U-Boats in the Mediterranean, 1941-1944

Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 2007. First U.S. Edition, Presumed first printing. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. v, [1], 202 pages. Illustrations. Includes Acknowledgments, Glossary, Comparative Rank Table, Appendices, Notes, Bibliography, and Index. This work has chapters on The Spanish Civil War; U-boats into the Mediterranean; Success!; From West to East; Attrition; Operation 'Torch', France, Operation 'Husky' to Anzio; Between the Hammer and the Anvil--Retreat from France; and Retreat from Greece. Lawrence Paterson has spent many years researching aspects of German naval operations and has written more than ten books on various aspects of the Kreigsmarine, including Donitz's Last Gamble, Black Flag, Schnellboote, and, most recently, Hitler's Forgotten Flotillas, a study of the Kriegsmarine's security forces. The author wrote, on his website, that the desire to write about the U-boat service first began when I was living near Brest in Brittany, France. I am a scuba diving instructor and spent a great deal of time diving on wrecks left behind by the Kriegsmarine, all in the shadow of the huge U-boat bunkers created in Brest's military harbor. In U-Boats in the Mediterranean, Lawrence Paterson puts the campaign into its strategic context, showing how it coordinated with Rommel's Afrika Korps in the Western Desert and the U-boat battle in the Atlantic. He describes the weapons and tactics the commanders used to try to overcome the difficulties of operating in the shallow waters and how increasing Allied dominance of the air took its heavy toll. The campaign waged by German U-boats in the Mediterranean in World War 2 was one of the hardest-fought of the war at sea. In confined waters, facing often overwhelming Allied naval and air superiority, a relatively small number of submarines caused considerable losses to the Royal Navy and its allies. This book puts that campaign into its strategic context, showing how it both affected and was affected by the fortunes of Rommel's Afrika Korps in the Western Desert and the U-boat battle in the Atlantic, as well as describing the unique difficulties faced by the U-boats operating in the clear, shallow waters of the Mediterranean. The U-boats' successes are described in detail. Full use has been made of first-hand accounts by veterans, official German records, and Allied archives to present the most comprehensive account of U-boats in the Mediterranean. Between September 1941 and May 1944, the Germans sent sixty-two U-boats into the Mediterranean. To get there, the boats had to pass through the Strait of Gibraltar, the British-held entry point, where nearly a third of them were sunk or forced to turn back. Of the submarines that made it into the clear, calm waters of the Mediterranean, not one of them ever made it back into the Atlantic: They were all either sunk in battle or scuttled by their own crews. Paterson details the U-boat triumphs such as the sinking of HMS Ark Royal, and the torpedoing of the battleship HMS Barham, which provided one of the best-known images of the Second World War at sea. Making full use of firsthand accounts by veterans, official German records, and Allied archives, the book puts a spotlight on a neglected aspect of the U-boat war and shows the courage and fortitude of the men on both sides of this savage conflict.