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Originally Posted by hocking
I also took a break from Blair's first U-Boat book. But I plan on getting back to it very soon, and will start his second book shortly afterwords. I do agree with Blair's opinion of the U-Boat war. I think Blair may get a little misinterpreted due to the way he presents his opinion from time to time. He clearly does not like the fact that the U-Boat war gets so much attention why the American Sub War gets very little attention. But, if you really look at what Blair is saying, he is really just saying what Donitz was saying during the entire war. Hitler simply did not fund the U-Boat war in a way that made it effective. It isn't that the U-Boats, or their crews, were not effective. It is that the numbers of U-Boats available for operations were never at a level to make them effective as an overall force.
Blair only says the factual truth, and backs it up with actual numbers. Hitler never had enough U-Boats to make his U-Boat war effective, and he misused his U-Boat forces on a regular basis. This is simply fact. Well over 90% of allied shipping made it to their final destination. There were always just a handful of U-Boats chasing down huge convoys, and the lact of U-Boat numbers is why the U-Boat effort never really was that big of a threat. If Hitler would have properly funded the U-Boat war, and built hundreds of U-Boats like he did tanks, I think it could have definitely changed the outcome of the war in the early 1940's.
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I haven't read Silent Victory yet, I'm still slogging through "The Hunted" right now. But something strikes me as being part of the psychology of Blairs writing. Essentially, the boat(s) he was on were roughly the equivalent of a Type IX. I wonder if after researching all of those Kriegsmarine boats on eternal patrol, if there isn't a little bit of 'there but for the grace of God go I' creeping into his writing. After all, compared to the Allies the Imperial Japanese Navy was downright incompetent when it came to ASW, despite having some significant advantages (namely, plenty of shallow water operations, going against large boats that made dived slowly and made good sonar targets) on their side.
Even though there are times in 'Hitlers U-Boat War' where his bias creeps in, so far those two volumes are the gold standard of the history of that campaign (at least in English). I do think that he supports those biases rather well with facts, so I can't argue with him.
My personal opinion is that it isn't what he says that puts some people off, but the way he says it. And yes, the books can be somewhat dry, but there is a lot of history there, and a finite amount of space to cover it.
My biggest complaint: His repetitive use of the word 'doggo' to describe bottoming the submarine and waiting. Doggo. Doggo. Doggo. Doggo.
Doggo.
Doggo.
When we get another cat, I'm going to name it 'Doggo' in Blair's honor (MHRIP)