I did this list up for the new guys who joined up at Wolves at war but I thought it might interest some of this motly crew as well, particulary those who may not be as familliar with U-boats or the Battle of the Altantic as with other Shperes of WW2 history. It isn't complete by any means but if you read any of the books below you can't go far wrong.

Before anyone says it: I know the U-boat Commanders handbook isn't on it. I forgot.

Anyway - happy reading!

General

Clay Blair.
Hitlers U-boat war: The Hunters 1939-1942
Hitlers U-boat war: The Hunted 1942-1945
Various Publishers and Editions. In print.

Huge, stupidly detailed and stunningly thourough, Blair's two headed opus is a brilliant study of the U-boat war from its inception to the bitter end. A great starting point for newcommers or fantastic reference for those who already know there way around the subject. Altogether, at nearly 2000 pages, this is a must read book!

Herbert A Wener.
Iron Coffins: A U-boat Commanders war, 1939-1945.
Cassel Military Paperback. In print. ISBN: 0304353302

Probably as famous as Das Boot amongst sub fans. Werner's account of life beneath the waves in the service of the Reich retains a constant feeling of claustrophobia and danger throughout. Enjoyable and interesting although not without its controversy. Great read.

Robert C Stern.
Battle Beneath the Waves.
Cassel military paperback. In print. ISBN: 030436228X

A collection of several U-boat stories and ancedotes covering the war. A lthough a bit hit and miss the collection is worth it for the section detailing Prien's little shindig at Scapa Flow.

Terrence Robertson
The Golden Horseshoe: The wartime career of Otto Kretschmer.
Greenhill books. Hardback. In print. ISBN: 185367558X Other editions available.

Biography of Germany's most sucessful WW2 U-boat ace from his first patrols through to his capture. Written by a veteran of Allied convoys, this is a fascinating book.

Gunther Prien
U-boat Commander.
Various publishers and editions. May no longer be in print but available second hand.

The man himself in his own words. Written before he was lost in 41 (Obviously, Very Happy ) This book discusses his greatest success in Scapa Flow and many other aspects of the U-boat War. Seen by many people now as propoganda it remains a fascinating read. Shouldn't be too hard to track down.

Karl Donitz
Memoirs: Ten years and Twenty Days.
Cassel military paperbacks. ISBN: 0304356867 Other editions available.

Donitz on himself. From the early days right up to his Ascension to Fuhrer on Hitler's death. An important book and one that should be read.

Wolfgang Hirschfeld
The Secret Diary of a U-boat
Cassel. ISBN: 0304354988 Other editons availabe. In print.

Hirschfeld was a radio operator in the U-boats and kept these secret and very verboten diaries throughout the war. Although not as detailed as other, similar books it still retains it's importance especially as it sees the war in slightly different light.

U-boat Ace: The Story of Wolfgang Lüth
Jordan Vause
Various editions. In print.

Biography of another Knights Cross winner covering his career up until his controversial end. great book.

Terry Hughes & John Costello
The Battle of the Atlantic
The Dial Press/James Wade.ISBN 0-8037-6454-2. In print.

Merten says: Highly readable account of the war in the Atlantic 1939-1945, including actions by U-boats and engagements by surface vessels. Loads of excellent pictures.

Andrew Williams
The Battle of the Atlantic
BBC Books. ISBN: 0563488638. Also Basic Books (2003)ISBN 0-465-09153-9 In print.

Accompanying book to the excellent BBC documentary series about the U-boat war. If you can get the DVD please do. Worth it for the recreations of Prien's Scapa Flow adventures.


Fiction

Lothar-Gunther Buchheim
Das Boot
Various Editions. About as in print as you can get.

What can you say? One of the most famous - and best - war novels ever written. It has everything; humour, horror, boredom, Exhuastion and more. If you don't already own this, what on earth are you doing here? Very Happy

Operations
Lawrence Patterson.
Hitler's Grey Wolves: U-boats in the Indian Ocean.
Publisher: Greenhill Books. ISBN: 1853676152. In print.[/b]

Interesting book which details an almost forgotten side of the U-boat war - the campaign in the far east. The book covers operations in the Indian ocean and the Pacific and discusses the U-boat-Waffes links with the Japanese.

Michael L. Hadley
U-boats Against Canada: German Submarines in Canadian Waters.
Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press. ISBN: 0773508015. In print.

Many of the Convoys that helped Britain fight the Nazi menace left from Canadian waters. This book covers an element of the war that was perhaps one of the most important of all.

Edwin P. Hoyt
U-Boats Offshore; When Hitler Struck America
Stein & Day (1978) ISBN 0-8128-2505-5. Probably Second hand

Merten says: An account of U-boat operations in U.S. waters in 1942-1943.


Construction and Engineering

Eberhard Rossler, Harold Erenberg
The U-boat: The Evolution and Technical History of German Submarines.
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicholson military.ISBN: 0304361208. In print.

Pretty comprehensive of the technical side of things. Also covers the development of the German Submarine pregram from WW1 onwards.


Allied ASW and Surface

Donald Macintyre

U-Boat Killer.
Publisher: Cassell. ISBN: 0304352357. In print. Other editions available.

One of my personal favourates. Donald Macintyre was a Destroyer skipper who became one of the Royal Navys leading ASW specialists of WW2 after serving with the likes of Johnny Walker. What can you say about a man who took care of both Schepke and 'Silent' Otto Kretschmer in one night during one of his first patrols as a CO?. Brilliant, brilliant book. Buy it now.

Terence Robertson
Walker, RN: Story of Captain Frederick John Walker
ISBN: 0330105183. Second hand.

The leading U-boat Killer of World War 2 is given a wonderful biography here that details everything from his early problems with Navy discipline to the awesome tactics that made him such a feared and deadly enemy. Walker died in '44 on the cusp of Allied victory in Europe from an aneurism. 'Johnny' Walker is one of the true heroes of the Royal Navy and this biography will more than reward the effort spent in tracking down a second hand copy.

Cicero,
A great list.

I would like to add...
Memoirs by - Dönitz, Karl Ten Years and Twenty Days
ISBN 0306807645
519 pages, 18 b&w photos

This book is one of the few books that will allow you to understand the German U-boat war as it was faught from the German side.

The Guardian I think best says it...
"The most distinguished of recent reminiscences on either the Allied or the German side. The author displays a powerful capacity of sustained concentration.

He writes with detachment and facility; he is both fair to his colleagues and his enemies, and possesses an effortless mastery of detail. He is, for a German officer, unusually honest in describing his relations with Hitler; and there is a refreshing lack of cant and fraud in his handling of the thorny problems of submarine warfare”


For me, this was one of those books that was impossible to put down.

Ok, a no-brainer:

Operation Drumbeat, by Michael Gannon
ISBN: 0060920882

Reads like a novel, but it's a goddamn documentary

Thanks for the list, (cut & pasted for reference).
I'm new to this subject, so haven't read much but I did enjoy
'Business in Great Waters' by John Terraine. Paperback 840 pages (November 1990)
Publisher: Mandarin
ISBN: 0749303875
This covers both u boat wars (ww1 & ww2) and is a very informative read.

I have "The Hunters and the Hunted" by Jochen Brennecke on the way. Anyone here read it? If so, what's your opinion of it?

Hey, I got that as a gift from my g/f. Sitting on my desk as I type it. Probably will be my next read...

Dan

My list of books:

Hitler's U-Boat War : The Hunters, 1939-1942 - Clay Blair
Hitler's U-Boat War: The Hunted, 1942-1945 - Clay Blair
U-Boat Operations of the Second World War, volume 2: U511 - UIT25 - Kenneth Wynn
U-Boat Operations of the Second World War, volume 1: U1 - U510 - Kenneth Wynn
U-Boat Command and the Battle of the Atlantic - Showell, Jak P. Mallman
U-Boats under the Swastika - Showell, Jak P. Mallman
Iron Coffins - Herbert A. Werner
Uboattwaffe, Marine - Kleinfampfverbaende 1939-1945 - Waldemar Trojca
The U-boat Wars - Edwin P. Hoyt
The Uboat War: The German Submarine service and the Battle of the Atlantic - David Westwood
Axis Submarine Sucesses of World War II - Jurgen Rohwer.
Memoirs: Ten years and Twenty days - Adm. Karl Doenitz
U-boat War in the Atlantic: 1939-1945 - H.M. Ministry of Defence (G. Hessler Ed.)
Business in Great Waters - John Terraine
The Battle of the Atlantic - Terry Hughes and John Costello

Some others worth reading:

Shadows on the Horizon
(WA Haskell, Caxton, h/b, 1998)
Story of U-175, culminating in the attack on HX-233 and the boat's sinking by USCGs Spencer & Duane - many dramatic pics of this action, with U-175 under fire after making it to the surface, and the boarding attempt in progress.

Grey Wolf, Grey Sea
(EB Gasaway, Futura p/b, 1975)
Story of U-124, told in a lively, third-person narrative.

U-Boats to the Rescue
(Léonce Peillard, Coronet p/b, 1976)
Dramatic account of the Laconia incident, with Hartenstein and others trying to rescue suvivors and being attacked by allied planes while towing lifeboats. Great read.

U-Boat 977
(Heinz Schaeffer, Tandem p/b 1975, now back in print)
Readable memoir, from training thru to escape to Argentina at the wars' end, schnorkelling much of the way. (In)famous for its bitter foreword by Nicholas Monserrat of "Cruel Sea" fame, which itself should be read, and re-read from time to time, by we gamers, lest we forget that war was not a noble game.

U-333 - Story of a U-Boat Ace
(Peter Cremer autobio, Triad p/b, 1986)
Notable for the author's incredible surface encounter with HMS Crocus and other narrow escapes.

Wrecks & Relics - U-297
(Richard Skinner, Historic Military Press, 2002)
Short but very well-illustrated booklet on the career and sinking (by Sunderland while schnorkelling) of this boat, and its location and inspection by divers in 2000. There's a full crew list and pics of some. The Sunderland didn't get credited with a kill and its crew died too; flying into a Co Donegal mountain weeks away from war's end. All rather poignant. There's another U-boat book in the series.

I take it no one's read this?

Isn't that book kind of newly published?

No, actually it's from the 1950s-60s era!

Yay I think I mixed it with something else...

Don't forget: Odyssey of a U-Boat Commander by E. Topp.

"Wolf" by Jordan Vause (ISBN: 1557508747 ).

The stories of some selected WWII U-Boat commanders, including Gunther Prien, Erich Topp and Wolfgang Lüth (on whom the author has also written a seperate title). Probably the highlight is the odyssey of Victor Oehrn which would make a fantastic movie. It also includes an interesting insight into Dönitz and his activities after he graduated from U-Boat fleet administration. Not being anything like an expert on the U-Boat war, I found it an excellent primer for further reading. It was a fascinating read for me and it has everything. It's well written and never dry. I thoroughly recommend it.

"One of Our Submarines" Edward Young

Synopsis
Commander Edward Young, a highly-decorated submarine commander, tells of four years' adventures in submarines.

U-505 by Daniel V. Gallery, a Rear Admiral USN(ret.) written in about 1956. I thought it might be a lot of BS but for only 1.00, what the Hades. Anyways, not too bad a read & even though there's tons of stuff I don't know, this added to the little bit of stuff I do know. One was baloons with strips of tinfoil dangling & then tied to pieces of wood which floated with the wind & gave the radar guys on the hunters a blip which they thought was a sub periscope on the screen. Never heard of that one. Also, when these hunter killer groups got even one real signal, the sub was almost doomed. They knew how fast it could go & how long it could stay down, & then just patroled that area with AC. When the sub surfaced, day or night, the AC attacked & radioed the position. One destryer would go in whilst a few more would stay back & give the sonar readings to the one doing the depth charging. I knew of this approach, he just made it more clear to me.
The author also give his opinion on a lot of WWII Navy stuff & where some of the Allied, & German powers, really screwed up.
FWIW,
Good Hunting!

A few more recommendations.

An excellent general history of the development of the submarine is \'Jane\'s Submarines: War Beneath the Waves from 1776 to the Present Day\' , by Robert Hutchinson.

Some more good books on the convoy battles, some of which are a bit hard to find now but all well worth tracking down.

'The critical convoy battles of March 1943 : the battle for HX.229/SC122', by Jürgen Rohwer. This is currently undeservedly out of print.

Another very readable view of the same battles is \'Convoy\' , by the excellent Martin Middlebrook.

A good overall history is \'The Atlantic Campaign\' , by Dan Van Der Vat.

The stories of two very different convoys.

'Convoy is to scatter', by Captain Jack Broome. Another author who's books are hard to find. He was in command of the escort destroyer Keppel escorting convoy PQ 17 when this order was issued.

'Arctic Victory: the Story of Convoy PQ18', by Peter C Smith.

And of course \'U-Boat War\' , by Lothar-Günther Buchheim. The factual book behind 'Das Boot', absolutely essential.

I loved this one:
"The Twighlight Of The U-Boats" by Bernard Edwards. A must read! It is chock full of first hand accounts and log book facts.

Any recommandations for the Pacific US sub ops?

Probably my two favorites are

Wahoo! The war Patrols of America's Most Famous WWII Submarine by O'Kane

Clear the Bridge: The War Patrols of USS Tang by O'Kane

Also

Thunder Below!: The USS Barb Revolutionizes Submarine Warfare in World War II by Fluckey

Hell at 50 Fathoms by Lockwood

Hellcats of the Sea by Lockwood

Through Hell and Deep Water by Lockwood

U.S. Submarine Attacks During WWII By Alden

Wake of the Wahoo by Sterling

Silent Victory by Blair

On the internet, check the patrol reports from this link. http://forums.frugalsworld.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=88161