Sous-marins (jusqu'à 1918) - Allemagne : livres - histoire

U Boats were the scourge of the seas for Allied shipping during both World Wars - almost bringing Britain to the brink of starvation on several occasions.
This book contains unseen photographs taken by German submarine crew and captains during each war. The World War One selection features a submariner's photos of U-25, an early German U-boat. They belonged to WO Friedrich Pohl who served on U-boats SM-25 and SMU-33. There are many photos of the U-boat itself, crew on deck and attacks on Norwegian merchant ships with the surface gun. U-25 was launched 12 July 1913, sank a total of 21 ships, 14,126 tons and surrendered to France 23 February 1919.

The World War Two photos include images from an original WW2 U-Boat commander's photo album. It belonged to Kapitan Leutnant Herbert Bruninghaus. As a U-Boat navigator, he served on the famous U-38 under ace Heinrich Liebe. Herbert later went on to command three U Boats of his own - U-6, U-148 and U-1059.
There are also original images from a Kriegmarine officer's photo album (unfortunately unnamed). It includes photos of Commander Prien's U-47 returning to Kiel after attacks at Scapa Flow.

For four years the German U-boats of U-Flottille Flandern would become a serious threat to the omnipotence of the Royal Navy and its fleet. By the end of the war they had managed to sink a total of 2,554 Allied ships, totaling 2.5 million tons of shipping.

The Royal Navy put everything it had at its disposal to defeat the U-boats. Mines, steel nets, patrol craft, Q-ships, aircraft, airships, convoys, espionage and specially equipped salvage units had to eliminate the activities of the U-boat.
As a consequence, these countermeasures caused the loss of 80% of the U-boats which were stationed in the Flemish ports.

Underwater archaeologist and naval historian Tomas Termote visited the wrecks of many U-boats and has unraveled many of their secrets. He also writes about life on board the U-boats, their importance in the war and the heavy losses on both sides.
For the first time a detailed insight in this unique part of history is given with an account of the fate of every U-boat of the fleet.

Illustrated with underwater colour photographs of the wrecks, drawings of the sites and artefacts which helped identify unidentified sites, including that of UB-88, which ended up after the war in US waters where she was paraded in every big port on the US East coast, and sailed right up north along the West coast where it ended its life after being sunk off San Diego.

Obwohl bereits lange vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg an Tauchbooten gebastelt wurde und in den Jahren vor Kriegsausbruch endlich auch praxistaugliche U-Boote international zur Verfügung standen, gewannen sie militärisch erst ab 1914 an Bedeutung - und das sprunghaft, ganz besonders im deutschen Kaiserreich.

Robert Rosentreter dokumentiert in fesselnder Weise die Entwicklung dieser unsichtbaren Waffe aus der Tiefe, die in der Hand der kaiserlichen Marine zum Schrecken der alliierten Gegner wurde.

German submarine operations in the First World War had an inauspicious start, with the U-boats having apparently no role to play in the war at sea. However by February 1915 their task was clear: a blockade of the United Kingdom.
This important book contains a complete history of the German Uboat campaign throughout the First World War and shows in great detail how great the threat to the Atlantic logistics and, later, personnel traffic was.

The British Admiralty failed to appreciate this threat, and the Germans took full advantage of this, until the convoy system was finally applied in 1917, on the insistence of British Prime Minister Lloyd George.
Importantly the book gives details of both overall strategy and individual boat tactics, and is one of the few such books generally available.
In addition appendices look at the success of the convoy system and give a history of German submarine design 1904-1914. There are also details of German submarine construction and losses, German 'Aces' and merchant ship sinkings, together with details of Austro-Hungarian and Turkish submarines.
This is an essential book for naval historians, and is well illustrated with naval charts and photographs.

Reprint of the 1931 Original Edition.

One of the greatest threats to Britain during World War I was the German U-Boat menace. Gordon Williamson traces the development of the U-boat threat from the Brandtaucher, designed by Wilhelm Bauer, the father of the German submarine arm, in 1850, through to the commissioning of Germany's first U-boat to go into service, the U-1, in 1906. It then covers the main types of World War I U-boat, detailing the operational history of the U-boat service in depth, with a particular focus on the campaigns in the Atlantic and Mediterranean, as well as the slow build up of anti-submarine measures by the allies.

Contents: The Kaiser's U-boats - The early developmental years - The larger U-boats - The U-Cruisers - Powerplants - Steering - Weapons - Optics and other equipment - Operational history - 1914 - 1915 - 1916 - 1917 - 1918 - Bibliography - Colour plate commentary - Index.