The U-Boat Wars

by Edwin P. Hoyt

Overview

The remarkably effective submarines (U-boats) of the German Navy devastated the Allies during the first part of World War II and very nearly brought British and American sea forces to their knees. Military historian Hoyt here describes the years when U-boat "wolf packs" under the command of Admiral Karl Doenitz terrorized the Allies, sinking a third of Britain's battleships in 1939, and how the Allies came back, developing anti-submarine weapons that sent almost three-fourths of the U-boat crews to the bottom of the ocean. The U-Boat Wars is a gripping account of the battles at sea and the men—Doenitz, Churchill, sub-hunter Captain F. J. Walker, and others—who decided the fate of the Atlantic.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780815411925
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	03/04/2002
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.66(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.63(d)

About the Author

Edwin P. Hoyt is the author of Japan's War, 199 Days: The Battle for Stalingrad, and How They Won the War in the Pacific: Nimitz and His Admirals. He lives in Tokyo, Japan.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	xiii
	Preface to the Cooper Square Press Edition	xv
1	Beginnings	1
2	The First Gray Wolf	11
3	Scapa Flow	16
4	Wild Night	23
5	Doenitz Unleashed	33
6	Sparring	36
7	Convoys	41
8	The Leisurely War	44
9	The Biggest Bag	51
10	Norway	53
11	The Wolf Packs	58
12	The Convoy Trade	67
13	Stirrings	81
14	Rays of Hope	84
15	Admiral Doenitz Moves West	97
16	Doenitz Puts on the Pressure	108
17	Enter America	119
18	U-Boats in the Mediterranean	128
19	Doenitz's War Against America	134
20	The Tide Slackens	147
21	Recasting the Defenses	152
22	Ebb Tide	160
23	North Atlantic Offensive	162
24	The Long, Long Trail of Losses	165
25	Victory Over the Escorts	171
26	The Jaws of Victory	176
27	The Big Switch	188
28	The Aggressive Convoys	197
29	Doenitz Contracts	201
30	Until the Bitter End	209
31	The Last U-Boat	218
	Afterword	220
	Chapter Notes	223
	Bibliography	231
	Index	235

Editorial Reviews

Outstanding

Booklist

Drawing on German, British, and American archives, this, like Hoyt's many other war books, is a crackling narrative. It is factual, fast-paced, and gripping. He brings history alive and is always fresh and never dull.

World War II History

The main show here is the series of great convoy battles, during one of which the Germans sank 141,000 tons of Allied shipping with the loss of only one U-boat! Shocking.--Publishers Weekly

Outstanding--Booklist

Drawing on German, British, and American archives, this, like Hoyt's many other war books, is a crackling narrative. It is factual, fast-paced, and gripping. He brings history alive and is always fresh and never dull.--World War II History

From the Publisher

Outstanding

Booklist