Customer Reviews

The Golden Horseshoe (Fortunes of War)

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I first read this book many years ago, long before I developed my abiding interest with ships and the sea and was enthralled by the history of the central character who was Germany's most successful U Boat commander of all time. Even as a Prisoner of War, Otto Kretschmer continued to serve his country from behind enemy lines with such effectiveness that he also became, perhaps the only!, POW ever to have been promoted during his incarceration for such service. How odd that his captors failed to smell a rat and wonder why he should have received such advancement...

In keeping with U Boat tradition, Otto Kretschmer adopted the golden horseshoe as the motif for his submarine - U 99. His exploits, however, soon became so legendary within the U Boat arm that he was personally known as `The Wolf of the Atlantic.' The tonnage of ships this single U Boat commander sent to the bottom of the seas is far greater than any other commander of any other vessel, in any navy, in the history of the world.

Author Terence Robertson provides an excellent account - one which is as equally enthralling as his earlier `Walker RN' whilst I also thoroughly recommend and I am please to say I found the book as captivating as I did first time around.

Such was his conduct during the war that Kretschmer's held the respect of those on both sides of the conflict and was later able to join the new German Navy where he was eventually promoted to Captain. Ordinarily, such a person would have been revered as one of his nation's War Heroes but little or not such adulation was available to those in a defeated country. For all the right reasons, however, this account remains one of my favourite books.

NM

I first read this book many years ago, long before I developed my abiding interest with ships and the sea and was enthralled by the history of the central character who was Germany's most successful U Boat commander of all time. Even as a Prisoner of War, Otto Kretschmer continued to serve his country from behind enemy lines with such effectiveness that he also became, perhaps the only!, POW ever to have been promoted during his incarceration for such service. How odd that his captors failed to smell a rat and wonder why he should have received such advancement...

In keeping with U Boat tradition, Otto Kretschmer adopted the golden horseshoe as the motif for his submarine - U 99. His exploits, however, soon became so legendary within the U Boat arm that he was personally known as `The Wolf of the Atlantic.' The tonnage of ships this single U Boat commander sent to the bottom of the seas is far greater than any other commander of any other vessel, in any navy, in the history of the world.

Author Terence Robertson provides an excellent account - one which is as equally enthralling as his earlier `Walker RN' whilst I also thoroughly recommend and I am please to say I found the book as captivating as I did first time around.

Such was his conduct during the war that Kretschmer's held the respect of those on both sides of the conflict and was later able to join the new German Navy where he was eventually promoted to Captain. Ordinarily, such a person would have been revered as one of his nation's War Heroes but little or not such adulation was available to those in a defeated country. For all the right reasons, however, this account remains one of my favourite books.

NM

This has to be the best book on U-boats tactics to come out of ww2. The fact that Otto Kretschmer was the leading Ace of ww2 and led the way for others to follow makes this a must must have for my collection.