Hitler's U-Boat War: Vol 2 [Paperback]

Clay Blair (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 13, 2000

The second volume in Clay Blair's history of Hitler's U-boat war, covering years 1942 to 1945. Told chronologically, it is divided into two sections: the war against Britain and her empire, and the war against the Americas. Clay Blair served in World War II in the submarines. He chronicles dramatic scenes of naval actions and makes interpretations and conclusions about all aspects of the Battle of the Atlantic.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

After serving in combat in submarines in WWII, Clay Blair was successively National Security correspondent for Time, Life and Saturday Evening Post. As well as his acclaimed naval histories, Blair is the biographer of Admiral Rickover, Generals MacArthur, Bradley and Ridgway. He lives with his wife in Wisconsin, USA.

Product Details

• Paperback: 976 pages
• Publisher: Cassell Military (April 13, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0304352616
• ISBN-13: 978-0304352616
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,402,267 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A lasting monument to Mr. Blair...., March 2, 2006

By 

T. M. Semmens - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hitler's U-Boat War: Vol 2 (Paperback)

This second volume of this definitive work is also the second installment of the work that is the intellectual monument to Clay Blair.

People have accused Mr. Blair of lacking a human face, yet the sparse prose describing life and death battles between grim, determined men is eloquent in its terse and relentless depiction of the brutality, courage and fear of war. Anyone who has been down to sea in ships needs no more stimulating of the imagination that Mr. Blair provides to understand and wonder at the courage of the men in the U-Boats and men who defeated them.

The only failing in the book is a strangely discordant and increasingly strident reactionary and anti-British tone that creeps into his work. Since I do not know of the personal details of Mr. Blair's life it is only speculation, but I do feel I detect failing health in his later pages of this volume.

It is a pity that while Mr. Blair was so generous of his praise of Britain in Volume 1 he suddenly loses empathy with his British allies and fails to understand the British psyche and the multitudinous problems faced by the war-weary British as they struggled with lack of resources, over worked ships and under trained crews and all the time against a backdrop of fading strength and dying empire. This failure, most manifest in the latter half of volume two, is jarring. At the same time as his anti-British sentiments become more and more unreasonable, so does his extreme support of a pro-US Navy establishment view on the actions of Admiral King in 1942 and 1943.

But this two-volume work is the stuff that us mere consumers of naval history can only gawp at admiration. The reader has a brain and is capable of agreeing or disagreeing with the tone of a volume and to adjudge if the author has or has not been unduly harsh. The breadth of knowledge, the grasp of Naval warfare, the obvious majesty of these two volumes means you just have to unreservedly recommend them as the best general history on the subject available.