Review by Choice Review
Although WW II's "Battle of the Atlantic"--the struggle between Nazi submarines and the allied surface fleets for control of this vital logistics link--has been repeatedly chronicled and analyzed, the Germans who fought this war, aside from a handful of U-Boat commanders, remain largely unknown. Mulligan (National Archives) has performed an important task: surveying more than 1,000 of these veterans to draw a composite portrait of the German submariner who fought and mainly died in this grim but critical phase of the war. Of some 50,000 crew members who served in submarines during the war, roughly 68 percent were killed, a staggering loss rate unequaled in virtually any other military force. Mulligan seeks to understand who these men were, where they came from, and what enabled them, from their training regimen to their association with National Socialism to the intangibles of good leadership and the few perquisites authorized, to maintain such a high level of performance even though they were certainly "an involuntary elite." An important acquisition for naval and WW II collections. All levels. G. P. Cox; Gordon College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
