The U-boat war, 1939-1945
(Book)

This new book from Ian Baxter delves into an important topic surrounding WWII. The focus is U-boats (untersee-boot, or "undersea boat") and their campaign against Allied shipping during the course of WWII. Germany constructed an impressive 1171 U-boats in the war years. Such was the significance of this deadly battle for the seas that the Allies lost more than 50,000 seamen and 15 million tons of shipping from 1939-45. Indeed, particularly early on in the war, German submarines created a stranglehold on the Atlantic that starved Great Britain of much-needed supplies. However, as the tide turned, submariners found they had become the hunted, with 319 U-boats sunk between June 1944 and May 1945 alone. Nearly 40,000 German submariners lost their lives in this desperate battle.