Hitler's U-Boat War: The Hunted: 1942-1945

It's hard to imagine how anyone could surpass this volume, and its 1939-41 companion. Blair knows his subject firsthand as a submariner, and has brought a huge amount of data to play in his account. It's the definitive work on U-boats, and the various campaigns waged with them.Blair's contention is that the U-boats never stood much of a chance to win the war, even in the darkest days of the Atlantic convoys, and were greatly assisted by inept A/S efforts by the Allies. Technologically outmoded, and not updated quickly enough, the German U-boats weren't produced in sufficient volume to ever achieve 'critical mass.' And money and efforts spent on pointless Kriegsmarine surface ships -- think of the Bismark and Tirpitz -- detracted from what good the U-boats did the German cause. The sophisticated types produced in 1944 and 1945 were too late, and too few in number, to make any difference.To his credit, Blair tells of much more than the Atlantic war, and anyone who wondered about the Mediterranean theater, the Norwegian Sea, and Far Eastern 'runs' will find it all here, in great detail.If anything, I wish he'd made the books longer! Quite often you get only a vignette about rather interesting developments or incidents. But, we should be grateful for what we have. His book on US subs in the Pacific --written before these -- is also quite remarkable.

This book is an absolute must for anyone with a serious interest in the Battle of the Atlantic of the Second World War. Clay Blair, a former submariner in the US Navy, has spent many years both researching and collating information from the belligerents with a unique and fascinating conclusion - that at no time during the Second World War was Britain at serious risk from starvation or defeat - contrary to established beliefs. This book, along with its predecessor 'Hitlers U-Boat War: The Hunters 1939-42', is completely invaluable for both scholars and naval historians. I have referred to it continuously for purposes of my own research.

Clay Blair has alredady established himself as an authority on submarine warfare, and as a former American submariner he knows of that which he writes. His two volume work "Hitler's U-Boat War" is in many ways his best work to date and must certainly be considered as one (if not the) definitives works on German u-boat warfare. Divided into two volumes, Blair gives a complete picture of the development, crest and ultimate demise of the German attempt to fight a war, actually two wars, at sea with limited resources. Vol. I, "The Hunters" details the development and crest of these efforts when the Nazi U-boats became the infamous hunters of allied shipping, while Vol. II, "The Hunted, 1942-1944" relates the dramatic counter measures used by the British, the Canadians and the Americans to combat and ultimately defeat the u-boat. There are other fine works on this subject, but what sets Blair's efforts apart is the overwhelming abundance of data included in his two volumes, and his conclusions that are well supported by that data. He concludes that the overall effect of German submarine warfare has been overrated, and emphasizes that this point is easily seen in the data. He also makes a case that Hitler's use of u-boats was a cheap consession to a German navy that he had little use for. Accordingly, very limited resources were committed to submarines or the navy in general. Throughout these volumes are a number of sub-plots and stories including the grand tale of allied efforts to get hold of vital German code devices. This is an interesting saga that remains engaging even with all of Blair's attention to detail. In Vol. I we identify with the u-boat commanders and crews, and lament the allied casualties. In Vol. II, the tables are turned and one cannot help but sympathize with the crews of the u-boats as they suffered defeat and near annihilation, and glory in the final allied victory. Each volume is presented in a manner that makes them a complete work, but the full achievement here can only be appreciated by reading the two volumes in succession.

Near the beginning of the movie "Crimson Tide", there is a debate among crew members as to what is the best submarine movie of all time, "The Enemy Below" or "Das Boot." If you understand that debate, then this two volume definitive history of the Battle of the Atlantic is for you.Using de-classifed documents previously not available to past historians, such as the documents concerning the breaking of the German Naval Code, and the subsequent use of the code breaking materials in anti-submarine warfare, along with a detailed analysis of the statistical numbers, Clay Blair rewrites the main conclusion of most previous histories of the U-Boats. Simply put, he concludes, with irrefutable logic and detail, that the U-Boats never came close to severing the Atlantic supply lines. They were too few in number, and when their numbers rose, they were technologically inferior to Allied anti- submarine initiatives and weaponry. Even in their best months, the U-Boats never sank more than 5% of Allied merchant shipping, and frequently were well below that figure.Rather, the U-Boat, he concludes, was more a propaganda menace, misunderstood by the Allied leaders who fought and ultimately conquered the U-Boats.It is also a tale of courage and fortitude on the high seas. The fact that the U-Boats never came close to their goal does not diminish the ardor and courage displayed on both sides of this cruel war.Volume 2 is a particularly fascinating study of a proud naval force literally disintegrating under the overwhelming onslaught of Allied anti-submarine warfare. As Blair himself admits, the final year of the U-Boat war is mostly glossed over in the histories, and Blair corrects that injustice.

If you were persevering enough to finish volume one (the hunters) of Clay Blair's great historical account of the German u-boats during World War II, you will be delighted by the reversal of fortunes of the u-boats in this volume. Where once the u-boat was invincible, each run becomes a 50/50 suicide run, worse odds that playing Russian roulette with a pistol. Blair notes that it took him 11 years to complete his research and write this book, and it shows. You could not ask for a more complete assessment of u-boat activity during the war than Blair provides. However, it's not for the weak reader. Reading this book requires stamina, but the reader is rewarded in the end with getting a very good "feel" for the u-boat situation in general. It's almost as if Blair, by hammering in each individual sailing, sinking, or abort, gets you to see the "big picture."I like the author's interjection of ancillary material from time to time: the possibility of losing Enigma decrypts; the land invasion of Europe; where the boats went when the end of the war was announced, and so on. I also like Blair's outspoken opinion on various contemporary subjects such as the overbearing Brits, the vote-concerned politicians, the "unfair" war crimes trials, and so on.Exceptional reading; the author knows his stuff.