With Honour in Battle (Paperback)

by J. T. McDaniel (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Germany's most decorated U-boat captain is sent to sea in an experimental boat that could reverse the war at sea, or blow up her own crew. In the waning days of World War II, Korvettenkapitän Hans Kruger is Germany's most decorated U-boat 'Ace.' Taking command of a highly advanced, top secret boat, Kruger must contend with overwhelming enemy superiority, his own personal demons, and a boat whose superior qualities are accompanied by a dangerous, untried power plant.

From the Author
By the end of World War II, German submarine designers had produced some astonishing weapons. Among the interesting were the Walter submarines, which could run submerged at high speed, using a turbine engine that didn’t need external oxygen. One such boat reached a submerged speed of 24 knots in 1943, some 18 knots faster than previous U-Boats, and three knots faster than most convoy escorts. Plans were made to build several models of Walter boat, though none were in service before the war ended.

Some years ago a discussion of these boats led to speculation on what might have happened if one had been built and sent into combat. Such a boat would be very hard to detect, and nearly impossible to pin down and destroy. And what sort of man would command her? A senior commander, surely, but by late in the war what shape would he be in? U-Boats were, bar none, the most dangerous military assignments of World War II. Only one in four who sailed in them survived the war. So an experienced commander would be not only lucky, but also, more than likely, verging on what today we call a "burn out case."

And the sudden appearance of such a U-Boat, with the resulting disastrous effects on the convoy routes, would naturally call for a response. So we would also have a senior British escort commander, with a unique insight into his enemy after having been briefly a prisoner aboard his boat, now given command of a new killer group and charged with hunting him down.

These speculations resulted in "With Honour in Battle." A remarkable U-boat, with an advanced, but also dangerous, power plant; a no-longer-young commander, knowing what he's doing is going to be too late, yet duty bound to carry on the fight, and weighed down by the deaths of nearly everyone he has ever cared about. Not a "techno-thriller," but a traditional naval adventure novel, where the characters, and not the machines, drive the story. And, of course, one with plenty of action to keep things moving.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 268 pages
• Publisher: Writers Club Press (March 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595173527
• ISBN-13: 978-0595173525
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,286,467 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Okay U-Boat Fans, February 6, 2002

By	Woodrow Cullum (Baltimore MD) - See all my reviews

Okay, if you are like me you only read non-fictional books about U-boats and the naval history associated with them. The thought of reading a fictional book just does not appeal to you and you would rather not even waste your time. Well this book is different. Once I started reading it was hard to put down. If you are a historian, profesional or amateure you will start to see simularities of actual events that took place during the war and the non-fictional events in this book. This did not bother me at all in fact it actually helped me visualize what I was reading about and the events that were taking place. At times I felt as if I was actually there experienceing the events. This book covers the broad spectrum of war and the emotions associated with it from the military/governmental aspect, to battle and the bound shared between men and even love and the will to survive. Like the title of my review, Okay U-boat fans this is a must read book and would even make a great movie in my opinion.The book is about a young decorated U-boat commander who gets a new assignment near wars end. This assignment is both a war mission and experiment. The new boat is like no other and military officials hope it is not to late to make a difference in delaying the end of the war so better surrender conditions can be established for the soldiers and people of Germany.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I couldn't put it down., January 15, 2002

By	Ken Dunn (Charlotte, NC United States) - See all my reviews

This is a great book! It is the story of a German U-boat commander, his crew and his U-boat. If you like war stories, you'll love this one. The boat represents the next generation of submarines that would have been deployed if World War II had not ended when it did.

I especially like its technical and historical accuracy. It does an excellent job of describing the major events that dictated the outcome of the U-boat war. The historical facts are woven into a very compelling story of a U-boat commander and his crew. The important advantages this new U-boat has are carefully contrasted with the actual limitations of the U-boats that fought the war.

When you have read this novel you not only come away with a great story, you have learned a great deal about how that war was actually fought on all sides. The main character although fictional is a composite of the real U-boat commanders. The boat and the technical innovations that make it such a potent weapon were actually developed or on the drawing board at the end of the war. The tactics used in the story are those that would have been used with this boat. It is one of the "miracle" weapons Hitler told the German people would snatch victory from the allies. I found it fascinating to see just how good it was and how it would have been used. The story takes place at the end of the war so you don't get to see what counter measures the allies would have developed had the war continued but you can plainly see how damaging it would have been to the allies if enough of them could have been produced before the war ended.

Members of my family served in the Merchant Marine during this war. They were hunted by the U-boats but I still liked this book. I think that says a lot about the book.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This is a really good book, May 24, 2001

By A Customer

I spent most of World War II in battleships and the one thing that scared me the most was a submarine. This novel looks at it from the other side. The captain, Kruger, is an old fashioned, completely professional Navy officer. You get a strong feeling that he'd be doing this no matter what, but that he'd really prefer a different German government.

This is the sort of book I really enjoy. It's also the sort of book you don't see that often these days. The sub is the most advanced Germany could produce - I don't think they ever really built one like it, though - but the author doesn't waste hundreds of pages describing every little detail. He just says, it can go this fast, and this deep, and the story is really the men. And the men are real human beings, not cardboard cutouts. Some of them seem very familiar from my own Navy service.

When the book begins Germany is close to losing the war. Kruger certainly knows this, but he has his duty to perform and he does it spectacularly. The battle scenes are realistic, and the love scenes manage to avoid the porn you usually get today. You feel you could like these people, mostly, if you ever met them. As in any war story there are the inevitable deaths, some heroic, others tragically ordinary.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who likes traditional naval adventure stories. I hope there will be more to come.