Andrew Williams has presented us with a true gift in historical writing - a narrative account of the U-boat menace against merchant shipping in the North Atlantic during the Second World War.

The author taken words from the mouths and memoirs of the participants and affected people to develop a fascinating portrayal of the war at sea between the German U-Boats and the merchant marine vessels of Britain and America.

Starting with the creation of Donitz's fleet and progressing through the high times (or, as the sailors called them, the "happy times") of the U-boat war, on to the final defeat of the German navy, this book is one not to be missed. The boat touches on such important topics as Operation Drumbeat and the Enigma machine, both of which were critical to the success (or failure) of the U-boat war.

The book does not focus primarily on life on a submarine, as might be expected, but instead truly focuses on the war within the war - the German effort to isolate Britain and starve her by sinking ships faster than the Allied forces could build them, and the Allies' desperate efforts to prevent the Germans from achieving this goal. In line with this effort, Williams brings the participants in this war back to life with his choice of utilizing their words and memoirs.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the naval war in the Atlantic ocean or the reason why the Allies were finally able to defeat the German naval threat and go on to win the Second World War against the Germans.

This not a good book

It's a good book!It gives you a real description of the Royal Navy during the American Revolution but lacks of descriptions of the Navy Ships; besides this detail,I recomend this book.

This book is terrible, it costs $4

This book examines the Battle of the Atlantic from the viewpoint of code-breaking and its influence on the struggle against the U-Boats. The author takes the stand that code-breaking, radio-intercepts, and radio-direction finding were the be-all and end-all of the conflict. Very little of the other technologies and tactics are present in this book. Although the radio intercepts did play a role, they were not the decisive factor in battle. It is unfortunate that more attention was not paid to these aspects. All-in-all, therefore, it makes a meager contribution to military history.