Rating: 
Summary: Gripping!
Review: This book pulled me in and would not let go. I read it almost nonstop until It was done. Great historical account from the German perspective. Well written but not complicated. This is one worth reading!
Rating:
Summary: A classic book about the U-Boats
Review: This book is the classic account of one U-Boat captain and his wartime experiences. He began the war serving on a Minesweeper but after his graduation from the Naval Academy in Flensburg in 1941, he was assigned to a U-Boat. Over the next four years, he served on a number of U-Boats and ended the war as the Captain of U-953. Aside from dealing with his own harrowing and sometimes tragic wartime experiences, the author also provides us with an excellent eye-witness of the Battle of the Atlantic in general. Anyone wanting a better understanding of this aspect of the war from the German perspective will find this book very interesting.
Rating:
Summary: RIVETING AND EXPLOSIVE
Review: The personal account of Commander Werner removes the trappings of political agendas and bias that accompanies most World War II sagas. His account, albeit biased due to its single person perspective, provides an insight into the thinking of U-Boat Commanders, the Professionals, as opposed to U-Boat Commanders, puppets of the Third Reich. These Kriegsmarine members, as described by Werner, were men of tenacity, duty and honor.Werner also provides vivid detail of the sights, sounds and smells, faced by ordinary U-boat me. He piques the imagination with his poignant questions concerning the U-boat wonder weapons that were promised throughout the war, developed, but never materialized in the hands of the frontline U-boat crews. Why did the German navy not have access to these weapons, such as the Type XXI, when they were built? Finally, the explosive ending is the epxosure of the injustice meted-out by the French in forcing ex-sailors and soldiers of the German armed forces to enlist in the French Foreign Legion or perish. I would recommend reading accounts of the battle of Dien Bien Phu to fully appreciate the horror and calamity that Werner would have faced had he not escaped the French Foreign Legion.
Rating:
Summary: READ THIS BOOK!
Review: I first read "Iron Coffins" in high school in the early 1970's. I bought the first copy I could find and still have it. I reread it at least once a year and more often twice a year. It is that good! Well written,informative,maddening, and heartbreaking - it tells what war is really like. Read this book and then watch the long "Das Boot". You will find the wonderful movie even more interesting. Herbert Werner is reported to be living in Florida and I would very much like to talk an afternoon with him. Mr Werner must have 9 lives and 2 Guardian Angels. He will surely go to Heavon as he has served his time in hell.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome and shocking
Review: I have just finished this book and it's like condensing a lifetime into a few hours. The only other book I have read with a similar impact is The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer. Iron Coffins should be compulsory reading for anyone fortunate enough to live in a time when air and food are in plentiful supply and a depth charge is something that one can only see in a museum. My heartfelt thanks to Herbert Werner for writing this incredible account.
Rating:
Summary: The Definitive U-Boat Book
Review: Iron Coffins is by far the best account of submarine life that I have found to this date. I am an ex-submariner and yet I can only imagine what unspeakable fear and adversity these men had to overcome in order to fufill their missions. The book takes the reader through the initial successes and the ultimate failure of the German U-Boat program as seen through the eyes of one of the few men who has lived through the entire war in a German sub. Personal tragedy and human frailty are evident throughout the book as is phenomonal courage and dedication.
A must read for WWII buffs and U-Boat enthusiasts.
Rating:
Summary: The best WWII book made!
Review: This book goes beyond Das Boot and shows more detail and reality.
It is a great source of history and is as good or better read than any fiction thriller I've ever read.
Rating:
Summary: Herbert Werner - Incredible War Life Story
Review: This is my all time favorite military history book I have read in my life!! Herbert Werner's life story is gripping and compelling with incredible real life accounts of daily life and death struggles as a U-boat commander. Great details of battle actions. This guy truely had "9 lives". How he ever survived was a miracle.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent first-hand account
Review: After having read Clay Blair's encyclopedic but souless account of the war in the Atlantic, I wanted a more personal story and Iron Coffins doesn't disappoint. Filled with many great details about what life aboard a UBoat was like and what it was like to be on a war patrol, Werner really really brings the story to life. The progression of the UBoat's struggles from happy times to almost certain death set against the backdrop of ongoing the destruction of German cities he finds everytime a patrol ends (and his dogged belief that victory remained around the corner despite all evidence to the contrary) creates a vivid picture of the latter years of the war. The books only real flaw is the limited number of patrols in which Werner took part.
Rating:
Summary: A Must-Have WWII Book!!!
Review: This book is a fantastic tale of what it was like to be on a U-Boat in World War II. Werner keeps you on the edge of your seat as he tells his story. You get a first hand look at life on a U-boat, the tensions these men faced was unreal. From his first assignment, where his U-boat sank to the bottom of the ocean, to the desperation tactics used by the Nazis at the end of the war, there isn't one page of material that disappoints. I love learning about submarines and of WWII, and this book gives me the best of both worlds. Without a doubt one of the better history books I've read in a long time.
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