This book gives a unique combined account of the Battle of the Atlantic from both the German & British viewpoints. The author, Jak P. Mallmann Showell combines the memoirs of Admiral Karl Donitz & the Admiralty Monthly Anti-Submarine Reports which together gives possibly the most complete contemporary account of the desperate struggle in the North Atlantic during WWII.

Ton Class Association

A most interesting book and well worth its place on the bookshelf.

Marine News

The basic idea of this book is excellent. The author takes Dönitz's memoirs and compares them to the wartime British reports on the U-boat war to see how differently the two sides viewed the progress of the conflict. There are also extracts from special reports on individual weapons as they were introduced and on the radar and radio wars.

The result is a fascinating and very valuable contribution to the historical literature on the U-boat war, giving us a clear idea of how the British saw things at the time.

Here is my review of European Resistance in WW2 edited by Cooke and Shepherd I have included the links I have also tweeted the review

historyofwar.org

Good Comparative History. Donitz, U-boats, Conveys is an interesting and well researched book by Jak P. Mallmann Showell that gives two sides of the same story. This is a fantastic read especially for those who have a naval history interest or students of the sea battles of the Second World War. This book uses Donitz’s own memoirs along with the reports from the Admiralty in London that give a parallel view of the U-boat war that was raging around the commercial supply routes to and from the UK. This added to the insightful commentary provided by the author makes for interesting reading and also helps to shed light on important areas of war that is often forgotten until too late how to cut the supply lines.

Paul Diggett

Donitz commanded the German submarine force through WWII, coming close to winning the Battle of the Atlantic. As a naval commander, he was outstanding and took great interest in his submarine crews.

What the author has done very successfully is to merge and compare the Donitz memories with the British Monthly Anti-Submarine Reports. It is a happy accident that these secret Admiralty reports failed to be returned to the Admiralty at the end of the war to be destroyed. One set survived in the archives of the Royal Navy Submarine Museum at Gosport.

The book includes a monochrome photo plate section and provides a unique review of the submarine war from both sides. Any reader with an interest in WWII and submarines cannot afford to miss this book.

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