Customer Reviews

Hitler's U-Boat Fortresses

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2 star:		(1)
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If your interests lie in the area of military battles and the people that fought in them then this will be a good source of information for you. However, the title should've been "The Battle For Hitler's U-Boat Fortesses". The title mislead me into thinking that this was about the U-Boat pens themselves. I was fully expecting information on the design, logistics, service records, and daily life that would be associated with these structures. I would not have purchased this book had I known the contents.

Hitler's U-Boat Fortresses is a caprivating, eye-witness account by a World War II participant of the Allies' campaign to capture the German U-Boat pens on the coast of Brittany. These submarine pens were active and responsible for sinking a massive amount of Allied ships right up until armistice. As very little has been written about the Allied campaigns in Brittany and their importance to the overall European war effort, this book is essential for any reader of history.

This book is a captivating account of the events surrounding the most important u-boat bases in Brittany,France . The book is highly researched and detailed but in a manner that is most interesting and easy to read. There are eye-witness acccounts of events of young soldiers including the author's narrow escape from death,including little known information of the French resistence. This is an excellent book written by an outstanding American of The Greatest Generation.

A gripping window into the battle for the Nazi uboat pens told from the perspective of a soldier. The author not only skillfully informs the reader of this little known campaign in captivating text, but provides numerous entertaining stories about the human side of young American men thrust into an epic battle in a strange land. A must read for anyone interested in WWII and the American soldier.

My grandfather's division (the 94th ID) was one of the ones committed to containing the Germans in Lorient and St. Nazaire and I was hoping that this book would provide some additional information on that fight (I have had little luck so far). Unfortunately this book can be characterized as being repetitious and disorganized. Although there are some interesting first-hand accounts and some good facts here and there it reads as if the author wrote it down as he learned it. There are entire pages devoted to some obscure WWII education program and how many privates were released from colleges in time to serve in France after D-Day.... and? The author never explains the significance of this. It's very frustrating.

I too thought this book was about u-boat fortresses. It's not. About 20 pages of the book explains a bit about the pens at Lorient and St. Nazaire. The remainder is a rambling series of stories about the French resistance, civilians living in the two cities, and some of the fighting around the areas after the Normandy invasion. It doesn't appear that this book was edited by anyone. There are numerous annoying errors (American divisions fighting in Brittany in February 1944) and jumps in organization. The longest unbroken narrative in the book is about 25 pages that in great detail tells the story of the sinking of HMS Leopoldville. There are also an interesting series of parenthetical remarks in the first half of the book explaining obscure references like "tommy gun" and "non-com" while other less familiar references come and go without explanation. Suddenly in the final 20 pages of the book the reader gets a 'summary' of the 66th infantry division, the fighting in the pockets around St. Nazaire and Lorient, etc. Much of this information is repetitive and reads like cliff notes to offical reports. Some readers obviously enjoyed this book and there are some interesting personal accounts of combat included. Perhaps I'm being too critical but 180 pages of this killed any joy I might have gotten out of reading this. If you think you are getting "An Army At Dawn" you're wrong. If you are looking for employment you might want to see if Lyon's Press has decided to hire a copy editor. They could sure use one.