The U-Boat War - A Global History from 1939-1945

The U-Boat War - A Global History from 1939 to 1945 written by Lawrence Paterson and

published by Osprey Publishing. - £25 - Hardback - Pages 336

The accepted historical narrative of the Second World War predominantly assigns U-boats to the so-called 'Battle of the Atlantic', almost as if the struggle over convoys between the new world and the old can be viewed in isolation from simultaneous events on land and in the air. This has become an almost accepted error. The U-boats war did not exist solely between 1940 and 1943, nor did the Atlantic battle occur in seclusion from other theatres of action. The story of Germany's second U-boat war began on the first day of hostilities with Britain and France and ended with the final torpedo sinking on 7 May 1945. U-boats were active in nearly every theatre of operation in which the Wehrmacht served, and within all but the Southern Ocean. Moreover, these deployments were not undertaken in isolation from one another; instead they were frequently interconnected in what became an increasingly inefficient German naval strategy.

This fascinating new book places each theatre of action in which U-boats were deployed into the broader context of the Second World War in its entirety while also studying the interdependence of the various geographic deployments. It illustrates the U-boats' often direct relationship with land, sea and aerial campaigns of both the Allied and Axis powers, dispels certain accepted mythologies, and reveals how the ultimate failure of the U-boats stemmed as much from chaotic German military and industrial mismanagement as it did from Allied advances in code-breaking and weaponry.

This book is divided into three parts with the first two-thirds covering the first half of WW2 and the final third covering the second half. With the first half of the book covering the building and supply of U-Boats and their availability, it would seem from reading that Germany wasn’t ready with regards to the U-Boat situation with many not fully finished or engines that were not entirely up to standard. 

Having read a number of books previously about the U-Boats and the war, there were quite a few bits that I already knew about that might be new to other people, like the fact that torpedoes used to be unreliable weapons and in fact mines would often be more dangerous for shipping due to the fact that they could be laid more quickly and could be concentrated or less so.

I’m going to say that the first half of the book was better and it seemed more full of content and specifications, the second half lacked a little, but was still quite enjoyable. I found the bibliography at the back of the book looks very good and I recognised a few of the names mentioned so I will probably follow up by doing some further reading on the subject. As I said I really enjoyed this book, and I find the U-Boat gets relatively less attention than the ground or air-based war combat. It is certainly a good book I would recommend to others that want to gain more knowledge about the U-Boat situation in WW2. I would like to thank Osprey Publishing for allowing me to read this advanced copy.