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.

This volume, originally published in 1987, fills a gap in a neglected area. Looking at the entire war in the Mediterrean, the volume examines the war from the viewpoint of all the important participants, making full use of archives and manuscript collections in Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Austria and the United States. A fascinating mosaic of campaigns emerges in the Adriatic, Straits of Otranto and the Eastern Aegean. The German assistance to the tribes of Libya, the threat that Germany would get her hands on the Russian Black Sea Fleet and use it in the Mediterreanean, and the appearance and influence of the Americans in 1918 all took place against a background of rivalry between the Allies which frustrated the appointment of Jellicoe in 1918 as supreme command at sea in a role similar to that of Foch on land.

A historian examines the U.S. Navy’s efforts to stop Axis forces from attacking Allied merchant ships providing supplies during World War II. During the Second World War, a battle was waged to cut the lifeline of food and armaments sailing across the Atlantic from North America. It evolved into a far-ranging conflict beyond the North Atlantic and the eastern seaboard of the United States. It covered the frigid waters off Iceland down to the warm waters of Florida, through the Caribbean Sea, across the ocean to the Bay of Biscay, the Mediterranean Sea, down to Africa, and across the South Atlantic to Brazil’s southern tip. Nazi Germany’s efforts to deny supplies from reaching Europe came at a high price, losing 783 U-boats and approximately 30,000 men between 1939 and 1945, with land and carrier-based naval air units sinking 83 German submarines of the 159 sunk by American aircraft. Axis forces saw their submarines targeted as well in the Atlantic, with Imperial Japanese submarine I-52 and the Italian Archimede falling victim to American naval aircraft armed with depth bombs or acoustic homing torpedoes. All the dramatic action is captured in Sighted Sub, Sank Same. This book contains over 200 color and black and white photographs, as well as personal interviews, interrogation reports, personal correspondence, and after-action reports, weaving a fascinating history about the naval air campaign in the Atlantic, Caribbean, and Mediterranean Theaters during World War II. Praise for Sighted Sub, Sank Same “Richly illustrates the navy’s battle for the Atlantic from the air.” —The National WWII Museum “Gives the reader a real feeling of that relentless hunt.” —Baird Maritime

This superbly researched book gives a complete account of the war in the Mediterranean on, above and beneath the sea up until Italy's armistice in September 1943. Written with full access to Italian sources, it not only provides a detailed and fascinating narrative of the entire naval war, but also sets the individual actions fully in their strategic context for both the Axis and the Allies. Topics include: • The complex and distrustful relationship between the Italians and their German allies which culminated in open conflict after the Italian armistice in 1943. • The battle for Malta, and that island's vital strategic role threatening Axis supply lines to North Africa. • The exploits of the Italian human torpedoes of the X MAS flotilla, which threatened to change the balance of power in the Mediterranean. This book is essential reading for all those interested in one of the major naval theaters of the Second World War.

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.

This superbly researched book gives a complete account of the war in the Mediterranean on, above and beneath the sea up until Italy's armistice in September 1943. Written with full access to Italian sources, it not only provides a detailed and fascinating narrative of the entire naval war, but also sets the individual actions fully in their strategic context for both the Axis and the Allies. Topics include: • The complex and distrustful relationship between the Italians and their German allies which culminated in open conflict after the Italian armistice in 1943. • The battle for Malta, and that island's vital strategic role threatening Axis supply lines to North Africa. • The exploits of the Italian human torpedoes of the X MAS flotilla, which threatened to change the balance of power in the Mediterranean. This book is essential reading for all those interested in one of the major naval theaters of the Second World War.

Reprint of the account of WWII submarine operations in the Caribbean, originally published by Paria Pub. Co., Trinidad in 1988, with a new (one page) foreword. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The Sound of Music endeared Georg von Trapp (1880?1947) and his singing family to the world, and it also showed how desperately the Nazis wanted Captain von Trapp for their navy. In To the Last Salute we learn why. Trapp?s own story of his exploits as a submarine commander during the First World War is as exciting as it is instructive, bringing to stirring life a little-known chapter in the naval history of that war. In his many guises, Trapp describes life as captain of Austro-Hungarian U-boats in the Mediterranean and Adriatic seas, emerging by turn as the Imperial Austrian naval officer, the witty observer of international politics, and the indefatigable and ultimately heartbroken patriot opposing the Allied enemy. He relates deadly duels with submarine sweepers, narrow escapes and excruciatingly close calls, and the spectacular sinking of cargo and war ships?all while maintaining a keen sense of the camaraderie of seamen from every corner of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Trapp?s story, in English for the first time, offers a rare combination of human interest, historical insight, and true life-and-death adventure.

The accepted historical narrative of the Second World War predominantly assigns U-boats to the so-called 'Battle of the Atlantic', almost as if the struggle over convoys between the new world and the old can be viewed in isolation from simultaneous events on land and in the air. This has become an almost accepted error. The U-boats war did not exist solely between 1940 and 1943, nor did the Atlantic battle occur in seclusion from other theatres of action. The story of Germany's second U-boat war began on the first day of hostilities with Britain and France and ended with the final torpedo sinking on 7 May 1945. U-boats were active in nearly every theatre of operation in which the Wehrmacht served, and within all but the Southern Ocean. Moreover, these deployments were not undertaken in isolation from one another; instead they were frequently interconnected in what became an increasingly inefficient German naval strategy. This fascinating new book places each theatre of action in which U-boats were deployed into the broader context of the Second World War in its entirety while also studying the interdependence of the various geographic deployments. It illustrates the U-boats' often direct relationship with land, sea and aerial campaigns of both the Allied and Axis powers, dispels certain accepted mythologies, and reveals how the ultimate failure of the U-boats stemmed as much from chaotic German military and industrial mismanagement as it did from Allied advances in code-breaking and weaponry.

“Describ[es] the Type VII and its place in the history of warfare . . . probably the finest book on German submarines of WWII available in print.”—Firetrench First conceived in the mid–1930s, the Type VII was still in production in the closing stages of the Second World War a decade later. Subject to continuous improvement through six major variants and with around 650 completed, it was built in larger numbers than any other submarine design in history. It formed the backbone of the Kriegsmarine’s campaign against merchant shipping for the whole of the war, and in terms of tonnage sunk was by far the most successful U-boat type. This encyclopedic work combines a technical description of the type in all its variations with a history of its development and an overview of its most significant operations—especially those convoy battles that were to have a crucial impact on the evolution of the design and its equipment. A particular attraction of the book is the comprehensive visual coverage—photographs of virtually every aspect of design, construction, fittings and shipboard life; highly detailed general arrangement plans and close-up scale drawings; and, with modelmakers in mind, a stunning collection of full-color three-dimensional illustrations of every external feature and variant of the boats. There have been many books on U-boats reflecting an enduring public interest so any new offering has to be special. With its unique concentration of information and illustrative reference, Type VII is unrivalled. “A comprehensive history of the Kriegsmarine’s most potent weapon . . . includes detailed modelmakers’ plans together with over 320 photographs.”—Maritime Advisor