Rating: 
Summary: Puts you right in the conning tower.
Review: Werner's memoir is, in the end, the very sad story of a man who lost everything for nothing. This book provides moment by moment accounts of convoy battles in the Atlantic from the "Happy Times" to the not so happy times.
You get a real sense of the u-boat manuevering both of the surface and while submerged. The accounts of the night surface attacks while Werner was an executive officer are particulary tense and exciting.
It is interesting to note, that whenever something goes wrong, Werner is quick to assign blame to someone else. This is not just confined to Speer, Doenitz, and Rossen, but also his own XO, and Chief.
Read with a prejudiced eye, when Werner is expressing his opinion about things which he could really have had no knowledge.
Rating:
Summary: A personal account of life in command of a U-Boat.
Review: This author commanded a series of German U-Boats throughout WW2 and this is his own personal story. The photographs are also from his own personal collection and are, therefore, unlikely to have been published elsewhere. The Maps, however, could so easily be improved.In Part One of this book, Herbert Werner takes the reader through the glorious years of success after success for both Germany and her U-Boat offensive. In Part Two, however, we reach that turning point in the war which he aptly describes as "Above us Hell." Finally, Part 3 is equally effectively described as "Disaster to Defeat." An interesting and well written account of the U-Boat war of WW2 - not only because the author actually took part, but also because he was fortunate enough to survive that war and relive his experiences so that we might read and learn. NM.
Rating: 
Summary: doubts on whether IRON COFFINS is true??
Review: I recently read Robert Kurson's SHADOW DIVERS (2004), an amazing book that tells of the discovery of a U-boat wreck off NJ more than 10 years ago. As part of the divers' attempt to identify the wreck (it took them 7 years to confirm the identity), they called Herbert Werner, author of Iron Coffins, for any info that could help. Here's how Kurson describes the call:
"'Sir, my name is Richard Kohler. I'm a diver. My colleagues and I found a U-boat off the New Jersey coast. Sir the reason I'm calling --'
'Everything I have to say I said in my book,' Werner stated in an even and measured tone. 'I have nothing more to say.'
'But if I can just ask -'
'Good-bye,' Werned said pleasantly, then hung up.
Kohler held the receiver to his ear for a minute before he could bring himself to replace it."
SHADOW DIVERS, p. 143.
That exchange brought to my mind a review of IRON COFFINS by an Amazon reader a few years back that has stuck in my head (I've put quotations marks around it - you can find it in the reviews but I include it here for your convenience):
"it's not the truth, July 16, 1998
Reviewer: A reader
I was fascinated by this book so I did some research and found that all of the subs that he said that he commanded had either been destroyed before haveing been completed,or simple didn't list him as commanding.It's a great book and I think he knows alot about German subs,but I couldn't find supporting evidance SORRY!"
The exchange that Kurson reported between Werner and the diver sure makes me wonder - I may be wrong, and I don't know Werner, but I would think that a former U-Boat commander who had written a book about his experiences would be interested in talking with a diver who'd just found a U-boat.
Anyway, I haven't done any research into the veracity of IRON COFFINS, and I wrote a rave review of it back in 1998, because it is an amazing book. Still - has anyone looked into whether the book might not be true? I'd be interested to find out. Please post an answer or any thoughts here - thanks.
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