Lawrence Paterson is an author and historian.

Fritz-Julius Lemp's tragic sinking of the Athenia in a Second U-Boat Flotilla boat opened Germany's U-boat war against England. The following six years of bitter combat found the flotilla at the forefront of distant operations. Leading the attack, Legendary commanders such as Albrecht Achilles, Werner Hartenstein and Reinhard Hardegen littered the Atlantic and Indian Oceans with the twisted steel of sunken ships. Drawn extensively from various war diaries and veterans' personal reminiscences, the Second U-Boat Flotilla describes the tumultuous fortunes of the most successful unit of Karl Donitz's Grey Wolves.

Formed in 1935, First U-Boat Flotilla operated against Hitler's enemies from the very earliest stage of the war through to September 1944 when disbanded amid the flames of Brest during the US siege. Over seventy-five per cent of operational U-boats were lost as the Allies' counter-measures and code-breaking successes took ever greater effect. This fascinating work records the Flotilla's successes and disasters in detail.

An exceptional figure in the history of the German Navy, Wolfgang Luth was one of only seven men in the Wehrmacht to win Germany's highest combat decoration, the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords, and Diamonds. At one time or another he operated in almost every theater of the undersea war, from Norway to the Indian Ocean, and became the second most successful German U-boat ace in World War II, sinking more than 220,000 tons of merchant shipping. A master in the art of military leadership, Luth was the youngest man to be appointed to the rank of captain and the youngest to become commandant of the German Naval Academy. Nevertheless, his accomplishments were overshadowed by those of other great aces, such as Prien, Kretschmer, and Topp. The publication of this book in hardcover in 1990 marked the first comprehensive study of Luth's life. Jordan Vause corrects the long neglect by providing an entertaining and authoritative biography that places the ace in the context of the war at sea. This new paperback edition includes corrections and additional information collected by the author over the past decade.

One of WWII's pivotal events was the capture of U-505 on June 4, 1944. The top secret seizure of this massive Type IX submarine provided the Allies with priceless information on German technology and innovation. After the war U-505 was transported to Chicago, where today 1,000,000 visitors a year pass through her at the Museum of Science and Industry. Hunt and Kill offers the first definitive study of U-505. The chapters cover her construction, crew and commanders, combat history, general Type IX operations, naval intelligence, the eight fatal German mistakes that doomed the boat, and her capture, transportation, and restoration for posterity. The contributors to this fascinating volume--a Who's Who of U-boat historians--include: Erich Topp (U-Boat Ace, commander of U-552); Eric Rust (Naval Officers Under Hitler); Timothy Mulligan (Neither Sharks Nor Wolves); Jak Mallman Showell (Hitler's U-boat Bases); Jordan Vause (Wolf); Lawrence Patterson (First U-boat Flotilla); Mark Wise (Enigma and the Battle of the Atlantic); Keith Gill (Curator, Museum of Science and Industry), and Theodore Savas (Silent Hunters; Nazi Millionaries).

For four years the German U-boats of U-FlottilleFlandern would become a serious threat to theomnipotence of the Royal Navy and its fleet. By theend of the war they had managed to sink a totalof 2,554 Allied ships, totaling 2.5 million tons ofshipping. The Royal Navy put everything it had at itsdisposal to defeat the U-boats. Mines, steel nets, patrolcraft, Q-ships, aircraft, airships, convoys, espionageand specially equipped salvage units had to eliminatethe activities of the U-boat. As a consequence, thesecountermeasures caused the loss of 80% of the U-boatswhich were stationed in the Flemish ports.Underwater archaeologist and naval historianTomas Termote visited the wrecks of many U-boatsand has unraveled many of their secrets. He also writesabout life on board the U-boats, their importancein the war and the heavy losses on both sides. Forthe first time a detailed insight in this unique part ofhistory is given with an account of the fate of everyU-boat of the fleet. Illustrated with underwater colourphotographs of the wrecks, drawings of the sites andartefacts which helped identify unidentified sites,including that of UB-88, which ended up after the warin US waters where she was paraded in every big porton the US East coast, and sailed right up north alongthe West coast where it ended its life after being sunkoff San Diego.

This series looks at the cutting edge of war, and deals with units capable of operating independently in the forefront of battle. Each volume examines the chosen unit's origins and history, its organisation and order of battle, its battle history theatre by theatre, its insignia and its markings.

Between September 1941 and May 1944, the Germans sent sixty-two U-boats into the Mediterranean. To get there, the boats had to pass through the Strait of Gibraltar?the British-held entry point, where nearly a third of them were sunk or forced to turn back. Of the submarines that made it into the clear, calm waters of the Mediterranean, not one of them ever made it back into the Atlantic: They were all either sunk in battle or scuttled by their own crews. In U-Boats in the Mediterranean, Lawrence Paterson puts the campaign into its strategic context, showing how it coordinated with Rommel's Afrika Korps in the Western Desert and the U-boat battle in the Atlantic. He describes the weapons and tactics the commanders used to try to overcome the difficulties of operating in the shallow waters and and how increasing Allied dominance of the air took its heavy toll. Paterson details the U-boat triumphs such as the sinking of HMS Ark Royal, and the torpedoing of the battleship HMS Barham, which provided one of the best-known images of the Second World War at sea. Making full use of firsthand accounts by veterans, official German records, and Allied archives, the book puts a spotlight on a neglected aspect of the U-boat war and shows the courage and fortitude of the men on both sides of this savage conflict.

On the eve of Germany's surrender in May 1945, Grossadmiral Karl Dönitz commanded thousands of loyal and active men of the U-boat service. Still fully armed and unbroken in morale, enclaves of these men occupied bases stretching from Norway to France, where cadres of U-boat men fought on in ports that defied besieging Allied troops to the last. At sea U-boats still operated on a war footing around Britain, the coasts of the United States and as far as Malaya. Following the agreement to surrender, these large formations needed to be disarmed - often by markedly inferior forces - and the boats at sea located and escorted into the harbours of their erstwhile enemies. Neither side knew entirely what to expect, and many of the encounters were tense; in some cases there were unsavoury incidents, and stories of worse. For many Allied personnel it was their first glimpse of the dreaded U-boat menace and both sides were forced to exercise considerable restraint to avoid compromising the terms of Germany's surrender. One of the last but most dramatic acts of the naval war, the story of how the surrender was handled has never been treated at length before. This book uncovers much new material about the process itself and the ruthless aftermath for both the crews and their boats.

Lawrence Paterson has pieced together the technical details of the roles of individual U-boat crew members with extensive first-hand reports, many drawn from previously unpublished oral histories. These experiences build up a picture of life undersea.