Customer Reviews

U-Boat Ace: The Story of Wolfgang Luth

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I have read this book and it is an excellently done story on Kapitan zur See, Wolfgang Luth. This man Took charge of the Uboat U 181 and had an excellent crew serving with him. This book is almost as good as "Shooting The War" by Otto Giese. It held my attention which was fully rivited to the pages as I read them, as Otto Giese's book did to me. This book is THAT well done, and I will buy several extra copies of it to send to all 8 of the surviving U 181 vets. Its a shame that Otto Giese, U 181's 2nd Watch officer under Luth, recently passed away as well as three other U 181 comrades. The living members of U 181 will absolutely love this book and will think of it as a work of art. As I do have the priviledge of knowing all the surviving vets, I know they will enjoy adding a copy of this book to their libraries as they have done so with Otto Giese's book. Soon to be another book on U 181 by vet/friend, Bernhard Trenn.

This book is a great read. The writing style is concise, and it makes it easy to get involved with a facinating (and true) story. Wolfgang Luth went on long range patrols to Southern Africa, notched up many sinkings, and was popular with his men. What comes across with this book is the personality of Wolfgang Luth himself. He didn't have a large ego, and is not as well known as other U-boat aces, but through this book seems far more interesting than the others U Boat Captains, and was more successful. He could be laid back with his men, other times encouraging them to get married, or poke fun at himself, was utterly fearless, and other times shot hundreds of shells into ships without reason. The book makes one consider the morality of his actions, and yet also gives a front row seat to an interesting U Boat career, and tragic end. This is a good book.

another u-boat captain book,Luth's u-boat survival of the war depended a great deal on his skill,but there are instances here where you realize there was some luck involved as well. An even better source of luck was that he was assigned a section of the south Atlantic,and African waters where his prey was not often as heavily protected as was were convoys in the North Atlantic.Luth's patrols were mainly "lone wolf" type guerilla attacks on isolated cargo ships,not the suicidal wolfpack attacks that were sure to bring on lots of task force boats.You can't help but draw from the book that the thirty year Luth was a by-product of the post WW1 Versailles Treaty outrage against Germany.His resentment as well as his crew run deep,methodically shinking ships like shooting mechanical ducks at a carnival.Not deliberately cruel but with a firm belief that it's either "us or them".When reading this book it would help to have a little knowledge of the "War Reparations"clause in the Versailles treaty,it would make for boring reading but,it will make the Luth story more enriching.

Jordan Vause paints a compelling, well-researched and unvarnished portrait of legendary U-boat commander Wolfgang Luth. At 215 pages it is a short, succinct biography of a misunderstood man who mastered the art of personnel management within one of the most perilous and demanding workplaces on earth: a World War II submarine. Luth's achievement is even more remarkable in that most U-boat cruises lasted a few weeks or less; Luth's last war patrol, in U-181, lasted six months, (which briefly set a world record for submarine cruise duration), taking him half way round the world to the middle of the Indian Ocean. That his crew not only didn't mutiny, or at least hate Luth after being couped up together for so long is a wonder; that after reaching port, and decades later, they all universally loved Luth and their time spent together. This book is a must-read for both lovers of U-boat lore and serious students of management-under-extremes.

Uboat Ace is a excellent book on Submarine warfare in WWII. While you may not like Wolfganf Luff as an Individual one has to admit he was a great leader and example to his men. Found the book interesting and an easy read. Anyone interested in Uboat warefare will enjoy it..

This is not the typical memoir of a U-boat commander. The ending was the most surprising of all. It was an interesting study of leadership and motivation.

What I initially wanted to buy was Luth's diary, which is available free in PDF format. Instead, I purchsed this book about Luth. I'd have to say it's accurate, although much of this book focuses on Luth's admiration for the Nazi's at the expense of time on his Uboat exploits.

Also, Luth made some glaring mistakes, leaving port without orders, missed shots, and long bombardments with deck guns of helpless ships that will leave the reader wondering: just how effective was this guy anyway? Overall, it gives a more accurate picture of what Uboat warfare was like than you might have imagined from "Das Boot".

This book seems like it was plagiarized.I hated, Bad story.read "iron coffins" for true picture of u boats in WWII. this not what U boats did or how they operated. Man don' waste your money. OK I need 20 words so,It i written boots shot down war boos, not true, they would not. their mission was to keep freighters from bring supiles to England. and they failed.i bought this books at amazon. and will keep buying there are books out their.

Wonderful book. I am history buff and writing a book on the WWII navies and this book helped alot.

this is a must read for people that are interested in ww2 sub life and combat. if you havent seen the movie das boot youll want to after reading this book and youll also want to play the sub sim. silent hunter3, 4, or 5.