I enjoyed the book, Lou. It was a good read, engaging and held my attention. The book is almost entirely about his submarine service, but does cover a little of his childhood at various places throughout the book and some of his love interests. He describes many aspects of the submarine and submarine warfare in depth, mostly centering on the command areas of the boat. He talks of the time in port, mostly in France, but he did spend a good bit of time in the Baltic during training. He started out as a cadet in 1940 and by 1944 was captain of U-953, the last U-boat to leave the French ports during the fall of France. He lost one boat to air attacks while still in the bay at Brest. He description of submarine sea battles and the losses of of other boats were well written. He remained a patriotic German throughout the war, but did not go out of his way to try to convince the reader he wasn't a Nazi, which, given his past, family history,and service branch was not very likely. He was not apologetic about his service but also did not try to dismiss it or interject any politics. I can't compare it to Operation Drumbeat, as I read it 25 or so years ago, but I do remember I liked that book, also. It had a different style of writing. Iron Coffins was more casual, less academic, I guess. My copy of the book had a good section of photographs of him on the boats. How they survived the war, given all that happened to him and his family, is amazing. There are also a few diagrams and charts. Overall, a excellent read. 9/10
As I said earlier, I was reading this book. I finished it yesterday. I read rather slowly and not continually as I have other commitments. I am not trying to sell this book for the authors, but all I can say is that if you buy it, I believe you will consider it money well spent. Very good would be an understatement.
I just finished with "Combat Crew", about B-17s. It's the only time I've read about the German fighters using rockets and heared from one of our guys what it was like to be on the receiving end.
I'm struggling through this one at present. It is just not holding my interest. Reads like a poorly written PhD dissertation. I found an old copy of Shane in my daughter's books. I may read it instead.
I'm reading this great little book now. It's chock full of small bits of oral histories from the members of the unit. It covers how they heard about the unit, how they were recruited, the training, etc. Right now they've just got to Italy, and I'm looking forward to reading more every night when I go to bed. Next up is a book about Col. Robert T. Frederick, their commander.
Just finished "POLAND'S STRUGGLE-Before, During and After the Second World War" by Andrew Rawson. It's the history of Poland from about 1917 to the end of 1990 when freedom was restored. This book is a very terse but comprehensive look the history of a country that, at most, has been a side-bar in other histories. Its "just the facts, Mam" style means that it's rather dry reading but gives one an idea about what was happening in Eastern Europe during those turbulent years. Am now re-reading "Animal Farm" by Orwell.
Sergeant John Robert Slaughter's Omaha Beach and Beyond. Slaughter served in the 116th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division. BTW, I've met Craig Symonds and got him to be a speaker at our Civil War conference which theme was coastal defense.
Did you not ever see the magazine rack in a grocery store? And the Giant even sells a good selection of paperbacks. This is the Giant food store chain. Owned by Ahold/Delhaize which is headquartered in the Netherlands. But most all grocery stores here sell magazines and in this case what is called a trade softcover.
I've seen them at Kroegers. I think they're designed for daughters/mothers to buy for kids/husbands. Not that men don't do shopping, but they're positioned by the cashier for impulse buying.