Rating: 
Summary: A Must Read for WW2 history buffs
Review: This book and its companion volume are the definitive history of the German U-Boat campaign. This book examines the initial more successful period of the campaign from 1939 to 1942, the second volume examines the defeat of the U-Boats. What Blair does is to examine every submarine log and the reports sent to U-Boat headquarters. These he then compares to allied logs and shipping manifesto to work out what occurred with every encounter in the theatre. There have been previous histories of the campaign which have been mainly a narrative. In general terms the story is that Germany started the war with a very small number of submarines around 30. The mechanics of submarine warfare are that this translated into a small number of boats in action at any one time. Some boats were used for training, and the period of time taken to move into the battle zone meant that most boats were not on station for long. After the fall of France the number of boats started to increase and the availability of French ports lessened the travel times. During the later part of 1940 and during 1941 the Germans were able to achieve some success. This was aided by a shortage of escort vessels after France left the war. When America entered the war, U-boats moved to the American coast and targeted oil tankers. A large number were sunk in what was known as operation Drum Beat. Blair analyses these operations and comes up with some remarkable findings. Those findings are basically that the U-Boat war never came close to threatening supply to England. The reasons for this are that even at the height of operation Drum Beat the movement of oil and other commodities was never even slowed. America was able to use its rail system to substitute for coastal shipping and easily offset any loses. American and British losses were never such that shipping could not be replaced. The book might come across as slightly dry to some and certainly does not have the feel of a battle narrative. Despite that it is an outstanding history of an important campaign.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, though odd choice of title
Review: This book is superbly written and thoroughly researched - quite an achievement. Blair details nearly every U-Boat encounter taking place in the first few years of the war, as well as nearly every attempt by the allies to stop them - including much information on radar, sonar and Enigma. I recommend this book to anyone who has a serious interest in U-Boats. The book includes limited technical data on the boats themselves - it is more focused on operations and strategies. About 750 pages with about 12 pages of well-chosen plates featuring the main personalities and types of boats. The point of the book (shown empirically and in great detail) is that the allies were really never as threatened by the "U-Boat Menace" as legend suggests. One thing that strikes me as curious, however, is the choice of title: the book is written almost exclusively from Donitz's perspective. Hitler is mentioned only occasionally and primarily as a siphon constantly diverting precious resources away from "Donitz's U-Boat War".
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