Hot cha!

 Insert image of nerdy guy enthusiastically ‘performing’ combo Smurf Dance, Funky Chicken and Robot, here.

 Go buy this book.  Now, stop reading. No, really, stop here. Just go out and buy this book, then move on to the next e-subject of interest.

 Okay, so you’re still reading…all right, fine, here’s a review, but really, just more reasons to buy this book.

 Airplane people are often fascinated by aces, those pilots who shot down five or more enemy aircraft. It’s getting that way with tank-ety types, particularly when one mentions Tiger I Uber-Ace, Michel Wittman.

 But what about those guys who took primitive submarines, dangerous, leaky, smelly U-Boats out, on and under the world’s oceans, only a few years (and then, decades) after the type was even invented?

 They weren’t even true submarines, they were diesel-electric torpedo boats capable of brief submersion to about the depth of their length or so.

 Kapitänleutnant Lothar Arnauld De la Periere, commanding U-35, sunk OVER 200 SHIPS, almost half a million tons…

 …54 SHIPS, in one month. How’s that for an ACE?

 And then there were others, among them Forstmann, Valentiner, Kretschmer, Steinbrink…and the tens of thousands of un-named men who stood beside their commanders in those ‘steel coffins.’ Yes, this is a book about warriors, no doubt.

 Author Gordon Williamson comes across as playing at the top of his game in his writing of this book. Careful research, flowing text, zillions of factoids, tasteful period photos…all come together to create a whole greater than the sum of its parts. Selection of the photos of U-Bootsmänner was done SO well; gaze into them for a trip back in time and to another place…the Zeitgeist, that spirit of another time and place, is there.

 Illustrator Darko Pavlovic comprised the second half of Osprey’s 2-man Olympic bobsled team for the event of this book. His colour depictions of individual U-Bootsmänner just jump off the page with life. The artiste (and he is, really!) used an interesting technique; painting the background in a light blue…and the subject figures in dramatic, full colour. Wham! Here’s an officer in tropical uni, a Motormann in leathers, foul weather gear, everyday wear, YES!

 HIGHLY recommended; the title U-Boat Crews 1914-45 seems way ‘too big’ to cover in one book (indeed, Osprey did a separate book on WW II U-Boot Sailors), but this book WORKS. The tables, photos, outstanding illustrations and surprising multitude of facts combine to whelm the reader. There is simply, A PILE of good information between this book’s covers.

 Modelers can get plenty of kits and figures of WW II U-Boote and their crews (see this reviewer’s U-Boat Crewman 1939-45 in the M2 archives), though the 1914-18 period will require a little more work, research and conversion. Going modeling a ‘generation earlier’ than 39-45 will be a serious challenge, but it can be done, and you can do a figure of that ace of aces, de la Periere, or Kapitänleutnant Otto Hersing, first to sink a warship with a torpedo, or….

 Review copy courtesy of the reviewer's chequebook, purchased from Prosek's Greenhouse and Military Model Shop, Winfield, IL, USA

Reviewed by James Hood

 see Scott Van Aken's m2 and other reviews of James Hood's novel Adventure--Into The Neverland, of exploring a parallel, Alternate world (concept based on the Superstring theory of physics) using WW II surplus ships, aircraft and vehicles at:)    <http://users3.ev1.net/~bjmonkeyandcj/James_Hood.htm>

Book can be ordered at <http://www.authorhouse.com/BookStore/SearchCatalog.aspx>  or from your local bookstore (ISBN 0-7596-9062-6 Hardbound or ISBN-0-7596-2646-4 Softcover

July 2005

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