U-Boat Adventures: Firsthand Accounts from World War II (Hardcover)

by Melanie Wiggins (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
In her latest book, Wiggins draws on 22 interviews (with 17 enlisted men and five commanders) that she conducted for her previous book, Torpedoes in the Gulf. She devotes a chapter to each crewman's particular story and provides photographs of the crewman and his submarine. Wiggins then supplements these oral accounts with research from personnel files and archives. Together, these amazing stories show the true horror of submarine combat: well over half of the men who entered the U-boat service never returned. No wonder submarines were called "iron coffins." Surprisingly, most of these German soldiers had no great love of Hitler, and some were even tried for treason. Numerous books have been written about U-boat commanders, but few have featured the enlisted men as Wiggins's has. Recommended for both academic and public libraries.AMark E. Ellis, Albany State Univ., GA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description
Twenty-two U-boat veterans tell their stories in this collection of their experiences, recorded by the author during several years of travel throughout Germany. While many books have been written about the U-boat war, this is one of the few that focuses on the lives of the submariners, and rarer still is its concentration on the crewmen rather than the officers. Melanie Wiggins interviewed seventeen men of the enlisted ranks, along with five commanders, to take readers into the terrifying world of underwater warfare, where every single crewman made a crucial difference in the fate of his boat.

As she searched for and interviewed U-boat men, Wiggins also collected photographs from scrapbooks and archives, and consulted war-era personnel records and secret diaries. Her attendance at a reunion of the crew of U-682 netted a wealth of information as did her interviews with submarine veterans in Görlitz, former East Germany. Her interviews with Admiral Otto Kretschmer just two months before his death and ninety-four-year-old Commander Jürgen Wattenberg in Hamburg add important dimensions to the work.

Among the individual sagas included are Radioman Hans Bürck's description of his 1942 patrol to Aruba and the visit of Japanese submarine I-30 at Lorient; Fireman 2nd Class Josef Erben's explanation of how his boat, U-128, got stuck on a large rock and had to be hauled free; POW Ernst Gö:thling's memories of being wounded in a British prison camp when German planes mistakenly dropped bombs in the area; and Herman Wien's description of U-180 transporting Indian anarchist Subhas Chandra Bose to Madagascar. Every account gives new details about the crews' activities at sea and their experiences in prisoner-of-war camps.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 250 pages
• Publisher: US Naval Institute Press (November 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557509506
• ISBN-13: 978-1557509505
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #945,315 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must reading for WWII buffs, November 3, 1999

By A Customer

Ms. Wiggins has scooped other World War II and U-boat writers with this excellent rendering of recent and unique first-hand interviews recorded from all levels (admiral to seaman) of German U-boat survivors. The author deftly sets the scene for each of these adventures, but rightfully leaves the telling of their individual stories to their own words. Besides the substance of the tales themselves, what makes the book so special is the realization that without publication at this time, most of the interviews and much of the fine research very probably would have been lost. While some of the U-boat veterans undoubtedly came from backgrounds of naval tradition, most (as in our own US Navy) were just ordinary citizens caught in a wartime situation but dedicated to doing their best while serving their country. Their stories reflect the same hopes and fears, hardship and respite, good luck and bad of all those who go to war; each told in the refreshing light of their own personal experience. The reader is equally struck by the universality of these recollections as those of all who go to sea in ships; noting that regardless of nationality, a sailor's first and last enemy remains the elements themselves. This fine collection of stories Ms. Wiggins presents are fascinating reading for all who may be interested in knowing "the rest of the story" about German U-boat operations in World War II. Her sensitive presentation is simply outstanding.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fascinating, little known stories of ordinary uboat men., October 20, 1999

By	Rev. Dave Avis ([e-mail]) (Jacinto City, Texas) - See all my reviews

What a fantastic book! I've been collecting submarine books for 30 years and this is the first one that really gives a view from the personal - human side from ordinary crewmen as well as from little known commanders. I highly recommend this book for anyone who thinks they know about u-boat life. I wait anxiously for her next book and hope that there are many more like this!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy to read.... and interesting, April 28, 2001

By	Dave Haemmerle (Hackensack, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

What a great book. Melanie Wiggins' writing style is very easy on the eyes, and flows very nicely across the pages. I think what I liked most was that its more like a collection of short stories, which made it even more readable for me.

I would recommend this book to any student of the U Boat war, or someone just looking for an interesting book to read. Ms. Wiggins did her homework on this one, and it shows.