Customer Reviews

In Great Waters: The Epic Story of the Battle of the Atlantic, 1939-45

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Have you ever read a murder mystery where you already know the outcome, but you still plow on in an agony of suspense? This history of the Battle of the Atlantic is a very readable one-volume rendering of the battle we almost lost, and although you know the outcome, you will hold your breath as the German U-boats sink enormous numbers of ships while the high-ranking officers of the Allied Command haggle and bumble their way along the high seas, refusing to cooperate or use the latest weapons. And the ending happily comes just in time as you say "How did we win? The cost was almost unbearable. The book is a well-done wartime history in the excellent style Dunmore has done before.

I love both history and war books. In the few chapters that I read, this one seemed sufficiently researched. However, when the author continuously started describing first person accounts of the anxiety and emotion of sitting in a cockpit, weathering a depth charge attack in a submarine, or heading into battle without crediting the source specifically the person who was actually in those shoes, it was more poetic license than I could take. If I wanted to read good fiction, I would have picked up a Farley Mowat book.