On a sweltering day in August 1906 U-1, or Unterseeboot 1, meaning underwater boat, was lifted into Kiel's waters for trials; 100 hundred years later Kiel still witnesses the launching of U-boats, modern submarines with fuel cell propulsion systems, built for navies worldwide. In the years in between Germany fought two world wars, in which the U-boat almost defeated the Allies. --The U-boat was one of the most potent weapons of the 20th century, and here Mallmann Showell, perhaps the world's leading U-boat historian, explains how it was developed and designed and then deployed to wreak havoc in European waters and further afield in the Atlantic and the Far East. This is not a dry technical book but a work that looks behind the scenes at the men who built and fought in them. Weapons systems, operational areas, bases, builders and fleet organisation are covered, and as well as dealing with the world wars, the author brings the story up to date with the third, latest, generation of U-boats. The text is augmented by over 300 images, many never published before. --Publisher description.

Just hours after World War II was declared, Germany struck its first blow, firing without warning on the passenger liner Athenia. The British ship was loaded with Americans, Canadians, and Europeans attempting to cross the Atlantic before the outbreak of war. As the ship sank, 1,306 were rescued but 112 people were lost, including thirty Americans. This account of the disaster, based on new research, tells a dramatic story of tragedy and triumph, as historian Francis Carroll chronicles the survivors' experiences and explains how the incident shaped policy in the U.S., UK, and Canada. For Britain, it was seen as a violation of international law and convoys were sent to protect shipping. In Canada, Athenia's sinking rallied support to go to war. In the United States, it exposed Germany as a serious threat and changed public opinion enough to allow the country to sell munitions and supplies to Britain and France.

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details of the roles of individual U-boat crew members with extensive first-hand reports, many drawn from previously unpublished oral histories.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.

A Washington Post Notable Book In March 1941, after a year of devastating U-boat attacks, the British War Cabinet turned to an intensely private, bohemian physicist named Patrick Blackett to turn the tide of the naval campaign. Though he is little remembered today, Blackett did as much as anyone to defeat Nazi Germany, by revolutionizing the Allied anti-submarine effort through the disciplined, systematic implementation of simple mathematics and probability theory. This is the story of how British and American civilian intellectuals helped change the nature of twentieth-century warfare, by convincing disbelieving military brass to trust the new field of operational research.

The U-boats constituted a serious threat to North American security and a major challenge to coastal and convoy defence. Hadley reveals the military and political impact on Canada of in-shore submarine warfare and vibrantly documents the successful German strategy of deploying daring long-range solo sorties to pin down the enemy close to home.

U-Boat Hunter is the story of a young naval officer assigned to protecting Atlantic convoys from German submarines. Sixteen-year-old Peter Rogers joins an escort fleet in the North Atlantic where British convoys are suffering horrific losses from enemy U-boats. In this exciting tale, readers share in the trials and tribulations of his duties, the constant tension, the bitter cold, mountainous seas - and the moment when he and his father's captor come face to face. Vividly imagined and historically accurate, readers are taken on a first-hand journey of danger and peril.

A deeply researched and engaging account of the use of U-Boats in the First World War. The focus touches on both diplomatic and economic aspects as well as the tactical and strategic use of the U-boats. The book also examines the role played by US president Woodrow Wilson and his response to American shipping being sunk by U-boats and how that ultimately forced his hand to declare war on Germany.

This book takes a fresh look at the undersea war as a whole and all the complex factors bearing on the campaign, only one of which was convoy. Its analysis is original, and its conclusions thought-provoking – an important contribution to the naval history of the Great War.

A very new weapons system, the lurking submarine with its self-propelled torpedoes fired from ambush changed the complexion of naval warfare forever. Both warships and merchant ships were at risk. In 1914 U-boats demonstrated their capability to sink major warships. During 1915 they turned their attention to merchant ships and began to sink or capture them in wholesale lots. U-boats nearly won the First World War for Germany by forcing Great Britain into peace negotiations in late 1917. U-boats sank or captured over 6,100 ships during WW I. In April 1917 England had only six weeks grain supply left, and apparently had no adequate way to deal with the unrestricted U-boat offensive that Germany unleashed in February of that year. Submarine Operational Effectiveness in the 20th Century deals with the first strategic submarine campaign and its outcome. It goes on to outline submarine development by major nations during the 1920s and 1930s, including submarine use during the Spanish Civil War. It ends in 1939, on the eve of World War Two, a war in which two massive submarine campaigns would be waged: the first by Nazi Germany against the Allies; and the second by the United States against the Empire of Japan.