Scale Plastic & Rail

Start-Verlag U-Boot Im Focus Edition 6

 

 

Start-Verlag

Edition 6

 

Editor: Axel Urbanke

Pages: 52

Photos: 51 (3 in colour)

ISBN: 978-3-941437-06-7

Format: A4 soft cover (portrait)

16.80 Euro from directly from Luftfahrtverlag-Start

Product link: http://www.luftfahrtverlag-start.de/UBootEnglish/ubootenglish.html#UiF-EditionE06

 

 

This is a book that is new to me – BUT the author is not -  Axel Urbanke is a well known author/Historian through his work with the Luftwaffe Im Focus books and he's excellent Teil specials. I wasn’t aware that Axel did U-boat histories – but I am glad to know now that his books on the U-boats are every bit as good as his Luftwaffe series.

 

Axel produces A4 soft cover books with a small amount of pages but big on text – as it is relatively small and there is a lot of it for every picture. The text describes every picture in revealing detail, many many of these pictures are exclusive to this book and haven’t been seen before so the stories behind them really need to be told and Axel does this quite entertainingly. This book has text in German and English just side by side and sometimes it's interesting when you end up continuing to the wrong text! But I am not too intelligent so that's probably why.

 

One interesting facet in the start of this book is a small reader's forum, where they can add some comments on the books that have come before in the series as to improvements or amendments that need to be made – what an amazing step to invite people in to criticise your book ? well it shows that the author is serious about the accuracy of his books – enough even to let people correct him! An excellent move really lots can get lost in history and sometimes all the information isn’t always there at the time of print – Hats off to Axel it shows no arrogance on his behalf and gives his readers a real sense that the author listens to their feedback. Axel even asks if you have any contributions to make to send them to him – this is a real joint effort.

 

There are fifty one pictures in this book, of them three are coloured – many of these are half or full page pictures, now this is the only place I would think about making a change – with a subject like this  - U-boats - I would rather see a landscape style book than portrait. Then the pictures could be put across the page and if you had a taller picture you could just tilt the book. No real big deal just a little thing I think could be good (hey what do I know - I don’t publish books!) On to the contents of this issue now…

 

U-Boat in focus: U-404 – The “Viking Ship” on a Patrol with an Underwater Camera installed on the side of the boat. There are several pictures of the crewman leaning over to repair or adjust the camera, and some excellent pictures and a profile of the Viking longboat emblem on the coning tower of the boat.

 

Photos with a Story: The Forgotten Negatives – The Only Photos of U-215  - Several excellent pictures of this Submarine are in this book – that is surprising as these are the only real pictures of it in existence! These photos were discovered in a desk of a hotel in the Baltic in the middle of housecleaning – a truly amazing discovery! The pics are in great sharp condition and show the boat at sea and the origins of the three rolls of unexposed films were left in port by the boat's machinist's mate Hans Maier. Hans did not come back from patrol after his boat was sunk by the escort of the convoy of a ship they just sunk. Hans was listed as being lost in the Atlantic, and his photos remained uncovered until recently. Amazing stories.

 

Conning Tower: U-702 – The Boat with the Elephant’s Head. In this part there are some very interesting photos and a story on the U-702 which had a massive elephant on the conning tower, large photos illustrate the large elephant's head that went nearly down to the wave deflector. The photos of emblems are rare indeed as many boats weren’t photographed before something happened to them. This boat was most probably lost at sea to an enemy mine or enemy action, but it's fate is a mystery till this day as after train finished the boat sailed out to action and was never heard from again.

 

 

There are several pictures of training boats in colour, these are very rare to have any colour photos as the Kriegsmarine had many less surviving members with access at the war time to colour photos and slides

Burial at Sea on an Enemy Ship: this part of the book shows the funeral at sea by the Canadians on 'HCMS Nene' -  of the commander of the U-boat U-257. The Commander Oblt.z.S.Heinz Rabe. In a scene that could have come out of "Das Boot" the book explains U-257's short and unsuccessful  service life – from entry to service through unsuccessful patrols where they were hunted by aircraft and from raucous new year's eve celebrations to the hunting by the allies and their Naxos. Their surfacing after several hours of being stalked and the boat's destruction through the hands of the Canadian navy and Commander Rabe's death at sea – the commander went down with his ship. What an interesting story and  interesting to see it the burial at sea of one of the U-boat crewman's burial at sea from the deck of the HMCS Outremont -  photographs were provided by the Germans and their enemy. Interestingly 75% of submarines never got to torpedo or to sink an enemy vessel. Facts like this are all over this book – it's really a great read.

 

 

At the end of the book there are many photos of  Milchkuh or "Milch cows" the supply and tanker ships which kept the hunting U-boats on station longer and brought heavy repair and re-armament equipment – the pictures show the relaying of supplies while at sea – an increasingly dangerous task during the daytime as the war progressed. These pictures adorn the back pages as well.

 

 

 

 

So what do we think?

If you like U-boats or any German or naval history these books are great – inexpensive and accurate they are unique intimate portraits of life at and at sea.

Definitely recommended

 

 

Adam Norenberg

 

Many thanks to the great people at Luftfahrtverlag-Start for the review sample

 

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