaths. It goes aboard the merchantmen and escort ships that were both victim and nemesis to the "gray wolves" of the sea. And it enters the war rooms of the German, British, and American navies, where code-breakers and strategists angled for any advantage in a race that spelled doom to its loser. This dramatic chronicle sheds new light on one of the most dangerous conflicts of the Second World War.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The Battle of the Atlantic (1939-1945) was one of the most crucial of World War II; tens of thousands of sailors were killed on each side, and German U-boats almost succeeded in choking off the supply lines on which Britain's survival depended. This hard-fought conflict gets an engrossing retelling in this companion to the History Channel series. Williams, producer of War Crime: Five Days in Hell for the BBC, covers every aspect of the cat-and-mouse game in which U-boats stalked merchant convoys across the ocean and were in turn hunted by Allied planes and destroyers. It's a harrowing tale, full of torpedo attacks, depth-chargings and drownings in the icy North Atlantic, and Williams draws on many first-hand accounts, both German and Allied, to bring it to life. He also pulls back to examine the strategic dimensions of the battle, exploring the development of German wolf-pack tactics, the initially bumbling Allied efforts to organize convoys and escorts, and the increasingly sophisticated anti-submarine warfare techniques that eventually drove the wolf packs from the North Atlantic. Williams is especially good at explaining the vital development of sonar, radar, detection and decryption technologies that enabled Allied escorts to locate, evade and destroy the stealthy U-boats with ever greater success. The conflict was both a nerve-wracking battle of wits and an epic of self-sacrifice, and Williams's thorough research and skillful storytelling does it full justice. B&w photos.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

This companion to a History Channel miniseries is a thoroughly sound, readable popular naval history. The U-boats seriously endangered Britain's survival only during 1940-41 but remained dangerous until well into 1943. Both sides fought hard and ingeniously, but Allied intelligence, including code breaking, and production capacity carried the day and allowed further Allied victories while eventually ruining the morale of even the most determined U-boat crews. Williams' overview, which incorporates the viewpoints of a substantial number of survivors of specific incidents, betrays only a slight British slant. The informants, most of them well into their eighties, range from U-boat ace Erich Topp and British escort officer John Adams, who ended their careers as admirals, to British diver Sandy Robertson and German radio operator Heinz Wilde. All enlarge the dimension of Williams' account of the naval battle that was the longest in history and the most decisive one of World War II. This book deserves its place on the shelf occupied by Nicholas Monsarrat's classic, The Cruel Sea (1951). Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; First edition. edition (March 25, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465091539
• ISBN-13: 978-0465091539
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,603,209 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding Military History, August 9, 2003

By 

Brian D. Rubendall (Oakton, VA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Battle of the Atlantic: Hitler's Gray Wolves of the Sea and the Allies' Desperate Struggle to Defeat Them (Hardcover)

"The Battle of the Atlantic" is a fascinating and well written account of the struggle for naval supremacy between the Allies and the Germans during World War II. The primary focus of the narrative is the German U-Boat service and its charasmatic leader, Admiral Karl Donitz, as well as the British military experts who eventually devised the strategy that would defeat the submarine offensive. The stakes were very high. As the author states, thousands of merchant ships and tens of thousands of sailors were lost during the struggle. At several points, Winston Churchill privately despaired that the U-Boat menace would succeed in cutting off Britain's vital supply lines and bringing the country to defeat.

All of this is told primarily through the first hand accounts of those who lived through the battles. Particularly harrowing are the descriptions of death and survival by those who were aboard the sunken vessles. The book is well balanced, providing equal time to the men who served on both sides. Donitz emerges as the central character: a principled and dedicated fighter who ultimately allowed himself to be corrupted by Adolf Hiter's cult of personality. Augmented by a generous illustrations section and just shy of 300 pages of narrative, the book doesn't get too bogged down in minute detail.

Overall, an outstanding work of military history that should appeal both to history buffs and to general readers.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Submarine goes "glub-glub", April 15, 2003

By 

Eric Hobart (La Center, WA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Battle of the Atlantic: Hitler's Gray Wolves of the Sea and the Allies' Desperate Struggle to Defeat Them (Hardcover)

Andrew Williams has presented us with a true gift in historical writing - a narrative account of the U-boat menace against merchant shipping in the North Atlantic during the Second World War.

The author taken words from the mouths and memoirs of the participants and affected people to develop a fascinating portrayal of the war at sea between the German U-Boats and the merchant marine vessels of Britain and America.

Starting with the creation of Donitz's fleet and progressing through the high times (or, as the sailors called them, the "happy times") of the U-boat war, on to the final defeat of the German navy, this book is one not to be missed. The boat touches on such important topics as Operation Drumbeat and the Enigma machine, both of which were critical to the success (or failure) of the U-boat war.

The book does not focus primarily on life on a submarine, as might be expected, but instead truly focuses on the war within the war - the German effort to isolate Britain and starve her by sinking ships faster than the Allied forces could build them, and the Allies' desperate efforts to prevent the Germans from achieving this goal. In line with this effort, Williams brings the participants in this war back to life with his choice of utilizing their words and memoirs.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the naval war in the Atlantic ocean or the reason why the Allies were finally able to defeat the German naval threat and go on to win the Second World War against the Germans.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A personal view of the U-Boat war (017), August 12, 2007

By 

Troy Tempest (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Battle of the Atlantic: Hitler's Gray Wolves of the Sea and the Allies' Desperate Struggle to Defeat Them (Hardcover)

This book by Andrew Williams is a great read for a number of reasons, the main one is his use of stories from both sides of the conflict. The reader gets to see how Admirals Karl Dönitz of the Kriegsmarine and Sir Max Horton of the Royal Navy engaged each others forces in this titanic duel for survival in the North Atlantic. More personal however, is the use of stories from survivors from both sides, including harrowing descriptions of life on board a U-boat during wartime. Some interesting photos accompany the very readable text.

A top read!