U-Boat Crews 1914-45 (Elite) [Paperback]

Gordon Williamson (Author), Darko Pavlovic (Illustrator)

Book Description

Series: Elite | Publication Date: October 16, 1995

Osprey's study of the U-Boat and its crews during World War I (1914-1918) and World War II (1939-1945). If one single weapon in Germany's arsenal can be said to have come closest to winning the war for the Third Reich, it was without doubt the U-Boat. German U-Boat technology, training, tactics and combat successes far exceeded those of any of the other combatant nations, and even as the Third Reich was crumbling, technically advanced vessels such as the Type XXI, many years ahead of its time, were being put into volume production. Gordon Williamson provides a fascinating overview of the achievements of the U-Boat Waffe in both wars, together with a study of the uniforms and insignia worn by U-Boat crews.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

An unrivalled illustrated reference source on fighting men and commanders, past and present. Each volume is packed with full colour artwork, making military history uniquely accessible to enthusiasts of all ages.

About the Author

Gordon Williamson was born in 1951 and currently works for the Scottish Land Register. He spent seven years with the Military Police TA. He has published a number of books and articles on the decorations of theThird Reich and their winners and he is author of a number of World War II titles for Osprey.

Product Details

• Paperback: 64 pages
• Publisher: Osprey Publishing (October 16, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1855325454
• ISBN-13: 978-1855325456
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 0.2 x 9.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,422,184 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars good book of u boat men and uniforms, February 25, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: U-Boat Crews 1914-45 (Elite) (Paperback)

i liked this book from a standpoint of the "fashion aspect" of men's uniforms. i am more interested in this than anything else. this book has some general info on u boat crews from ww1 and ww2,including some info on u boat commanders. this book is mainly about u boat uniforms,weapons,badges and insignia. it has very good black and white photos and some color plates showing detail of different clothing worn by u boat crews. this is an excellent book for people who collect military items or are interested in detail descriptions of uniforms,weapons,etc. i do not have any complaints about the book but,i wish it were longer and had many more photographs!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars More about uniforms and insignia than about U-boat crews, January 19, 2005

By 

Kenneth P. Katz - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: U-Boat Crews 1914-45 (Elite) (Paperback)

An accurate title for this book would have been "Uniforms and Insignia of German U-Boat Crews". The book does cover those things in detail, including such colorful but operationally irrelevant things as edged weapons. The color plates are very good, and the accompanying captions are excellent. What is missing from the book is any substantive insight into U-boat crews: training, organization of the officers and men, what made the U-boat crews so effective. It is also quite annoying that nowhere in the book are the German naval ranks translated into English. The book has its interesting parts and clearly benefits from the interests of the author but it is incomplete.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great history of the men who manned the U-Boats (011), June 23, 2006

By 

Troy Tempest (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: U-Boat Crews 1914-45 (Elite) (Paperback)

The infamous German U-Boats, or U-Boot (Untersee-Boot, or undersea boat), bring images to mind of sleek gray 'wolves of the sea', lurking in the cold Atlantic awaiting the hapless merchant ship or engaging in a deadly game of cat and mouse with a Royal Navy destroyer. This fine book goes into the sorts of men who manned these potent weapons, and as well as a good general history of the U-Boat campaigns of both wars. A lot of people may think Germany had huge 'wolf packs' of submarines roaming at will throughout the oceans, but the truth was vastly different. At the commencement of WWI, the Kaiser had only 20 U-Boats ready for action, and at the commencement of WWII, even though the Führer had on paper nearly 60 U-Boats at his disposal, most of those were coastal or training vessels, and once again, Germany had very few ocean-going craft ready for action. In WWI, the Royal Navy on the other hand, had over 70 submarines on hand. However, the small numbers of German U-Boats soon began to make their mark. Only five days had passed from the start of WWI when a U-Boat sank the RN cruiser, HMS Pathfinder. An even greater success came three weeks later, when Otto Weddigen sank THREE cruisers, the Aboukir, Cressy and the Hogue, single-handed in less than one hour!

The Kaiser declared Great Britain's coastal waters a war zone, and the U-Boats began their war against the British merchant marine, hoping to starve England, who was almost entirely dependent on imports of almost everything, into submission. The campaign went well enough until U-20 sank the liner Lusitania, with 1,198 lives lost. Although the liner was a legitimate target, as it was carrying contraband, the outcry from the United States was enough for the Kaiser to cease the campaign in the waters surrounding Britain, and instead transferred the U-Boats to the Mediterranean, where they enjoyed great success. For instance, Lothar de la Periere sank 54 of his eventual total of over 200, in one month alone! He went on to become the greatest U-Boat ace of either war. With the war going badly for Germany, the Kaiser again introduced unrestricted submarine warfare against Great Britain, which in turn helped prod the Americans into the war on the Allies side in April 1917. If not for the appearance of the USA on her side, Britain may very well have succumbed to the U-Boat campaign, being brought to her knees by starvation. However, it was not to be, and the Allies, through a system of convoys and the use of depth charges as well as a huge mine-laying exercise, from the North Sea to the English Channel, brought merchant loss right down, and U-Boat losses right up to an intolerable level. At the end of the war, the U-Boats had not starved England into submission, but the lessons of their near-success were well learned by the German navy.

After the war, the Allies banned Germany from possessing any U-Boats, but that didn't stop the Kriegsmarine (Navy) from conducting secret trials in other countries. When Hitler and the Nazi's came to power in 1933, the design and construction of U-Boats was well ready for their rebirth. Hitler, however, directed that the capital ships take precedence in the new navy, so when war came, once more the U-Boat arm was tiny. Admiral Dönitz, who was in charge of the U-Boats said if he had 300 U-Boats at the start of the war, he could have completely starved England into submission. Fortunately for England, he did not have the number of craft he deemed necessary. However, like in the previous war, success came very fast, with the loss of HMS Courageous to U-29 on 17.9.39, and then the following month, the audacious sinking of the battleship HMS Royal Oak by ace extraordinaire, Gunther Prien, in U47, while the ship lay in the supposed impregnable RN base of Scapa Flow. Donitz pressed the Fuhrer for more U-Boats, and he introduced the 'wolf pack' tactic in 1940, after the fall of France gave Germany ports with direct access to the Atlantic. In 1941, U-Boat numbers started picking up, with 200 new boats being commissioned. One wonders what Germany could have achieved with these 200 boats at the start of the war! They sank 445 enemy ships in 1941, including another RN battleship, HMS Barham, and the aircraft carrier Ark Royal. This was known as the 'happy time' for the German U-Boat men, such were the Allied losses for loss of only 38 U-Boats.

With the entry of America into the war in December 1941, U-Boats were dispatched to American coastal waters, where a second 'happy time' was had by the U-Boats throughout 1942. By years end, over 1,000 enemy ships had been sunk, a tremendous achievement by a still small force. However, 1943 saw the introduction of highly sophisticated direction finding equipment, and the cracking of the German 'Enigma' code, saw the Allies route their convoys away from the wolf-packs, and suddenly large numbers of U-Boats were being destroyed using the new detection equipment. Losses became so great, Dönitz was forced to stop the campaign. With the D-day invasion of France, the Germans lost the use of their French ports, which greatly hindered the use of U-Boats. However, even with the non-stop bombing campaign by the Allies against the ports and production facilities, the Germans still managed the design and build the world's first true submarine, the Type XXI, which revolutionised submarine design and operations. This U-Boat could have done massive damage to the Allies if it had been introduced earlier, but by the time it came into service, it was too little, too late. This was a lucky thing for the Allies, as the type XXI was a true revolution in submarine warfare.

The end of the war saw the U-Boat force suffer proportionately more losses than any other branch of the Wehrmacht (armed forces), out of 35,000 men who served as submariners, over 28,000 were lost, a figure of over 80%. Gordon Williamson has written yet another fine book, and the photos are excellent, and often seen for the first time in published form. Darko Pavlovic has provided first class colour plates and illustrations to accompany a fine text. This book is ideal for both the casual and the dedicated reader of U-Boat matter.

A top read!