U—BOATS — HISTORY, DEVELOPMENT AND EQUIPMENT 1914—1945

This book looks at the various classes of underwater boats together with their various weapons carried on them, and particularly addresses at the men who manned them and conducted this very protracted and hard fought campaign.

The main content has been divided into four majors parts, and the first part is covering the submarines in German naval service from earliest days, through its first great test in the First World War and to the historically famous clandestine campaign which took place between 1919 and 1935 and which was designed to keep U-boat technology and practice alive, despite the terms of the Versailles Treaty.

The second part of the volume is dealing with the major technological areas in the period 1935-1945, including the detailed descriptions of the various types of U-boat, their weapons, communications, sensors, propulsion systems, machinery and other aspects.

In the third part the author describes the campaigns, the men, their training, the sorry saga of Luftwaffe co-operation, submarine losses, and touches the end of the campaign. There is an appendix concluding the volume and devoted solely to the underwater boats that were lost at sea in the period 1939-1945.