U-BOAT WAR by Lothar-Gunther Buchheim
As far as I can recall, amongst the books about WW2 on my small shelf, there are few that I purchased before I picked up U-BOAT WAR in Ottawa in 2010. I was riding my motorcycle back from Halifax at the time and the book, large enough to be easily seen 30 - 40 feet away, graced a wire rack outside a used book store on Rideau St. east. It was still there - for $7.99 - when I returned an hour later, after unpacking my kit at a nearby hostel. The book is one of the many highlights of a two-week and 4,500 km. long trip during which I transported some of my father's ashes to the Atlantic for their final voyage.
As a member of Combined Operations during WW2 my father saw a few submarines - unfriendlies - assisted in taking a shot at one, spotted torpedoes slicing past his ship on more than one occasion and referred to one vessel (S.S. Silver Walnut; the ship that transported him around Africa on his way to Sicily in 1943) as 'submarine bait' in his Navy memoirs.
Still, he would have enjoyed reading Buchheim's book for a variety of reasons. The photographs are a vivid history of life aboard German U-boats. (Buchheim is the author of the internationally best-selling novel of submarine warfare, The Boat). The stories are of common men placed in uncommon situations. The language is stirring and describes many things with which my father could identify.
For example, Buchheim writes:
Most of these photos I rediscovered only recently on
timeworn, battered reels of undeveloped film I had lost
sight of long ago. When I fished the sodden enlargements
out of the bath, I was suddenly conscious that what I was
holding were historical documents, most of them thirty-five
years old.
timeworn, battered reels of undeveloped film I had lost
sight of long ago. When I fished the sodden enlargements
out of the bath, I was suddenly conscious that what I was
holding were historical documents, most of them thirty-five
years old.
Thirty years after my father was discharged from RCNVR he sat down to write his Navy memoirs. When he was finished he held historical documents as well, and possessed several photos to help substantiate his tales.
About the above photo Buchheim says:
A Type-VII-C submarine and one of the so-called sea cows
(a large submarine tanker) entering the lock at St.-Nazaire.
A Type-VII-C submarine and one of the so-called sea cows
(a large submarine tanker) entering the lock at St.-Nazaire.
My father knew about St.-Nazaire. Members of Combined operations damaged the gates of a mammoth dock there in 1942 and Germany's largest battleship, the Tirpitz, could no longer go there for replenishment or repairs. That being said, U-BOAT WARS was not a part of his book collection. But it is a valued part of my own.
Readers will not learn much more about life aboard a submarine, with 100s of excellent, accompanying photos, in another single book. Nor will one read such vivid accounts of the storms, trials and tribulations faced by the fragile mariner.
About a lengthy storm Buchheim writes (in part):
The following day the weather gets still worse. The gale
and the swell increase yet another notch or two, until one
can hardly distinguish between the sea and the sky: the
elements of air and water are fused. This is what there
must have been prior to the Creation: raging chaos.
and the swell increase yet another notch or two, until one
can hardly distinguish between the sea and the sky: the
elements of air and water are fused. This is what there
must have been prior to the Creation: raging chaos.
I recommend the book highly for students of WW2.
And the trip to Ottawa will do one good! : )
Photos by GH
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