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This website is
run by a volunteer on a tight budget and financed
entirely from private resources. If you are interested in reading more about
Werner Hartenstein, U-156, the Laconia Incident, and the life stories of people
associated with these events, you can help meet some of the costs involved in
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Thank you and happy reading.
Click on a book cover or text hyperlink to
order.
In Deep and Troubled Waters
Tony Large, In
Deep and Troubled Waters.
The story of a South African at war who survived the sinkings of both HMS
Cornwall and the troopship Laconia in 1942 (2001), £19.95. Info
on this book
Buy this book
The Sinking of the Laconia
Fred Grossmith, The
Sinking of the Laconia, a Tragedy in the Battle of the Atlantic
(1994).£14.95 ordinary hardback edition, £29.95 limited signed edition bound in
cloth. Publisher's
info on this book
Buy this book
The Forgotten Tragedy: The Story of the Loss of the HMT
Lancastria
Brian Crabb, The
Forgotten Tragedy. The Story of the Loss of HMT Lancastria
(2002). £19.95.
The Laconia element here is that the surviving captain and crew transferred to
Laconia after their rescue. The loss of Lancastria was the worst British
maritime disaster, the loss of Laconia was the second-worst.
Buy this book
NB If you try to
order one of the above three books from Amazon.co.uk, you may well be greeted with
the message below:
"Availability:
usually dispatched within 4 to 6 weeks. Please note that titles occasionally go
out of print or publishers run out of stock."
However, I am in
regular contact with Shaun Tyas, the publisher, who assures me that "I turn
round most orders on a daily basis."
***
The Enemy We Killed, My Friend
David Cledlyn
Jones, The Enemy We Killed, My Friend (1999)
The autobiography of Captain David Cledlyn Jones, a survivor of the Quebec
City, a ship sunk by
Hartenstein one week after the Laconia. Jones describes how the Quebec City
survivors made land after receiving assistance from U-156. He then takes us through his
own distinguished merchant marine
career and recounts how, in retirement, he researched Werner Hartenstein, the
man who had first torpedoed then rescued him. This led to his attending a
Hartenstein commemoration in Plauen in 1999. Read a review here.
In November 2002 Captain Jones became President of a newly formed U-156 society.
Read about it here.
Buy this book
***
Memoirs: Ten Years and Twenty Days
The way the U-boat campaign was waged, as told by
the man who invented U-boat tactics - Grand
Admiral Karl
Dönitz.
The book covers
Dönitz's early career with
submarines in WWI and follows both his, and the U-Boat arm's,
successes and failures through WW2. Full details of the U-Boat campaigns during
WW2 are included as well as opinions, ideas and
commentary on the period by Doenitz. Of particular interest are the comments
regarding British and American conduct during the War.
Buy this book
***
Kapitänleutnant Günther Prien of U-47, the hero of
Scapa Flow
U-boat Commander
The autobiography of Günther Prien (1908-1941) Commander of U-47. Prien
became famous for his daring 14 October, 1939 sinking of the British battleship HMS
Royal Oak in the heavily defended British North Fleet main harbour at Scapa
Flow. Churchill himself wrote about this outstanding feat of arms. Prien was the
first U-boat commander to win the Knights Cross.
Buy this book
***
Kapitän zur See
Wolfgang Lüth, the most successful U-boat commander of world
War II
U-Boat Ace: The Story of Wolfgang
Lüth
by Jordan Vause
The biography of the top U-boat Ace of World War II, Kapitän zur See
Wolfgang Lüth (1913-1945). Credited with sinking 47 ships for a total of
225.756 tons, Lüth was one of only two U-boat officers
and one of 27 across all branches of the armed forces to receive
Germany's highest military honour - the Knights Cross
with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds. Lüth
also led U-181 on the second longest patrol
in U-boat history - 205 days to the Indian Ocean and back. In September
1944 Lüth became the youngest commander in history of the German Naval Academy.
He survived the war, only to be shot dead in the dark
by a German sentry in the unoccupied north of the country four days after the end of hostilities on 13 May,
1945,when he failed to identify himself or give the password.
He was only 29. Lüth's
was the last state funeral of the Third Reich
Buy this book
***.
Oberleutnant zur See Herbert A Werner, Commander of U-415 and U-953.
Iron Coffins: A U-boat Commander's War...
Iron Coffins - Werner, Herbert A.
A Personal Account of the German U-Boat Battles of World War II
Of 842 U-boats launched 779 were sunk,
‘iron-coffins’ to 28,000 men. Herbert Werner is one of the few U-boat
commanders to have survived the war and is still alive today, residing in the
united States. This book tells the story of his wartime career as an
officer on U-557 and U-230 then later as Commander of U-415 and U-953.
He tells of his
life onboard, the cramped conditions, the extreme cold and unbearable heat, the
camaraderie and fear, the loss of his friends, the sinking of allied shipping,
depth charge attacks, surface attacks from fighters. He makes you feel as
though you were onboard!
Buy this book
***
Berlin: the Downfall, 1945
Anthony Beevor's
best-selling
account of the death throws of the Third Reich
- young boys, old men and foreign SS volunteers battle desperately for the
capital against the rapacious advance of the Red Army whilst Wehrmacht armies
once separated by the three thousand miles between the eastern and western
fronts now only one days' march apart.
This book deals particularly well with the period from January to March 1945,
especially the fall of East Prussia and the Soviet advance into Pomerania and
Silesia. Also interesting details on the French volunteers of the SS Charlemagne
battalion. Buy this book
The Last Battle
The Last Battle by Cornelius Ryan
This older (1966) and significantly cheaper book is the
definite account of the fall of Berlin. Dealing exclusively with the last
three weeks of World War 2, Cornelius Ryan's gripping, 576 page masterpiece
deals in huge detail with the Battle of Seelow Heights on the Oder, the rapid
American and British advance from the west, the Soviet encirclement of Berlin,
the life and death struggle of General Busse's trapped German Ninth Army in the
Spreewald and its fighting westward advance (retreat?) through the rear of
Marshall Koniev's First Ukrainian Front towards their rescuers of General
Wenck's Twelfth Army near American lines on the Elbe, the madness of Hitler's
bunker plus the street by street advance of the Red Army towards the Reichstag,
shooting and raping even Jews and German Communists along the way. There is the
astonishing tale of General Karl Weidling, falsely condemned to death for
allegedly abandoning his 56th Panzer Corps, only to be appointed the last
Commandant of Berlin 24 hours later. Also eye-opening is the crucial role played
by the little known Colonel General Gotthard Heinrici. This is a superb book.
The finest war history I have ever read.
Buy this book.
***
German Fighter Ace Erich Hartmann the...
German Fighter Ace Erich Hartmann:the Life Story of the World's Highest
Scoring Ace
A 300-page pictorial biography.
Buy this book.
The Blond Knight of Germany
Major Erich Hartmann's authorised biography.
With 352 kills, Hartmann was the greatest fighter ace of all time.
Buy this book.
***
Donatello Bellomo Prisoners of the Ocean - The Tragedy of the Laconia
Italian-language book. Historical novel published September 2002 by Sperling &
Kupfer, 2002. In 2000 the author interviewed the
second-in-command of the Italian submarine Cappellini involved in the Laconia
rescue.
Further information here.
This book is not available through Amazon.
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