[Egan]

Originally Posted by Subnuts

A great book, just don't take everything in it to be 100% accurate...

Lol, yeah...According to one U-boat skipper who read it:" If I used a red pen to mark out every inaccuracy it would look like a bloodbath!"

But even so. I tend to read these books less for the accuracy of the technical and - i suppose - military history aspect and more as examinations of the reactions and actions of men put into a situation i hope to god i never have to emulate.

It is the same reason I like Das Boot so much. even though a lot of the attitudes in that novel seem to clash with the more expected confidence of U-boat crews during what was still very much a period of sucess (late '41) and also the feeling that Das Boot, to me at least, seems coloured by a Post-War understanding of what took place, it still seems to me quite an honest description of life aboard the boats where long periods of drudgery and filth are broken by bursts of instense fear and horror.

Likewise, I think Iron Coffins does a fairly good job of showing what life was like in a period where most U-boats that went out on patrol simply weren't going to be coming back again.