Hitler's U-Boat Bases [Hardcover]

Jak P. Mallmann Showell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 9, 2002

The massive U-boat bunkers that sheltered Hitler's submarine fleet from enemy bombs in World War II dominated the countryside like medieval fortresses. Allied attacks on these bunkers succeeded only in reducing the surrounding towns to rubble while leaving the U-boats untouched. After the war, however, the Allies leveled most of these disturbing reminders of the U-boat menace.

This is the first comprehensive study of the fabled submarine bunkers available in English. Drawing on archives and museums in Germany and England, U-boat historian Jak Mallmann Showell provides a description of U-boat bunkers from Bergen to Bordeaux and includes a history of each site and the flotillas assigned to them. Cutting through decades of confusion surrounding their construction, he also offers a thorough discussion of the building of this impressive engineering feat.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jak P. Malmann Showell is the son of a Kriegsmarine U-boat man who was killed in the Battle of the Atlantic in 1944. Jak has written many books on the Kriegsmarine and the U-boat war in particular, including U-boats in Camera and the German Navy Handbook: 1939-1945, for Sutton Publishing. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: US Naval Institute Press (April 9, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557503966
• ISBN-13: 978-1557503961
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,242,152 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good information, bad revisionism, August 20, 2002

By 

JBA (Sherman Oaks, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hitler's U-Boat Bases (Hardcover)

For those who follow the naval history of WWII this book answers many questions about the bases where the U-Boats were repaired and replenished. I missed having a guide like this when I traveled along the French Atlantic coast. It is one of the few sources of material on this subject.
Unfortunately and very disturbingly the author also spends too much time justifying many of the barbaric actions of the Third Reich. Thus, slave laborers become well paid and well nourished volunteers. The Russian government is given blame for the emaciated condition of Russian slaves while the fact that it was German practice to starve Russian POWs to death is not considered. The German occupation of Norway is considered benign while souvenir hunting by British troop is a barbaric act. Deutschland Uber Alles! One gets the feeling that the author is trying to justify the German generation of his father who was killed in WWII.
Despite the above comments I will probably take this book with me the next time I visit Europe.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Informative, January 28, 2004

By 

Gordon H. Gosch "b2tonro" (Belgium) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hitler's U-Boat Bases (Hardcover)

I found this work to be interesting and informative. To those interested in WWII and the German U-Boat arm, it is well worth it. I also agree with jbavnet's review in that the author could have spared us remarks about Allied treatment of Germans and how the laborors didn't have it so bad. At one point the author states that post-war Germans were provided with less daily rations than those poor souls that had been murdered in the concentration camps and that he felt this was unjust. He makes other remarks about the labor treatment in the same light. He has issues but the information provided makes it a book worth reading.