Customer Reviews

U-Boats

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I have books by Antony Preston on such subjects as Aircraft Carriers, Battleships, Destroyers and so forth and none of these have ever been a cause for disappointment. For whatever reason, however, I have not been able to find a copy of his book on U Boats until now. As a shipwreck historian and underwater photo-journalist, my work takes me to shipwrecks located all over the world. Many of these are casualties war and often victims of an encounter with one of Germany's U Boats. Germany's U Boats are, therefore, a subject I continue to study at every opportunity.

On reading my two criticisms of this book, I do believe any reader would dismiss them as being so trivial they should not have been mentioned. But that is the point! In order to provide any criticism at all of yet another first-class work from this eminent author, I had to become very "picky-picky!"

On my copy of this book, the frontispiece (i.e. the photograph which covers the inside of the book's front cover and the facing page) is printed upside down. I hasten to add that this printing error applies `only' that one picture and is a mistake which will not have been repeated in other print-runs of the book.

Now we come to my really big complaint: In the German language, there never was a hyphen after the letter "U" in connection with U Boats. Consequently, U Boat, U68 and U505 are all correct whereas U-Boat, U-68 and U-505 are not. Of course, the problem with my pointing out such a small item is that because I no longer use the hyphen - I find I am out of step with the rest of the world... As I said; "Picky-Picky!"

In short, therefore, here you have the history of the U Boat is a really excellent work. Although first published over 30 years ago - since when new discoveries have been made and new information unearthed, I would suggest a copy of this work is as essential to those with a serious interest in the subject as any more modern work.

Fully illustrated throughout with plenty of photos, maps, diagrams and other illustrations, this book tells the complete story of the U Boat and is as relevant today as when first published.

NM

I have books by Antony Preston on such subjects as Aircraft Carriers, Battleships, Destroyers and so forth and none of these have ever been a cause for disappointment. For whatever reason, however, I have not been able to find a copy of his book on U Boats until now. As a shipwreck historian and underwater photo-journalist, my work takes me to shipwrecks located all over the world. Many of these are casualties war and often victims of an encounter with one of Germany's U Boats. Germany's U Boats are, therefore, a subject I continue to study at every opportunity.

On reading my two criticisms of this book, I do believe any reader would dismiss them as being so trivial they should not have been mentioned. But that is the point! In order to provide any criticism at all of yet another first-class work from this eminent author, I had to become very "picky-picky!"

On my copy of this book, the frontispiece (i.e. the photograph which covers the inside of the book's front cover and the facing page) is printed upside down. I hasten to add that this printing error applies `only' that one picture and is a mistake which will not have been repeated in other print-runs of the book.

Now we come to my really big complaint: In the German language, there never was a hyphen after the letter "U" in connection with U Boats. Consequently, U Boat, U68 and U505 are all correct whereas U-Boat, U-68 and U-505 are not. Of course, the problem with my pointing out such a small item is that because I no longer use the hyphen - I find I am out of step with the rest of the world... As I said; "Picky-Picky!"

In short, therefore, here you have the history of the U Boat is a really excellent work. Although first published over 30 years ago - since when new discoveries have been made and new information unearthed, I would suggest a copy of this work is as essential to those with a serious interest in the subject as any more modern work.

Fully illustrated throughout with plenty of photos, maps, diagrams and other illustrations, this book tells the complete story of the U Boat and is as relevant today as when first published.

NM